Echeveria is native to Mexico, Central America and South America. There are over 150 types of Echeveria plants come with a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and types. As one of the most popular soft succulents, they are very popular in succulent centerpieces, succulent fairy gardens, party favors and terrarium projects. As such, there’s a lot to know about Echeveria, so let’s take a look.

Shape

Echeverias plants are easily identified by their beautiful rosette-shaped leaves. Oftentimes with a little dip, these leaves can look like spoons with pointy tips. However, the rest of an Echeveria is smooth, helping to give it its recognizable design.

These succulents will grow outwards and up, forming the shape of a cup or the inside of a bell, and once you’ve seen one, you’ll never forget its shape. Even still, with an estimated 150 species, not every Echeveria is shaped alike. Some species have tall sprouts with flowers at their peaks, while others don’t end up blooming past their leaves.

Depending on the species, your Echeveria may also range in sizes. While these plants start at just a few inches, they can work their way upwards of three feet according to their variety.

The sheer variety means that you might find an Echeveria with rosette leaves, another with curving leaves, one with spiraling flowers, and another with spiked, rectangular leaves. 

Color

One of the most impressive aspects of the 150+ species of Echeveria, is its range of colors. While the class Echeveria in most people’s minds is either blue-gray or gray-green, this succulent goes way past just two options.

Leaf Color

You can find Echeveria species with a large variety of leaf colors, including:

• Green
• Purple
• Orange
• Yellow
• Gray
• Pink
• and many more!

Bloom Color

Alongside an Echeveria’s leaf color, some Echeveria species also hold multicolored flowers. Depending yet again on the specific species, you can look forwards to red flowers, blue, white, or flowers in nearly any other color.

Generally, though, you can expect to find pink, peach, or orange flowers on a blooming Echeveria, with other colors such as white and yellow often appearing. These flowers, while not in as wide a color range as Echeverias’ leaves, still hold quite a variety.

Propagation Methods

Echeveria plants are commonly known as some of the easiest to propagate, thanks in part to the variety of ways and ease-of-use to do so. Echeveria propagation usually consists of either replanting beheaded portions or collected seeds. While that’s already easy enough for most planters, these plants also hold the ability to grow sprouts from a beheaded stem.

Propagation from Leaf

The easiest option for most people is propagation from leaf. For this method, you’ll remove a full leaf from an Echeveria, replanting it afterwards. With propagation from leaf, you’ll gently take a full leaf, twist it at the base, and wiggle it off the Echeveria. Afterwards, these leaves will have to be left out away from direct sunlight, drying until their wounds heal.

Once they’re dried, these leaves need to be placed in fresh cactus soil mix, misted every few days until roots grow. The mother leaf will likely wither away, meaning it’s time to remove the leaf and carefully plant the new Echeveria in its own pot once it has started to grow.

This method is incredibly useful and easy to use with nearly any issue involving an Echeveria, including with overwatered succulents, underwatered plants, and even for Echeverias with exterior fungus.

Click here to learn how to save overwatering succulents!

Propagation from Beheading

The second major method of propagating Echeveria plants is with beheading. This method is pretty similar to propagation from leaf, but with a small difference. While normal propagation from leaf involves you removing and replanting a leaf, propagation from beheading involves, well, beheading your Echeveria.

In this case, you’ll remove the Echeveria plant’s head, with about an inch or two of stem, letting it dry out for a few days. Once its wounds heal, you can plant the base of the head back into rich soil, misting it every few days or so. After a while, it’ll start to grow upwards again, eventually back into a similar plant like it was before.

Just like other succulents, Echeveria plants are super easy to care for. If you want to know more about Echeveria care instruction, why not pick some beautiful Echeverias you like on the site and grow your own lovely succulents collection. Click here to get the care instructions for Echeveria.