Weird and Wonderful Kalanchoe

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm becoming more and more enamored with cactus, succulents and euphorbia. They are fascinating in their variety of form and habit, generally easy to tend and for the most part drought tolerant.

Kalanchoe (cal an KO ee) is a member of the Crassulaceae family of succulents.

The most commonly found variety kalanchoe blossfeldiana, pictured with the white flowers at the left, can be found at any nursery or Home Depot. The flowers bloom several times a year here in southern California where they like the shade or a bit of filtered sun. The flowers bloom in a range of colors from white to hot pink, orange and yellow. I've seen some lately with double flowers, cute little puffs of color. These are easy to propagate from cuttings, are low growing and very rewarding in pots.

Other varieties growing in my garden, both in ground and in pots are a type that reproduces by growing new plantlets at the tips of their fleshy leaves. When these plantlets fall off of the fleshy leaves into the soil, they take root and produce new plants.

Chandelier Plant, Bryophyllum tubiflorum, whose orange flower stalk appears below, has a spotted tube shaped "leaf" with the plantlets growing at the tips. Mine has flowered and will die off soon. But it has dropped several new plants into the ground, and I hope for a new crop next year.

Mother of Thousands, above and below, kalanchoe daigremontiana or Bryophyllum daigremontianum
also propagates itself by dropping tiny plantlets off it's leaf margins. I have a variegated purplish one, seen below and a solid green one. The variegated variety has many more leaves and has started a varitable kalanchoe farm in the soil below.


These plants originated in Madagascar which seems to have the most wild, odd and wonderful plants grown anywhere on the planet.

In my next post I'll show a few more varieties of kalanchoe.