The Most Succulent Blooms

We here at the farm are super proud of our succulent collection. We have some of the most unique and hard to find varieties on the east coast. It's the first of March and late Winter so many of these collectible botanicals are sending out beautiful blooms that we are reveling in. The flowers are often diminutive but are always structural and almost out of sorts with their host plant. They are something to definitely examine closer and wonder. Here is a presentation of just a few of the many blooming succulents we have here in our greenhouses. Each variety of plant will be shown and described with a detail close-up of its bloom; and so we begin.....

Haworthia cymbiformis
The plants are small with a rosette like growing habit. The leaves are thick and light green.
The main characteristic of this species is that the ends of the leaves are transparent. In the wild, the sun is very bright, and the plant grows mostly buried by sand with only these transparent tips above the ground. Its delicate bloom is squill like with a dark stripe down each petal, shown below.

Gasteria liliputana
This is a rare dwarf succulent perennial with leaves also in a rosette. Leaves are strap-shaped with rounded top and a smooth, mottled shape.
Flowers can be produced any time of year, peaking in midwinter to spring, pendulous, tubular and reddish pink in color. From Eastern African Cape thickets. This guy grows in shallow soil in the shade of other plants. Used in various traditional medicines. They thrive in cultivation both indoor and outdoors. Tolerant of a wide range of soils and habitats it's drought tolerant with well-drained soil. Leaves may turn red if plant is stressed.

Echeveria 'lola'

Echeverias are arguably the most attractive of all succulents, highly valued for their amazing colours and variation, with the stunning leaf colour of many varieties at its most brilliant in the cooler months. Native to the Americas, they are prized by collectors and gardeners alike. Their rosettes range in size from 2cm to 50cm in diameter. They generally flower in the warmer months with colours ranging from red to orange. 'Lola' is a spectacular cultivar with chunky silvery pink to mauve leaves forming rosettes to 6 inches in diameter. Orange and yellow bell shaped flowers develop late winter.

 

Echeveria minima
Echeveria minima, native to Mexico, is a miniature Echeveria with tiny rosettes of very chubby, frosty blue leaves. The leaves are frosty rose at tips and along the margins. Racemes of small orange bell-shaped flowers appear in late winter and spring. Excellent for windowsill cultures or for dish gardens.

Euphorbia millii
This is a spiecies of flowering plant in the spurge family Euphorbiaciae, native to Madagascar. The species name commemorates Baron Milius, who introduced the species to France in 1821. It is suspected that the species was introduced to the Middle East in ancient times, and legend associates it with the crown of thorns worn by Jesus.

Echeveria gigantea
Here is another killer varietiy of Echeveria. A large plant in the Gibbiflorae group of Echeveria it grows at least to 18 inches and can have a 2 foot wide open rosette of large broad spoon-shaped green to gray-green leaves with a reddish margin. Older leaves flush purple to pink.  It bears a 3 to 6 foot, usually unbranched, inflorescence with nodding rose-red flowers in late fall through early winter

Aloe maculata 'Soap Aloe'
The Soap Aloe species was previously known as Aloe saponaria a name that came from the Latin "sapo" meaning soap, as the sap makes a soapy lather in water. It's naturally found in a wide range of habitats across Southern Africa. It is now planted around the world as a popular landscape plant in warm desert regions especially in the U.S., where it is the most popular ornamental aloe in Arizona and in California. It sends up a towering stalk of red orange commanding blooms this time of year. A real favorite of ours on the farm!

Aloe 'Franco'
Here is another outstanding aloe hybrid with red toothed arching leaves. These dwarf beauties are all now covered with 12" flowering stalks with super small flame-like flowers reaching way above the tight rosette below.

Echeveria subalpina
This native to Mexico is a small to medium-sized succulent with a solitary rosette of green to blue-green leaves tipped in red. It prodoces erect, single or two branched, slender, slightly hanging flowers that are bright sunny yellow.

Glottiphyllum latifolium
These plants have thick, soft leaves arranged in pairs, and is named for the Latin word tounge. They have rhizomes and sport large yellow flowers with narrow petals, sometimes fragrant, which appear in late winter or spring. This is another native to South Africa as well.

Cremnosedum 'little gem'
Cremnosedum is a hybrid genus produced from crosses involving the genera Cremnophila and Sedum. This bigeneric name was first published in 1981 with the introduction of the cultivar 'Little Gem'. The cultivar was made by Mrs. and Mr. Robert Grim of San Jose, California and is produces a low mat of small rosettes. It prefers direct sunlight and small yellow flowers on short stalks appear late winter through the spring.

Senecio crassissimus

Or vertical leafed senecio is an erect succulent that is 18-24 inches tall by 18" wide with thick purple stems holding stiff flattened 2 inch long waxy silver-grey leaves with the edges having vivid purple margins. In winter the inflorescence rises from the stem tips 1 to 2 feet bearing an open branched head of bright yellow daisy flowers.

Crassula orbicularis
An unusual Crassula in that it propagates itself by growing projections from its central rosette at the tips which grow another rosette.  Like a Sempervivum or some Kalanchoes would do. A very elegant and ornamental plant with oval, smooth very rubbery green leaves. The flowers in are very delicate on a rather tall central peduncle compared to the mother plant and are mostly green with a touch of pink here and there.

 

To retort again this is just a very small sampling of the many, many succulents we propagate, grow and have to offer here at Snug Harbor Farm. Please feel free to swing by anytime in the near future if you want catch a glimpse of our amazing succulent collection that is in full bloom right now this late winter!