Echeveria afterglow is my favourite plant in the garden this week.

There always seems to be at least one echeveria in the garden looking good.  This one has to be up there with the most luminous of the lot. 

The leaves are covered in a fine bloom, which gives the leaves a blue colour. Unlike some of the blue / white plants this one has a pink edge to the leaves and when sun catches the leaves the plant glows.

It is a really fast grower and forms rosettes of 30 - 50cm across.  I had been looking for this plant for a couple of years when I visited a friends house to find he was using them as bedding plants all around his garden.   It turns out he dug up two plants each autumn, potted them up and then cut the tops off. By spring each of the bases had formed 4 - 6 offsets, which he split and managed to grow to around 40cm by the end of the summer and starting again. After that I started doing the same and worrying a lot less about them and the plants dig much better.

It warrants favourite plant this week as it is flowering nicely.  For echeverias, e. afterglow has larger flowers which are covered in the same bloom as the leaves. 

Sadly it is right on the verge of being hardy for me, surviving down to -6C (20F), this really challenges it, so if we have a cold winter it dies. Kept dry though it has coped with -9C without too many problems.  Being such a quick grower, if if does get damaged new growth soon replaces the old leaves. 

So there you have echeveria afterglow my favourite plant in the garden this week. Head over Danger Garden to see what others have selected.

Agave parryi HK 1684 is my belated favourite plant in the garden right now.

Having been away, no doubt a few photos to follow, I missed last weeks favourite plant post. Looking around the garden, one plant is currently standing out so much, it deserved a belated post.  It also seems quite topical as in a recent post on the great Piece of Eden blog, Hoover showed some of her amazing agave collection one of which was agave parryi truncata, which was glowing. (You can find her post here).

So the plant screaming for attention right now is my agave parryi HK 1684.

I've had this plant for about 5 years now, it is definitely not one of the quick forms. Collected by Horst Kunzleras it has to be one if not the best form of parryi.  Like truncata it is very pale in colour and a compact grower, at least as far as I know.  Slightly narrower leaves than the truncata, but those spines make up for it.

It's usually best known for having almost black spine, which set off the blue leaves perfectly. However every now and then the spines put on a show of their own and you get an array of colours from black through to yellow.

Being a parryi it has good hardiness, although with the slow growth rate any marks really do take years to grow out.  It comes true from seeds, which seem to be fairly readily available if you can not find the plant itself.  Seeds would also give you a chance to have multiple plants as in line with the unspoken rule, mentioned in my last post found here, it is not only slow to grow but also to offset. In all the years I have had it, there has only been one pup.

So if you already have truncata, go out and find HK 1684 and decide for yourself which you like best.

In the mean time, head over to Danger Garden to see Loree's and others favourite plants for last week.

Aloe purple flush is my favourite plant in the garden this week

It was going to be another plant, photos taken all ready and then in the green house this evening the aloe purple flush was glowing.  It has been shouting for attention over the last few weeks and just keeps getting better. It seemed cruel to keep it waiting any longer. Sadly it is not one I know much about at all, if anyone reading this knows anything about it please comment as I would love to know more.

The photos don't do the colour justice, for part of the year is a great purple. Not the hint of purple some plants do, but full on purple.  This year for some reason instead of going back to green it has held the colour since spring.

The other thing that makes the plant stand out are the teeth along the leaf edge. There is a fine line of teeth along the edge, often these are doubles. They are bright red and look surprisingly good against the purple.  The leaves themselves are quite thick and stand out proud to the plant. The whole plant has a good robust look to it.

Sadly it is not a big offsetter, mine has produced one offset in 5 years, which could explain why you rarely see it for sale. Give the lack of spares I haven't test its hardiness yet and it is brought inside over winter. I am guessing it wont be at all hardy.

So there there you have aloe purple flush, my favourite plant this week, if you see one snap it up, you may not find it again.  

To see other peoples selection head over to Danger Garden blog to see what Loree and others have selected.

Eucomis vandermerwei is my favourite plant in the garden this week.

I always dread people buying me plants, what with having very specific taste, most of the common plants I want and little space, it doesn't lend itself to friends and family find things I needed. So it was an especially nice surprise when my parents dropped off this eucomis vandermerwei a few years back.  Most people seem to have at least one eucomis in their garden, as I did at the time. I had not heard of this one though, and in fact have yet to see it anywhere else. 

As you can see it is a lovely spotted form with very clear, defined purple spots on the leaves which tend to lie more prone to the ground.  What makes this form different is the size, it is one of the smallest forms and grows to around 10cm tall. My whole clump, which contains 5 plants, is only 15cm across. It really doesn't show up in photos, and needs to be seen in person to see how perfect a dwarf form it is.

It originates from a high rainfall South African mountain plateau, at altitudes of between 1700 and 2275 meters.  This makes is quite used to frosts, although sadly it needs to be kept on the drier side during the very cold weather to do best. Up until now my clump has been in a pot, but I am risking it in the ground where it will get a rain cover to keep the worst of the weather off

It flowers in August for me, with the main plant flowering every year. The offsets have yet to flower, but keeping it restricted in a pot may have slowed their growth.

Being so small, you have to get pretty close to see the flowers properly. It will be interesting to see if it works in the rockery, or if it gets lost.

So there you have eucomis vandermerwei my favourite plant this week.  Head over to Lorees blog Danger Garden to see other selections.

Echeveria agavoides is my favourite group of plants this week.

I have mixed feelings about naming forms of a plant, sometimes it just feels a bit commercial and a way of trying to get people to by the same plant just by giving it a different name.  However this is not the case with echeveria agavoides and there are some truly different forms well worth adding to any collection.

Last year I put a selection of forms into bowl to see how they developed, it highlights how different they can be.

The 4 different forms are 'Lipstick' (front), cv 'Sirius' (left), 'Ebony' (back) and cv 'Romeo'. Each is distinct and can be reactively easily separated.

The most common is 'Lipstick' there is another form called 'red edge', but I find these look pretty much identical and are interchangeable (at least for me).  It has one of the most most agave like shapes with good pointed leaves and very structural rosettes.

Like most forms, the stronger the light levels, the better the colour to the leaf edges.  It can take a while to settle and then produces multiple offsets giving a very tight clump.  I have had mixed results hardiness wise, like many succulents it seems to grow into cold tolerance, so don't leave it out when it is small. However once larger, especially when clumped it copes fine with my -8C winters.

Over the last couple of years new forms have been becoming readily available the most common being e. agavoides cv 'Romeo'.

The leaves are not as pointed as the other forms so it is less agave like.  The colour however is amazing, almost aubergine. When I first got this plant I thought it was stressed or a spring colour, it has held its colour and looks pretty much the same all year.  It doesn't seem to offset easily though, in fact neither of these cultivars do.  I may have a dud of course, and haven't wanted to cut it up to produce more plants.  This one has been kept dry over winter but that is all the protection it gets.

The other cultivar is even better, e. agavoides cv 'Sirius', it has the good agave style shape and a very dark colour. The leaf edges are almost black.

I can't really tell you how this one grows, as it hasn't actually done anything in the 2 years I've had it. No offsets, limited growth (which is probably because I got it fully grown) and no changes to the colour.

Finally by far the most sort after e. agavoides 'Ebony'.  This is the plant that everyone wants and it is the best form for me.  It is the biggest, has the best shape and the very dark leaf edges really make the plant stand out.

This one needs bright light to get any colour.  I have seen a lot of plants for sale claiming to be ebony, but looking distinctly like lipstick. In young plants it is difficult to tell them apart and given the demand it is probably no surprise less scrupulous sellers want to pass off plants as this form.  Once larger the rosettes tend to be flatter and the leaves look different to the other forms,  being a paler green. It actually offsets quite freely, so at some point the market is going to be flooded with them It also takes from leaves, although not as reliably as the other forms.  You can also find seeds and it seems to come true to form in the majority of cases. It is also not quite as hardy and you have to watch out for rot.

So there you have the echeveria agavoides group, which are my favourite plants in the garden this week.  Head over to see Loree at Danger Garden to see my favourites.

Sedeveria letizia is my favourite plant in the garden

Another little Crassulaceae is standing out for me this week.  Sedeveria letizia is a hybrid between sedum cuspidatum x echeveria setosa var. ciliatait, it is a small branching succulent that grows to around 20cm tall, with rosettes of around 5cm. The leaves are green with a red tinge depending on light levels.  In full sun, or when stressed, it is almost totally red, in shade the rosettes are totally green.

I have been trying it in different types of pots and now planted in the succulent rockery, I am interested to see how this one develops over the rest of the summer. Will it grow up or hang down?

The colour is great and it has already started to send out new branches from the base, which is one of the unusual things about this plant.  It doesn't tend to branch from higher up. The older stems can be quite long and skinny, but with new heads forming all the time, it stays nice and bushy.

One of the great things about the plant is that you can simply cut heads off and plant them up to give new plants.  If done at the start of spring, by the end of summer it will have started to branch.  This gives lots of opportunities to sculpt the plant. This is my main plant, sadly having been in the greenhouse it is green, but I love it anyway. Now things are more settled, it has been placed outside in the hope of getting some colour.

It flowers well, with multiple stalks per stem. The flower themselves are almost pure white (I told you I had a thing for white flowers) and like echeveria flowers they last a long time. For me it is usually in flower from April to June.

If you leave it long enough without cutting it up, it will form aerial roots. These can be left to grow, or removed, it doesn't seem to affect the plant either way.  It is possible to leave select roots and these slowly bulk up to give roots that will support the longer stems. 

Sadly it's not perfect, for a start it is not totally hardy.  Apparently it is hardy to -7C (20F) so far it has been fine in my unheated cold frames or greenhouse. It is borderline for my garden, so it will be interesting to see how the planted one copes this winter.  The other thing to be aware of, is it can get leggy if over-fed or grown in lower light levels.  I have fallen foul of this a few times (it is really very easy) and had to cut the plant up and start over again. 

So there you have sedeveria letizia, my favourite plant in the garden this week. Head over to Danger Garden to see Lorees and others selection.

Orostachys fimbriata is my favourite plant in the garden this week

With plants in the ground and settled in I am finally able to take plant in Loree's (Danger Garden) "my favourite plant in the garden this week". You can see Loree's selection here.  There are a few plants shouting for attention but in the end I decided on one of the smallest plant in my garden orostachys fimbriata.  It part of the Crassulaceae family, although looks very much like a sempervivum at this stage. It forms neat little rosettes and tight clumps over time.  Mine is much more compact that my orostachys spinosa, although this could be unusual.

It looks very fragile in the alpine rockery, hopefully it will be hardy for me.  If it carries on looking this good I'll probably end up finding a rain cover to keep the worst of the weather off.

No flowers yet, which I am sort of pleased about. It is monocarpic so the flowering head will die afterwards. At the same time the flowers are what the family are known for and it seems to offset readily so the next generation will take over. I can wait a year for flower though, in the mean time I will just enjoy it hiding among the gravel.