Echeveria stands head and shoulder above most succulents in popularity. Their clustering rosettes exhibit a range of color hues like pink, red, and coral orange at their edges to contrast their frosty minty blue/green color.
Different types of Echeveria were bred, producing over 150 hybrids to form distinct leaf shapes and colors. Like all succulents, they retain moisture well and can take some neglect, making them a perfect choice for gardening beginners.
Today, we’ll be talking about the conspicuous Echeveria Prolifica, a small creeping cluster of short rosettes that propagate rapidly, forming beautiful minty rosettes with subtle pink shades.
Let’s get to know more about the origin and care guide of this stunning plant.
What Is the Echeveria Prolifica?
As the name suggests, the Echeveria Prolifica is a truly prolific evergreen succulent with a multitude of clustering silvery blue/green rosettes that grow densely and offset abundantly in a short amount of time. Like its fellow Echeverias, the Prolifica is a hybrid plant that’s native to Mexico.
The offset abundance serves the Prolifica’s propagation immensely, where offsets are spread through long horizontal stolons that can grow roots along with them. If it happens and leaves grow on these stolons, they might propagate too when they fall off. This is a plant that loves to propagate and will fill your containers in no time!
They bloom yellow petals that stay inside their clusters in spring.
Echeveria Prolifica – Plant Profile
- Family: Crassulaceae
- Primary Color: Silvery green/ might display pink flushes
- Bloom Color: Yellow
- Texture: Glaucous
- Sun Exposure: Low, loves some shade every once in a while
- Size: up to 6 inches
- Season: Spring to winter
- USDA Zone: 10 – (9a to 11b specifically)
- PH Level: 5.5 – 6.0
Echeveria Prolifica – Care Guide
Now that you’re familiar with the Echeveria Prolifica let’s get to know how to look after it.
Light
The Echeveria Prolifica loves a bright sun, but only for a few hours. Three hours daily is enough. It exhibits its allure under sunlight, where it shows some vibrant pink hues. Direct sunlight is essential for the Prolifica to maintain its shape, color, and form.
Having said that, it’s better to plant the Echeveria Prolifica outdoors. We don’t recommend you plant it indoors unless placed in reasonable proximity to a window with proper sun exposure.
Temperature
Echeveria Prolifica plants love a hot environment. They’re hard in USDA zones 9a to 100b, which are around 25°F. They won’t survive in frosty environments.
If you’re a resident of an area with a cold climate and you want to plant Echeveria Prolifica, this is the only case in which we’ll recommend you plant it indoors. Make sure you provide it with necessary light conditions then.
In lower temperatures, it’s normal for the Echeveria Prolifica to lose its lower leaves. It doesn’t perform well in cold climates. You can take these leaves to propagate in another pot or just remove them so as not to attract mealybugs or so.
Water
If you’re familiar with succulents, and especially Echeverias, you probably know this by heart.
Succulents require moderate watering through well-drained soil, as they’re susceptible to root rot fungi.
To make sure that the water is enough, you must see it run through the pot’s drainage holes. You don’t need to water again unless the soil is entirely dry, which takes about two to four weeks on average. Never ever let your succulent sit on the water, though. It’ll ruin it.
If you can access the roots, it’d be perfect to water them. Don’t pour your water onto the leaves themselves. They don’t like that!
The Prolifica will tolerate drought like a champ; that’s what succulents do! However, it’s not to be left without water for extended periods.
Soil
To keep your Echeveria Prolifica in tip-top condition, you need to use a soil blend that’s made especially for succulents. By this, we mean a soil blend with 50% to 70% minerals and coarse materials. We’re talking sand, perlite, and pumice.
Succulents and damp soils are anything but best friends. You need your soil to be coarse, well-draining, and free of water. Well, most of the time.
Note that flowering consumes a lot of the plant’s energy. So if you find your plant in bad condition or -god forbid- is starting to wilt, it’d be clever to remove these blooms, so the plant itself can survive.
Fertilizer
The rapid proliferation rate of the Echeveria Prolifica requires constant repotting, so it won’t stay long in the same soil. Hence, there’s no need to use fertilizers.
Besides, it already grows fast. Why do you need fertilizers?
However, if you still have your head fixed, you can treat it the same as the rest of Echeverias. Use a small amount of slow-release low nitrogen fertilizer in its growing season. This is not to be used in winter, though.
Propagation
As we said before, the Echeveria Prolifica loves to propagate. Once it starts producing offsets, they’ll grow stolons on their own, and they’ll take it from there, given there’s a convenient propagation medium (a fancy term for good mineral soil).
If you want to do it yourself, you can propagate the Echeveria Prolifica using leaves or stem cuttings. In both cases, you need to cut a leaf using a knife gently. You then leave it callous for a couple of days and introduce it to its new propagating medium. Water and fertilize, and you shall see your new Echeveria Prolifica soon!
The thing is that the Profilica propagates fiercely, and it doesn’t have an actual native environment, so it might be considered invasive when you plant it next to other plants. We’d advise you to put it in a constrained container to limit its expansive tendencies.
In Conclusion
It’s beautiful, resilient, and propagates well. What’s not to love about the Echeveria Prolifica?
The Echeveria Prolifica will be an excellent choice to cover large spaces or to fill space in between other plants. Their rapid propagation and low, dense clusters will occupy the space without appearing clunky.
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