Can anyone tell me what this plant is, and why it is growing roots like it is? Should I be planting these in soil, or just leaving them alone?

Thanks!

T

That there plant is a variegated Aeonium, maybe A. haworthii (but I never knew well the Aeoniums).

It's putting out adventitious and aerial roots as an additional purchase into life - you can behead the head and plant separately, you can trim the roots, repot the entire plant or do nothing.

While Aeoniums are primarily winter-growing plants, you might want to grow them up this winter (I'm assuming you've got your plants set up for additional lighting).

It's easy to spot Aeoniums because they have tiny little teeth on the leaf margins. Most other Crassulaceae have smooth leaf edges.

Thanks, but I'd already forgotten your toothed-leaf explanation.

Thanks!

T

After a bit of poking around, the best ID I could make on mine is what I have seen called Aeonium 'Sunburst', though there seems to be quite a variety of forms and colors for that.

I have seen some with very large rosettes, some close to the ground, etc. Mine has relatively small ones maybe 1-2 inches across, and is on thin stalks...

T

I'm hoping Brad will chime in here with some of his nicely grown ones - I thought 'Sunburst' is the one with large rosettes, rather than the small rosettes that your plant has.

Your plant looks very much like a variegated haworthii, rosettes about 2-2.5 inches diameter. The most common variant is 'Kiwi', but yours is not that clone. Variegation can vary a lot from rosette to rosette as you can see in your plant. Aeonium haworthii close-up, and a large clump in a 14-inch diameter container:

Brad

Should I pot it up into a larger pot - would that encourage growth? Or, would that increase the risk of creating too much soil for a plant this size?

I keep it under Metal Halide lights and skylights - room temps running from low 50s at night to seventy to seventy-five during the day...

Thanks!

T

I worry that the large amount of aerial roots on one of your rosettes might indicate not enough water, or damage to that stem. A bigger pot is OK as long as the soil does not stay wet for more than a couple of days. A. haworthii tends to branch strongly, and will quickly for a clump. The Aeonium root ball is very shallow, only about a foot deep for large five-foot tall plant, a couple of inches for your plant. A standard rose/azalea pot shape works well for smaller plants since it keeps the water table lower than the roots.

If your plant were mine, I would probably repot in a five-six inch diameter container (hard to say what size it's in now). I would snip off several of the low hanging small rosettes, and plant them with the larger plant to help form a clump faster.

It's easy to root heads. Cut them about 1-2 inches below the lowest rosette, let callous in air for three days, and plant in dry soil. Begin watering lightly in two-three weeks. It is best to do this in the growing season, which is about over for this year. Rosettes with very little chlorophyll will grow slower, and be harder to root than those with more. They may fail to survive on their own, and should be left on Mom whenever possible.

Aeoniums are from the Canary Islands, and are 'winter' growers, That really means Fall and Spring where I live. They don't grow a lot when overnight temps are below 40 F. Since your plant is indoors, and at a perfect temperature cycle for optimum growing, you can probably ignore the normal seasonal variation in culture, and water and fertilize regularly.

The most important thing to know when growing outdoors in hotter climates is that they are summer dormant. That means mine get no water at all from early June to mid-September. I know a lot of people that have failed at growing Aeoniums until they are told to stop watering during the hottest time of year. It sounds crazy, and took some faith for me to try it the first time, but they almost completely shut down once the highs get around 80 F.

Almost all Aeoniums are monocarpic, blooming is a terminal event: a blooming rosette will die after flowering. Rosettes on branches will continue to live. Beheading Aeoniums every few years will promote branching, and delay flowering. This is my garden this spring showing a number of blooming Aeoniums. A. haworthii is blooming in the bottom right. The big purple one with huge inflorescences is Aeonium 'Cyclops'.

Enjoy the eye candy!

Thank you for all that information. My plant is currently in a pot that is almost 4 inches in diameter on the inside edge, and the plant itself is 7 inches from the soil line to the tallest rosette. It actually looks pretty well suited to the size. I did have it in a very small pot (so small it kept falling over!) during the summer, so maybe it is still annoyed at me from that ;-).

Last question - if I snip off a rosette that is the only rosette on a branch (as most of mine are...) does the branch die at that point, or does it bud back?

Thanks again.

T

Aeonium castello-paivae variegata cv. 'Suncups'

Thanks for the research...and please thank 'She...er...who is not named but names plants'...;-)..

T