My Echeveria collection is growing fast. I thought I would write a blog about some of my favourite ones. The first 3 are the first ones I bought in February 2018.
1. Echeveria Elegans
Ignore the label which is a red herring. I posted a picture of this in a SOS a few weeks ago and mistakenly and rather eagerly I claimed it was 12 inches across. Turns out I was wrong and it was only 7 inches across. Having said that it is a beast. It has a tight rosette of chalky blue and green rosettes with pink tips. As you can see some of the bottom leaves has received and bit of wind damage when we had that 10 days of non stop wind earlier on in the month. However as you can see there are babies starting to sprout from the stem and these leaves will be covered soon and probably removed. In the summer it will produce stems of repeat flowering pink and yellow flowers.
2. Echeveria Frank Reinlet
A cross between E Agovaides and E Colorata. A steady grower it does not seem to produce many offsets. The leaves like most Agovaide based plants are thick and fleshy and with little spikes at the end. The leaves are red and greens and they will become more greener spring the hot weather in the summer months. The colder weather will slightly distressed the leaves and they will them show more red colours. The flowers are green and pink and like most Echeveria Flowers urn shaped.
3. Echeveria Jack Fitzgerald
This plant has light green leaves with red tips. It will produce masses of rosettes over time. Like all Echeverias the leaves lie flatter in the winter and tighten up in the drier months I guess to funnel most of the water that drops on the leaves down to the roots.
4. Echeveria Gilva Red
A plant that I got from E bay this is a dazzler of a plant. It has effervescent red and light green leaves that show off in the sun. It produces rosettes freely and I am sure this will be front and centre in my collection for years to come.
5. Echeveria Shark Skin
A new addition to my collection from when I attended Surreal Succulents near Penzance last August. I liked the look of this plant and snapped it up straight away. The colours are a little bit different sort of Khaki and Desert Camouflage in colour and has a funny texture. Yes you have guessed it it looks and feels like Shark Skin. The leaves seem to mark pretty easily and you need to be careful when handling it. I can’t wait to see how much this grows and what it looks like at the end of the summer.
I hope you have enjoyed this blog.
Sedums, Dahlias and Hayfever 
Do you grow species of Dudleya too? They are like Californian Echeverias. Some grow down by the beach. Some grow farther inland, in chaparral climates. A really silvery gray species can be seen on the canyon walls where Highway 166 goes though the coastal hills.
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No I do not grow Dudleya yet: it is a little difficult to get them across here. I have read a couple of articles about Far Eastern crooks ravaging the wild Dudleya population in California. It is shocking how much they are removing from the wild.
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Oh, you saw that!
It is amazing that there are enough people who want that specie to make it so profitable. It is not as if it is the prettiest of the Dudleyas.
When I was in school, in about 1986 or 1987, I actually pulled one up off of some rocks down by the beach, and grew it in a pot on my windowsill in the dorms. I didn’t thing anything of it. They were so common there.
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