PUSHING THE BORDERS

I couldn't resist getting the first post in the new forum being on succulents :twisted:

Echeveria rosea is starting to strut its stuff. As usual the whole plant has turned red for me, and the colour may the best yet. I think the extended cold, but not having anything colder than -7 all winter has suited it. I have noticed that it colours up better in cold.

I think there are a lot of plants like that, I often think we can be too kind to them, The quality and size of flowers on Lapageria are always much better if allowed to get cold in winter.

Nice looking plants the Echeverias, Brian Hiley's wife Heather holds a national collection down here, you will have to get yourself invited!

charlie wrote:I think there are a lot of plants like that, I often think we can be too kind to them, The quality and size of flowers on Lapageria are always much better if allowed to get cold in winter.

Nice looking plants the Echeverias, Brian Hiley's wife Heather holds a national collection down here, you will have to get yourself invited!

I try to not over do it with protection, remembering that many plants will be fine with my winters. Plus simply wouldn't have space to bring everything inside.

We will be down in Cornwall at the end of summer, so may have to see if I can get a look. I am lucky here as we have John Pilbeams nursery who wrote the book on echeverias, so I pop along a couple of times a year. At this time of year even in this could spring they are all bursting to flower. No doubt I will post lots of pictures of them over the couple of months.

That looks great Chris, after wanting it for ages I managed to get some myself while in Cornwall last year.

I've wondered about the possibility of crossing it with some of the others like glauca, agavoides, shaviana etc to see if hardiness would transfer to their progeny, there's the problem with rosea flowering at a different time of year so pollen would need to be stored, it also looks a bit fiddly!
Do any of you guys know if this is workable and if it's worthwhile endevour to attempt, or if it has it been tried before?(I'm sure it has!)

conrad wrote:That looks great Chris, after wanting it for ages I managed to get some myself while in Cornwall last year.

I've wondered about the possibility of crossing it with some of the others like glauca, agavoides, shaviana etc to see if hardiness would transfer to their progeny, there's the problem with rosea flowering at a different time of year so pollen would need to be stored, it also looks a bit fiddly!
Do any of you guys know if this is workable and if it's worthwhile endevour to attempt, or if it has it been tried before?(I'm sure it has!)

Hi Conrad. Yes it is perfectly possible and not actually as fiddly as you would thing. They flower for a very long period usually up until mid June for me and by then the other echeverias have kicked in. I have three rosea crosses, one is my own hybrid and has proved to be very hardy, echeveria 'adonis blue', it is a hybrid between e. rosea & e. pulidonis. I have had it planted out with no protection for 3 years now and it has coped without problems for me down to - 8. It looks like e. pulidonis but on steroids getting to about 2 - 3 times the size.

While that one is good for hardiness, a more interesting one looks wise is a hybrid between e. rosea and e. coccina This looks like a more more stocky version of rosea and goes the same red colour. Sadly it is tough to find, so you need to know someone who happens to have a spare bit going ;) Because I have been building my stock I have not fully tested its hardiness yet, a couple of bits did well in my dry green house down to -7 this winter.

I also have a rosea x agavoides hybrid which is ok but hasn't really shown the hardiness or the looks of the others. The problem with agavoides hybrids is that they are famous for just looking like agavoides. I have tied several agavoides crosses and the only one that I think has any potential is a cross with e. deresina which has much larger flowers than agavoides normally has and is a paler colour.

I'll post pictures later

Here is the e. adonis blue hybrid


and the e. rosea and e. coccina


Some of my other hybrids with other echeverias

e lilacina x e. deresina


e. agavoides x e. deresina

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Chris! That's really useful information to know about using agavoides as a possible parent.
That E. 'Adonis Blue' is an absolute stunner, as is the rosea x coccina wow! Can I join the queue for both? ;)

Thanks Conrad.

Hardiness is something I have been testing with my echeverias, I have tried quite a few outside over winter. Here is one of the planters with the ones from the old dry bed. This one has been left outside all winter without any protection.



They are a lot slower to flower grown like this, the same varieties in the cold frames are all further along.

Here are some of the others coming into flower.

The small but prolific echeveria difractens (couldn't get the flower spikes and the plant in focus at the same time)


This one is e. crug ice which I don't think is a recognised name, a nice little plant with good strong flowers


and finally echeveria romeo which is a for of e. agavoides but with an amazing colour. You can see the week flowers agavoides is known for starting to appear out of the rosette.