A Moroccan Garden Planter Starring the Lovely Echeveria Perle Von Nürnberg Succulent

Check out of my latest succulent planter!  The main attraction also happens to be one of my favorite succulents, it's called Echeveria Perle Von Nürnberg.  It is one of my favorite already, because as you can see she's a pretty classy lady!  FYI - she's an evergreen from Mexico, part of the Crassulaceae (Stonecrops) family, and a hybrid of E. gibbiflora v. metallica and E. potosina. Cool!  So if ya didn't know, now ya know...

I have quite a few of these, however this is the biggest one.  When I spotted this purple queen at Home Depot in of those big deep landscape containers, she came to mama and mama immediately started thinking about what to plant her in.  Enter one of those gallon landscape containers I knew she needed a special planter to showcase all of her breathtaking assets!  :)

Enter this blue Moroccan eight-pointed star (overlapping squares), lattice patterned ceramic planter from Homegoods!  This is one of those planters that caught my eye from aisles away and had my feet a movin'!  In other words, I gave it a better home and I love it!  I know you will too...

Catherine

xoxo

 

Here is some more general care information from the label, as well as some of my personal tips for planting and growing the Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg:

• As with all succulents, porous soil with plenty of drainage is best 
• Mix Perlite into your cactus soil, along with a couple scoops of small pebbles and sand (I use what's left at the bottom of the big and medium sized bags of rocks that I buy at Home Depot)
• Make a teepee using three big rocks, making sure that none entirely cover or block your drainage hole.  I hold them in place as I dump a couple small cups (I use the small planter cups from my purchases) of rocks around them, which holds them in place and then I put a few more rocks over them
• Water thoroughly when soil is dry.  If you see the soil coming away from the edges of the planter or if the leaves on your succulent or cactus look shriveled/wilted (ehem - non-succulent!) then it needs to be watered
• Avoid watering in the late morning and early through mid-afternoon when it's really hot, try to water early in the morning or in the late afternoon as the sun is going down
• Do your best not to splash water all over the top of your plants, don't soak them, try to be gentle and dainty and let the water run over the surface of your soil (or rocks) at the base of the plant.
• Water only until you see the water run through the drainage hole at the bottom of the planter
• If you get water inside the rosette of any of your Echeverias, I encourage you to blow that water right out - if it sits there too long (especially through subsequent gloomy or rainy days it could cause a rot to start - so they say!
• Or, if you're using a small planter, you can sit it in a shallow pan or dish filled with a small amount of water, that way the roots will soak up the water they need through the drainage hole at the bottom and you'll avoid flooding it from the top. (I have too many planters for this, so I usually let mother nature water mine, and use the hose when weather is dry - someday I'd like to get a rain barrel so I can use fresh rain water for my plants!
• Provide bright light to full sun
• I've noticed that most Echeverias tend to etiolate very quickly, which basically means that when grown with poor light, the plant becomes very pale due to lack of chlorophyll.  You might also notice that it stretches and the leaves become very far from one another on the stem, leaving the plant looking somewhat deformed
• Don't worry, I've seen this particular succulent bounce back from etiolation very quickly, just see my progress pictures below...
• Protect from frost, this plant is hardy to:
• USDA Zone 9b: to -3.8 °C (25 °F)
• USDA Zone 10a: to -1.1 °C (30 °F)
• USDA Zone 10b: to 1.7 °C (35 °F)
• USDA Zone 11: above 4.5 °C (40 °F)
• Grows to between 6 and 12 inches in height
• Blooms in the summer - colors are pink and green, according to Dave's Garden
• To propagate you can:
• Use leaf cuttings (just snap a few healthy inconspicuous ones off!) - allow cut surface to callous over before planting (about a day or two) and then stick that baby callouss-end-down into a pot of soil
• I have found, and my grandmother and mother can attest to this as well, that leaf cuttings do best when you just shove them into an existing planter along the edge or under the shade of other succulents and cacti and FORGET ABOUT THEM! Trust me, the less you fuss, the more chance they have of surviving their leaf cutting stage and growing into an adorable baby plant
• You can also use a shallow tray or plastic platter full of soil to lay out all of your leaf cuttings in, if you plan to propagate all of your plants continuously (which I did for a long time). Leave it in the shade near bright light, but not in direct light. Spritz with water occasionally - every couple of days
• If you're propagating from seeds: winter sow in vented containers, cold frame or unheated greenhouse - plant with spacing of 9-12 inches

*Some of this information is pulled from the Costa Farms planter label (from Home Depot) that this plant came in, more detailed information comes from Dave's Garden, and a lot of this is what I've learned from personal experience with the plant. 

So I planted this baby with a bunch of other succulents, including a different/younger/smaller Echeveria which did not come with a name (get with the program Home Depot/Costa Farms!), some vibrant green sedum, a pink and green Crassula of some sorts, and a few cacti cuttings from the yard for some perrrty spillage..  But as you can see, at first, Miss Perle vin Nurnberg was looking pretty etiolated, pale, and stretched...  In other words, stressed out and in need of a tan, literally!

So let's check out the rest of the planter before I show you how she looked after a few weeks in the sun. Above is the pretty gorgeous neon green sedum that I got for $2 at Home Depot... I should have bought many more, it's very pretty. I knew it was the perfect contrast for the purple of Miss Nurnberg and the blue of the planter. It's a color party!

Spilling out above left is a piece of cactus, it's a fast grower and quick spiller. I don't know its name because my mother grew it from a cutting - which is now a flowing basket of cactus!

Above left and below right you can see the beautiful burgundy pink tipped green leaves of the Crassula, does anyone know the specific name of this Crassula? It looks similar in form to Crassula capitella a.k.a. Campfire Plant or Red Flames (seen here), however not in color.

Spilling out above left is a beautiful cactus vine that also grows very quickly, get's very bushy and spectacular. It looks just like Euphorbia tirucalli Pencil Cactus that I have, except that it grows and spills like a vine.

So yes, still etiolated here above, I just wanted to show you what it looks like (and this is a mild case) when it happens. Oh, and perhaps we'll also give her credit for giving birth to a baby, no?

So now ((drum roll please!))... check her out after some much needed weeks of pure vitamin D!....

BEFORE.....AND......AFTER

What a drastic difference huh? Her leaves have tightened up, her color is back - nice and rich!

And remember that little baby? Well, it's a teenager now! There are two now, one is smaller... But they're more like flower stalks I think, even though they don't have what appear to be flowers, rather just another succulent. We'll see how it flowers, Dave's Garden says pink and green, we'll see!

Pardon the my lady's crusty rosette, hehe... I think those are the result of small drops of water, covered in the surface powder of the succulent, drying up - little dandruff flakes! :)

Lovin' the Miami sun...

(All images in this post are my personal photographs, please do not use them without my written permission. I can be contacted at InspireBohemia(at)gmail.com - thank you!)