Aeonium Hybrid

ZONE 9B Coastal Otago, New Zealand.
I think this is the giant variety that is becoming increasingly popular all over coastal NZ. ...Read MoreStems are usually (though not exclusively) unbranched and up to 8cm thick in my garden (!), sometimes developing small offset stems with age. Heads are heavy, thick, frog-green and glossy, the yellow flower is similar to the A. arboreum type plant. The largest heads on my plants have approached 45cm across! They stay green and do not colour toward red.
This is a thirsty, spreading giant, rewarding regular watering with enormous dimensions and thick limb-like stems that have an almost creepy sci-fi animal/plant hybrid look about them. People literally stop and stare at the ones growing along the rock wall of my driveway- I garden on half an acre of sloping volcanic ex-quarry stone with indifferent soil pockets, and these guys cant seem to get enough of the conditions. Whack off the stems that lean out and plant them elsewhere- just shoving them in the ground usually works.
Dont let it flower too often- cut the bud horns off as they appear to preserve fatter heads and stems.
Can be marked by hail and frost- have a frost cloth handy, but they will recover, so dont give up on those that have been damaged- water well and they will come back nicely.
Aeoniums prefer normal garden soil as long as it is drained well; cactus-type mixtures dont hold enough water and neither can they generally support the massive weight of thriving specimens. Some of mine are happy in airless yellow clay, though the slope provides drainage.
I cant recommend these guys highly enough- theyre so lush and bizarre; you will wonder how you lived without them!
Id like to add that I dont find aeoniums to be monocarpic- some of mine have flowered heavily every year, which does tend to deplete them, but is not fatal.

Attractive solitary thick-stemmed hybrid seen in local arboretum (Huntington).. doesn't look ANYTHING like Aeonium simsii, which usually ...Read Morehas narrow hairy leaves... but nice. Has flat, mid green smooth leaves and seems quite hardy in zone 9b/10a