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Home > Flower and garden articles > I`ve found the “holy grail“ of plants!
I`ve found the “holy grail“ of plants!
 Gorgeous, glamorous and no special care required!
I’ve discovered these fantastic new plants- they’re going to revolutionize the way we garden. They’re gorgeous and interesting and yet one of the most obliging of all plants. They’re drought, wind and heat tolerant, they’ll grow almost anywhere, will readily establish themselves, require no special pruning or care, are non-invasive, don’t grow too unruly or untidy. To add to this they’re also dastardly fashionable and can be enjoyed indoors or out. And, just in case you’re wondering, they’re not plastic!!
So what are these revolutionary new plants? Well, at this point I have a little confession to make. The plants I refer to are not really all that “new”. They’ve just being re-discovered by a whole new generation of home decorators and gardeners. Have you guessed what they are yet? They were very popular 30 or more years ago and every half respectable gardener had a good collection of them in pots and in the garden beds. They’re the succulent Echeverias.
Although I thought that I’d discovered a “new generation” plants, it turns out that it’s just that I’m not old enough to remember them. When I announced my grand discovery to my work mates (who are more experienced and mature gardeners than I am) I was rapidly assured that these were not “new” plants at all. The older gardeners vividly recalled seeing them in their mother’s and grandmother’s gardens.
Despite being somewhat deflated by this news I’m still excited by my discovery because, despite their “oldness”, these plants are tremendously garden worthy. Such is their extreme garden worthiness that I’m finding it hard to fathom why Echeveria have been all but ignored for the last 3 decades. It turns out that these stunning plants had been “retired” to the relative obscurity of the odd collector or two. I, for one, am grateful for these collectors because while the majority of gardeners have looking elsewhere for interesting plants they have been hard at work breeding new and more showy varieties of Echeveria which are now starting to grab the attention of the avant-garde garden and interior designers once again. (They too, probably think they’ve discovered something completely “new”!)
I guess that the bigger question is how could we have ignored such garden worthy and showy plants? Their drought hardiness alone would, to me, seem sufficient for them to maintain a significant presence in Australian gardeners. They’re probably just the unfortunate victims of gardening fashion because they could not fit in with the traditional European shrubbery type of gardening that was popular in the 70s (when most Australian gardens were being filled with Azaleas, Camellias and Rhododendrons.) Then, when cottage garden mania hit there was definitely no place for succulents because they are handsome plants by all means but by no means pretty plants. So, as fashion dictated, they were banished from our billowing flower filled perennial borders.
Now, however, fate seems to be conspiring to bring these handsome plants back into the spot light of main stream gardening for they seem tailored to our new hotter and drier climate. They, with their very self-sufficient nature, also fit in with our increasing need for self-sufficient plants due to our increasingly busy lives. And, because they’re adaptable to pots and all manner of nooks and crannies, they fit beautifully into backyards which seem to be increasingly reduced to mere balconies and courtyards
The exotic and handsome appearance of Echeverias is also gaining them huge popularity with the top flight garden designers and mainstream interior designers who consider them highly suited to their chic and simple styles. It’s also gaining them popularity with me!
There are about 150 species of these plants but I find that there are two different types of hybrids which are worth investigating for your garden.
The first kind is the small clustering type. They produce small succulent rosettes which grow to only about 10-20cm across but which rapidly multiply to colonize a small patch around the original plant. In the garden they slowly spread creating a wonderfully dense evergreen carpet. In pots they gradually fill the container and then cascade over the sides. They’re generally fast growing, although non invasive, and very independent.
“Hens & chickens” (pictured at top) is the common form which many may remember from Grandma’s garden or older country gardens where there was no reliable source of water to maintain less tough plants throughout the Summers.
There are now also some more spectacular small clustering types available and these will be featured in our Pre-Summer catalogue (which will be available online and posted by mid October). These are:
Black Prince which is superb with its chocolate black rosettes. There’s also Violet Queen which is as elegant as Black Prince is dashing. Violet Queen has soft grey blue petals which are edged in a delicate pink blush. Just delightful. Emerald Ripple is another unusual one with high gloss leaves of brilliant emerald green. Each petal is so shiny that you’d easily believe that they’d been lacquered!
The other type of Echeveria, which is my favourite, is the large, single rosettes which make exceptionally showy and glamorous “specimen” plants. I prefer them in pots because I can easily admire their interesting colour and shape and because I can rely on them to look great all year round - even when I neglect them for weeks (or even months) on end.
Our Pre-summer catalogue will feature two spectacular varieties. The first is Blue Curls (pictured at bottom)which oozes panache! It produces huge rosettes (to 40cm across) of frilly edged petals of ghostly blue grey which are edged in pale pink. The other is Zoro which is, as its name suggests, dark, dramatic and very dashing in near-black.
So, try discovering (or re-discovering as the case may be) these fantastic plants which seem perfectly designed to fit into our increasingly hectic lives and increasingly dry gardens. And remember, they’re not only hardy and easy to grow, they’re absolutely gorgeous to boot!
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