Echeveria Colorata, Echeveria Lindsayana. C17

This plant grows slowly and develops in rosettes, adult plants can reach up to forty centimetres in diameter. The leaves are fleshy, oval and pointed, pale bluish-green, due to a whitish wax-like coating that covers them.

Its leaves have reddish or pinkish tips and grow densely in rounded rosettes. Echeveria Colorata and Echeveria Lindsayana are often considered to be the same plant, although Echeveria Lindsayana specimens seem to have broader leaves.

It is a spring or summer flowering plant, the flowers develop at the end of upright inflorescences that form between the leaves. The flowering stem is long and branched at the end, it can measure from fifteen to thirty centimetres in length. The flowers are small and tubular, orange or salmon-coloured on the outside and yellow or orange on the inside. The flowering stem may have small, elongated, pale blue-green leaves.

Likes sunny or partly sunny and bright, loose, sandy, well-drained soil. It can be grown alone, in groups or combined with other plants of similar growing conditions, they are ideal for growing in rockeries, in dry sloping gardens, or in pots.

Watering should be moderate, avoid wetting the leaves so as not to remove the waxy coating that covers them, allow the substrate to dry out between waterings and avoid waterlogging the soil to prevent rotting. Reduce watering in autumn as temperatures drop, in winter if it is cold water very little, it is preferable to keep the soil dry.

It is a plant that does not need pruning, just remove the lower dry leaves to keep the plants healthy, and cut the flowering stem when flowering has finished. It is suitable for outdoor cultivation in climates with warm or moderate winter temperatures, it does not tolerate intense cold or frost. In cold climates it should be grown indoors or in bright, warm greenhouses, at least during the coldest months.

It is usually reproduced by leaf cuttings or by separating small plants that the adult plants develop around it.

It is a hardy succulent plant, easy to grow and low maintenance. It does not usually have problems with insect pests or diseases, in suitable growing conditions, occasionally aphids may appear on the flower stems, we will treat the affected specimens with specific insecticides.

The main problems are caused by excessive watering, insufficient drainage and excessively cold winter temperatures. The plants should be kept in warm, draining substrates and watered sparingly. 

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