What's your favorite?

Lets get things started by seeing what the favorites are.

I like all of my succulents, but I probably like the Varigated Jade Plant the most. I just bought it and have been in the process of rooting some cuttings. My second favorite is a catci looking plant,I forgot the name of it (Maybe someone can help me ID later). My third favorite is the panda plant.
Overall, I like all succulents.

Ryan
FernCliffFarms

[ Removed by member request. - Admin ]

Hens and Chicks are my favorites. They are shaped like a rose, grow almost anywhere, and make wonderful borders. And if that isn't enoufh the Humming birds love them when they flower.

I love all sorts of sempervivums and sedums!

How do I root jade plant cuttings. A friend gave me a few cuttings last week and I put them in vermiculite, but really have no idea if this is the right or wrong way.
Sandy

Verigated jade here, without a doubt. I've been a jade fanatic for the past 5 years, and I've accumulated hundreds of them through the years...

The verigated jade that I have looks just like the Irish Spring soap. The leaves are extraordinarily large on this one. Here's a picture: http://davesgarden.com/gj/dave/showimage/32.html

I also love propagating jades (and related succulents) by leaves. It takes an eternity, but it so much more rewarding than a stem cutting. You should try it sometime. http://davesgarden.com/gj/dave/viewentry/1724.html

Dave

Let it dry for a week or so. After a week of drying, I put soil into a small pot, poke my finger into the soil, place a little sand in the hole and then put the jade cutting in. Then I water throughly, allowing it to drain, and it should root. I water it when it becomes dry, and within three weeks roots should be appearring.
Works almost on all succulents, or so I have heard.

Ryan

I love jade plant and other crassulas, echeverias and related plants, hoya which I only got recently all through the kindness of somene on DG, many other succulents. I'm learning about them all the time.

I have to say I am very partial to many succulents, but my current craze are tree aloes.. .I have set up an entire area of the garden for them and have room for about 20 species. Though I have to say succulents are very cheap and easy to collect in Southern California... currently there are over 500 identified species growing in my yard... though I have about another couple hundred which I have no clue what they are. Another favorite are Agave, though the suckering ones that get massive are quickly becoming a problem.. especially the ones that send up suckers 20 feet away and pop up right in the middle of some other plant. I also have a lot of candelabra-like Euphorbias, though many are unnamed (eg, I have no idea, or lost the tag). Though my favorite plants are palms and cycads, succulents grow fast, look great all year round, and are a LOT cheaper... so I've been leaning this way the last few years. Someday when I learn to use a scanner, I will post some of the beauties and oddities for you all.

Sansevierias!!! What an incredibly diverse genus...

That's funny... we have a Euphorbia species that sounds like George.. we call ours Muscle Man... a green cartoon character with too-narrow upper arms and Popeye-like forearms, covered with thick purple spines. He's very colorful, but, with time, has grown too many new arms to look like a cartoon anymore.

Difficult question as this is most of what I collect (tho' have some houseplants as well).

Haworthia Limifolia is one of my all time favorites. Very sculptural-looking rosette, hard leafed w/ ripples like a washboard. Flowers several times a year & is indestruct-able, pups several times a year. I usually keep at least 2-3 adults of them & pass on all the pups. Just LOVE the look of this thing.

Also partial to all my Crassulas & of course my Sans. & let me not forget my beloved Hoyas (which have never bloomed for me, yet I still love them) & my equally beloved Xmas cacti. Love those winter blooms!

I have a couple Haworthia limifolias... one is variegated and last year put out a totally yellow sucker... not one bit of green on it. It's incredible. So far no more, though.

BBob,

Have seen the H. Limifolia variegate, but don't own it, would love to someday. Pls. do not separate the yellow pup if it has no green, as I've heard many times they won't survive (see explanation below).

JewelO,

Further to my comment to BBob re: variegate, it is said among those who know, that a pup w/ no green at all cannot survive, because w/out green it has no chrolophyll which is neeeded to perform photosynthesis, therefore it will not survive.

Thanks for the suggestion on not taking it off the parent plant... looking good right now nesttled in the pot with two other species of stiff, swirling Haworthias... not sure what one of the others is, but one is also supposed to be a limnifolia, though it has a smooth, firm leaf texture. It is lime green (though gets a little red in the sun). Good time of year for succulent/cacti on the bench... everything's in the bloom all at once- the Pachypodiums are, some Rebutia cacti (completely covered with brilliant orange flowers) and the Epis are all blooming. Hardly seems like there was a winter at all any more. Soon I will have a digital camera and can actually show some of these things.

I love Euphorbias and Senecios....right now, though, my favorite is Dorstenia Foetida....cool little alien flowers!

Gasterias are very nice too. Jatropa (I think thats right), the succulent one.

I love my Crassula, I also collect Aeoniums, which I start with leaves during the winter months. I love all my miniature Aloe, Agave including the Gasteria and Haworthia, I just purchased an very unusual Hoya, at least for me, Hoya curtisii, a miniature with very sharp pointed small leaves. I have just returned from the National Cactus and Succulent Convention. I wanted to purchase everything in sight. I managed to limited myself to one Gasteria species with has a very rough texture to the leaves.
All albino plants must not be separated from the adult parent, if you do, it will soon die. I have a albino San. Patens, I wish I knew what causes this ailment. I also have a collection of 'Jades' but only a few named documented plants each distinctively different. Where do the rest of you get your 'Jade' varieties, so far I have been only able to come up with 20. Norma

Propagation of plants: Living is Zone 21 I find that we have been able to start plants very easily in coarse sand 30% pumice 60% and medium coarse bark.(Perlite is also good mixed in with the cactus mix, about half and half. Timing is everything. Aeoniums in the cool months, summer Crassula after they flower. 'Jades' are winter growers I start them after they flower about April, Haworthia are winter growers for me, so I start them in October. Gasteria I start as soon as the offsets are about an 1+ inches across, they also start at the base of the leaves after you remove it from the plant. Sedum, some like the cool weather, other the hot weather, the rule of thumb is if the come from Mexico, summer is great, from European mountains they need cool weather to grow them. Either cut off the rosette or leaves.

Some Semps. will start from leaves,offsets. Echeviera coming from Mexico and So. America I start in the Spring, either from leaves or the bracts from the flower stem. Be carefull how you peel the leaf off, be sure to get a piece of the stem.

Some plants must have the heads cut off in order to start new plants, others cut up and quartered down the middle.
Email me privately if you are having troubles, I'll try to help, many I just don't have the experience yet.
Most Sansevieria can be started from 6" leaf cuttings, put in a tiny pot about 4" deep, about 6 pieces to the pot. Be sure to always let cutting heal over on all species. If the Sans. are hybrids you may get some surprises, only species come true. Good Luck all, have fun doing this, and let me know how you come out. Experiement, it's fun. Norma