Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Some corrections to my previous post about

Echevarias....only the small one here with pink flowers, in front of the Agarve, is an echevaria. The other, with close up of the pyramid-like bloom is an Aeonium arboreum, known as Schwartzkopf. The pale green leafed one in my previous post is from this family. Apparently, the rosettes die after blooming, yet the plant continues to grow as long as it is not a single stem.

This is a very easy plant to propagate. Just cut off a stem and stick it in a pot. Treat it as any other succulent, let it get dry then give it a good watering. With the maroon-leafed variety, the more sun it gets, the darker the leaves. The one about to flower is the great-grandaughter of a mother plant originally owned by my friend, Vivienne, a wonderful gardener in West Penwith, Cornwall. She first introduced me to gardening on gravel and Zen gardening. The daughter of Schwartzkopt Vivienne sadly died (as did Vivienne herself) in a big winter in Cornwall. Luckily, I had given a grandaughter cutting to my cousin, who then gave me back the great grandaughter cutting, which we brought to Spain 4 years ago. The picture you see above is the result 20 years later. These plants originate in the Canary Islands and Morocco so you see, it is saying "thank you" to us for bringing it nearer home by flowering for us! I have more babies in pots to carry on the line.

1 comment:

La Gringa said...

Wonderful story. Pass-along plants can bring back so many memories. I was sad to leave behind some of my old plants (and their memories) when I came to Honduras.