Succulents
Echeveria Black Prince- Classy Addition To Your Collection
May
Are you craving a bit of drama in your succulent collection? We have a real treat for you. With a mysterious name and elegant experience, Echeveria Black Prince has recently become quite hot species in Mediterranean rock gardens, succulent covered patios, and green roofs. This handsome royalty is the perfect choice for newbies who would like to start their gardening with a bang.
Black Prince– Small, Dark, and Adorable
Black Prince grows in clumps, which makes it great for both beds and individual pot growing. It forms a distinguished rosette that can grow up to 3 inches (7.6 cm), with wide, flashy, triangular leaves. The color is what takes the breath away when you see this succulent. Black Prince is dark purple, almost black with green epicenter almost glowing in every rosette. Leaves of this succulent start growing as bright green and slowly darken while the plant matures. Black Prince will show the deepest black if “happily stressed”. The more sun you exposed it to, the darker is the color.
Black Prince blooms in late fall and early winter. Flowers are bell-shaped and scarlet red. In those “main” flowers, you’ll notice small, star-shaped bright yellow flowers that add up to this colorful succulent beautifully. Flowers appear on short, leafy stalks from the core of the rosette. Every stalk carries four flowers. The color combination in a blooming period is quite impressive. If the conditions you’re growing Black Prince are perfect, flowers can even last thought the whole winter.
Grow and Care Tips
Despite the royal name, Black Prince is not that hard to grow and take care of. Therefore, you can go for it even if you don’t have much experience with succulents in general. This succulent, in particular, thrives in the sun. It also needs a lot of light in order to show off its color potential. You can plant the Black Prince in the area with partial to the full sun where it can sunbath for at least 6 hours a day. If you’re growing it as a houseplant, make sure the pot is placed near the brightest window, where the succulent can enjoy a lot of filtered light. However, when temperatures get extreme during the summer, you want to take the Black Prince indoors anyway or protect it from the sunburns with some shade.
Black Prince is not particularly cold-hardy. However, it can tolerate some frost and low temperatures for a short period of time. If you live in an area with harsh winter temperatures, you may want to skip that succulent bed growing and plan Black Prince in a pot you can take inside. When it comes to soil, this succulent needs a well-draining mix. You cant be wrong with a combination of a cactus potting mix and some sand, gravel, pumice, or all of that together. This succulent is sensitive to root rotting, so be careful with watering. Do it lightly and only when the soil is dried out.
Propagation
Black Prince can be propagated from seeds, leaves, offsets, and cuttings. If you choose propagating from the seeds, keep in mind that you’re dealing with a slow-growing succulent. Cuttings will produce new plants much quicker. Just use a sterile knife to cut the healthy, firm leaf, let it callus for a few days, and lay it on a fresh soil mix. After two weeks of regular watering, the cutting will be ready for potting. When propagating from offsets, just pluck one of them when they form a rosette, let them dry for two days and plant them in fresh soil. This succulent forms many offsets while it matures, so you can make yourself a collection.