Off With Their Heads!

With spring weather upon us at last, everything is really starting to pick up in the garden.  I thought I would show you how to behead an Echeveria 'Afterglow' when it has become too leggy.  The first photo shows how the stem can get elongated and ugly in time.  You can of course leave it to keep getting longer but you will find that the rosette ends up getting smaller and smaller.  So muster up the courage and slice off the head just under the leaves as high as you can get it.  Remove the lower leaves from the rosette and dry it out for at least a week before planting again in well draining soil. With the remaining stump I usually give it a generous feed of slow release fertiliser and a good drink of seasol and fish emulsion and put it out of the way somewhere. When the pups reach  20c size or larger you can gently twist them off the stem and plant into small pots or trays.  The second photo shows the stem already starting to throw pups along it.  Sometimes you can end up with quite alot of pups and sometimes you may only get one or two.......but whatever, it's all a bonus, and much quicker than propagating from leaves.  The third photo is the plant before I beheaded it.  Good Luck everyone!