Introducing Wendy, Tessa and Katie as part of July’s Houseplant of the Month from the Joy of Plants.
We usually don’t go big on flowering varieties here on The Graceful Custom, but it was too good an opportunity to miss, rummaging around in Shirley’s mammoth Plant Magic collection.
I had the Flaming Katy in mind when I started, but it turns out their are 125 species of this succulent. We found four in the Plant Magic binders:
Flaming Katie (Kalanchoë blossfeldiana)
Kalanchoë ‘Tessa’ – ‘spreads twice as much sideways as upwards’
Kalanchoë thyrsiflora or Paddle Plant – ‘crimson-edged leaves, which float, skirt-like, around the plant’
Kalanchoë ‘Wendy’
According to the Joy of Plants, the length of flowering – at least 8 weeks – gives Kalanchoe’s their symbolic meaning: persistence and eternal love. Even so, I’m afraid my favourite still has to be the Paddle Plant – not least because I now know what I had when I had one a few years ago!
The Graceful Custom 