Friday, February 1, 2008

PLUSH PLANT: Echeveria Harmsii

And here's the last plant that I got today. It's commonly called a "Plush Plant." It's so pretty. Actually, my friend Donna gave me a cutting from her Plush Plant, so this would make three. I lucked out and this came with two plants growing in the pot! I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go pick up a bag of perlite to make the soil a little bit better for my plants. I bought a bag of soil specifically for cactus and succulents, but it doesn't look all that much different from regular planting soil! It still has some pieces of wood in it and there isn't that much perlite. My friend Donna had the same problem; her soil was from a different maker, but it looked much like regular potting soil too! Go figure.

Anyway, here's the details on my plant:

Family: Crassulaceae
Genus: Echeveria (ech-eh-VER-ee-a)
Species Variety: Harmsii
Common Name: Plush Plant

Exposure: Bright Light/Sun
Height: To 12" Tall
Bloom: Winter/Summer
Hardy to: 32 Degrees
Water: When dry

Here is a description of my plant:

"Shrubby Echeveria. Native habitat Mexico. Called the "plush plant" because of soft, fuzzy leaves that are covered with silvery hairs. Requires bright light. Leaves blush beautiful rose in cold weather or in drought. Humming birds love bell-shaped orange flowers. Water thoroughly when soil is dry. Protect from frost."

By the way, this plant is related to my Green Goddess, which is a hybrid of this plant, and that I bought at the same time as this. I didn't know this until I got home and did this Blog. Pretty neat!

3 comments:

Julie said...

You remeind me of...ME! I LOVE MY SUCCULENTS, and have basically started living and breathing them!
LOL...it will take over your life! Glad you are loving it!!! Love your pics and info!!!

Unknown said...

"I bought a bag of soil specifically for cactus and succulents, but it doesn't look all that much different from regular planting soil!"

Yes, unfortunately that all too true. The best thing you can add is horticultural pumice, readily available in the Western U.S.

HappyQuails said...

I was just looking up this variety of Plush Plant "Harmsii", because I have had so much trouble with mine I hoped to see whether others have figured out what it needs and whether theirs might have had the same surprising reaction to care as mine. All I have to do is water mine, no matter how dry it has become or how lightly I have watered (short of it being literally a few dropets on either half of the pot) one or two of the larger leaves turns yellow, seems to over saturate with water then it looses all color and slowly dies back and eventually shrivels up and falls to the ground while all the other leaves look completely unaffected. Even when I first bought the tiny plant in its 2" pot and before the problem happened for the first time in my care, there were signs of leaves having shriveled up and fallen in the past. And oddly it is not growing and replacing leaves to replace even one of the dead ones so I have been calling this my "suicide plant" (as in it seems to harm itself without any obvious outside influence). Of course I have been increasingly cautious to not over-water it since this cause would be the obvious cause to suspect. But it has really been remarkable to see just how dry that soil becomes and how little water it takes to set this process off and running... does anyone recognize this in their succulents or have any constructive suggestions? Thanks in advance!