Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Blue Succulent

 This is a beautiful blue succulent from South Africa(where so many wonderful plants originate) called Senecio mandraliscae.  It's sometimes called "Blue Fingers" because that's what it looks like. It grows about 1- 2 feet tall and about 3-4 feet wide.  I adore blue foliage because it is such a pretty contrast to everything else that is green. And 90% of plants are green.   

I had one pot of it when we moved.  I separated it into about 6 pieces and that had roots and a few that that were just cuttings. Succulents are so easy to grow from cuttings.  You just cut off a piece of the plant, remove about 2-3 inches of the lower leaves and stick the stem in the ground. Water a bit and there ya go!   The plant will grow.  I planted them around the edge of my front garden by the street as we don't have sidewalks. In about 1, 1/2 years they are about 2-3 feet across already!   

This plant takes full sun. It is drought tolerant when established but will tolerate water too.  In our super sandy soil they have been very happy.  
  

They started to flower.  But in my opinion, this plant is better grown for it's foliage than it's flowers.  As you can see in the photo below, the flowers just make it look kind of messy.  





So I have been cutting off all the flowers to make a nice tidy plant.     What do you think, flowers or no flowers?  Let me know.  


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