Should You Let Your Flapjack Plants Bloom?

You’re probably aware of flapjack plant (Kalanchoe luciae), a succulent that’s popular because of the color of its leaves.

Like other succulents with overlapping leaves along a single stem, when Kalanchoe luciae blooms, the entire plant elongates. This is how those in my window box looked in March of last year.

I didn’t want the window box flapjacks to lose their compactness and end up awkwardly tall. (However, if your goal is to have a lot of new little plants, you’ve hit the jackpot. Harvest each with several inches of stem attached to anchor it, and start it as a cutting. Roots will grow from leaf axils.)

When the plants started to elongate in March, I cut off the bloom spikes. The mother plants seemed determined to flower regardless, and buds grew from leaf axils beneath the cut. I was just as determined they weren’t going to flower, so I pinched out the buds.

Within a month, the plants’ topmost leaves turned beige and crisp along the edges. I trimmed them.

By June, new little leaves concealed the truncated stem.

Here’s how they looked in August.

And in October. Other plants in the window box are blue echeverias and Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’. The composition looks fine, but would be even better if those flapjacks would turn red!

from Gardening Gone Wild http://gardeninggonewild.com/?p=29751