KALANCHOE

From Old World tropics. Kalan- choes have fleshy, typically green leaves and bell-shaped flowers; they are used principally as houseplants but can be grown outdoors year-round where winters are mild and frost free. Site indoor plants in a south-facing window and let them go fairly dry between waterings. Feed with a general-purpose liquid houseplant fertilizer monthly from spring until fall. Reduce watering in winter, but don't let soil dry out so much that leaves wither.

felt plant

kalanchoe beharensis

• Very narrow plant; grows to 45 feet (possibly even 10 feet.) tall, just 12 feet wide.
• Stems are typically unbranched, carrying thick, triangular to lance-shaped leavesusually six to eight pairs of themat the tips.
• Leaves are 48 inches long and half as wide, strikingly waved and crimped at the edges and covered with a dense, feltlike coating of white to brown hairs.
• Flowers are unimportant.
• Hybrids between this and other species differ in leaf size, color, and degree of felting and scalloping.
• Impressive in big rock gardens and raised beds.

kalanchoe

kalanchoe blossfeldiana

• To 112 feet tall and wide.
• Shiny, dark green, smooth-edged or slightly lobed leaves thinly bordered in red; 212 inches long, 1112 inches wide.
• Small, bright red flowers come in big clusters held above the leaves.
• Hybrids and named selections come in regular or dwarf (6 inches.) sizes and in different flower colors, including yellow, orange, salmon, and red.
• Blooms in winter and early spring.
• Popular houseplant for the winter holidays (often sold in supermarkets then) but can be kept for years.

mother-of-thousands, maternity plant

kalanchoe daigremontiana

• Upright, single-stemmed plant 1123 feet tall, 1 feet wide.
• Leaves to 68 inches long, 112 inches wide (or wider), in gray-green spotted with red.
• Leaf edges are notched; young plants sprout in the notches and can be removed and planted.
• Clusters of small, drooping, grayish purple flowers in winter.

south american air plant

kalanchoe fedtschenkoi

• Popular ground cover in south Florida.
• To 12 feet tall, 1012 inches wide, with smooth, scalloped, blue-green leaves 12 inches long.
• Clusters of pendent reddish flowers in summer.
• Prostrate stems root where they touch soil.
• Often erroneously called gray sedum.

flapjack plant, paddle plant

kalanchoe luciae

• From southeastern Africa.
• Colorful, sculptural plant grows 1112 feet high and wide, spreading by offsets.
• Short, thick trunk holds fleshy, broadly oval leaves to 8 inches long and 68 inches wide.
• Leaves are gray-green, with margins that turn bright red in full sun.
• In winter or early spring, a single stem rises 23 feet high and bears clusters of 1234 inches-long, tubular, dark yellow flowers with a pleasing fragrance.
• Provide protection from slugs and snails, which can permanently disfigure leaves.
• Fantastic (also sold as Kalanchoe thyrsiflora 'Fantastic') has gray-green leaves striped with cream variegation, and shading red at the margins.

air plant

kalanchoe pinnata

• To 23 feet tall and wide.
• First leaves to form are undivided and scallop edged.
• Later ones divided into three to five leaflets.
• These are also scalloped.
• Produces many plantlets in notches of scallops.
• Leaves can be removed and pinned to curtain, where they will produce plantlets until they dry up.
• Greenish white to reddish flowers in clusters to 3 inches long; not particularly attractive.
• Likes moisture.

panda plant

kalanchoe tomentosa

• Branching plant eventually reaches 3 feet high, 8 inches wide.
• Leaves 2 inches long, with dense, feltlike coating of white hairs.
• Leaf tips and shallow notches in leaves are strongly marked dark brown.
• Yellowish green flowers in spring.

kalanchoe uniflora

• Trailing plant 6 inches high, 2 feet wide; good in hanging pots.
• Thick, 1 inches-long leaves have a few scallops near rounded tips.
• Inch-long summer flowers; color ranges from red to purple.