PlantFiles: Echeveria
Echeveria x imbricata

We have had this plant growing in our yard for over 20 years. It mounds nicely in a large pot or grows in rock niches with panache. The color is great and blends well with other plants...the blossoms are also a cheery color and brighten any corner that they claim. Hardy, healthy, and the hang-in-there throughout freezes and drought conditions, too. Wonderful plant!

This is a very common and popular hybrid 'species' of Echeveria (a cross between E glauca and E gibbiflora 'Metallica'), sold at most garden outlet stores throughout California (and the country, too?). The common name, Hens and Chicks, sadly does a diservice for this species, as Hens and Chicks seems to be a descriptive name of just about any suckering Crassulae that looks a bit like this (note: all Sempervivum species also called Hens and Chicks). But this species is NOT the same as in most of the photos currently on this page (July 06)- those are not even Echeverias, except the first one I added taken in California. The others are all Sempervivums, which CAN tolerate snow, cold etc. This species, however, is cold sensitive, as are most of these Echeverias, and will not survive freezing tempsfor long, except for brief frosts down into the low 20s. It is one of the hardiest of the Echeveria, but not anywhere near as cold hardy as many of the Sempervivum 'Hens and Chicks' plants, which easily tolerate snow and alpine conditions. So the zone 4 plants described here are really Sempervivums, probably.

Echeveria 'imbricata' is a cross and a very vigorous one... though it suckers nicely, it usually takes years to do so, and makes a good solitary plant for several years in the warm gardens of southern California and probably much of the southwest. It flowers multiple times a year, but mostly in late spring and mid summer, long, tall, arching flowers of hot pink and orange. The leaves are a pale blue to blue-grey, sometimes with pinkish margins in the cooler months, or when dehydrated. Plants usually are about 4" in diameter when mature, but can be a bit less or more. They do well in full blasting hot sun here in southern Californai, with temps well into the 100s, without signs of heat stress.