Growing Kalanchoe - Planting for Winter Color

Early May is not too late for planting kalanchoe seeds for Christmas and winter bloom this coming season. Once the plants are started they can summer outdoors until cool weather blows in. This ability makes kalanchoes easy to fit into a busy summer, yet they produce bright attractive foliage and flowers during the most bloomless time of the year. I’ve grown kalanchoes for years and during most of that time I’ve chosen to keep quiet about it because I did not know how to pronounce the name.

Kalanchoes are succulents when referred to in a general manner, so I’ve always remarked in a casual, professorish manner “aren’t these lovely succulents?”. Succulents is sufficiently complicated sounding to satisfy even the most curious person! Kalanchoe is pronounced kal-an-KO-ee. The last part rhymes with doughy.

To start the seeds, fill a pot or shallow flat with a mixture of half sand and half black loam. Firm and smooth the mixture with a piece of board. Carefully sow the fine seeds on top of the soil and water with a misty spray to cover. Slip a plastic bag over the container to provide constant moisture. The seeds come up in about ten days, and they should be grown where enough sunlight reaches them to induce stocky, sturdy growth. Remove the plastic cover as soon as germination seems to be complete, but watch with extreme care to be sure that the baby plants do not dry out at any time. This would be fatal for young seedlings.

When the weather settles, the container may be set outdoors in a protected place that receives early morning or late evening sun. When the seedlings crowd, they should be transplanted to four-inch pots of a light soil heavily mixed with peat moss. A good soil mix like those made for African violets should work well. Sink the pots outdoors, and before frost is expected, bring them indoors to a sunny window that will be cool at night 55 to 60 degrees.

Kalanchoes grow best if new plants are started each year from cuttings (which root easily in moist sand and peat) or seeds.

Kalanchoe Blossfeldiana is the red flowered species grown commercially for Christmas and winter sale. It has clusters of small scarlet flowers. New hybrids of fiery scarlet flowers three times the size of old varieties. I’ve also been impressed with some yellow varieties of strong lemon-yellow flowers of outstanding brightness.

All kalanchoes have fleshy foliage and the flowers keep readily in flower arrangements.

Related Articles

• Cacti or Succulents Outside in The Summer? - Do you move your cacti or succulents outside in the summer? That question comes with many points of view. In my opinion it’s six of one half-dozen of the other. Cactus and succulents may in fact benefit from the extra sun they will receive during the summer season, that benefit must be balanced against the potential of
• Cactus and Succulents - Growing at Home - Cacti and other Succulents, botanically belong to the succulent family. Succulent plants find their native habitat in dry desert areas where the rainfall is low, yet the plants can still survive. Growing Conditions at Home As you would expect almost all cacti and succulents do best when kept warm, quite dry and in a sunny area.