Hi Hivers, welcome to day five of the personal challenge I undertook to write a post everyday in the month of November. As of now things seem to be chugging along well.
Succulents never look the same all through the year. The color of the leaves keep changing depending on their exposure to light and the general weather conditions around. The changes in color could be so dramatic that it could even fool people who are familiar with these plants and make them wonder if it is the same plant.
As you scroll down you'll notice the change in color of the Perle von numberg which goes from a bluish tone to a bleached look in summer. It turns pinkish in winter to spring and later as the season progresses a deeper purple tone creeps into the leaves.
The depth and level of variations often causes people to squabble with online sellers I have often noticed. Buyers unfamiliar with succulents do not really understand these changes. They often believe that they have been duped as the product displayed in the seller's catalogue is very different from the product the buyer receives.
In some succulents the color changes are subtle while in others the change could be dramatic. Sellers often display succulents in bloom or in stunning colors which happens only during a particular season of the year.
Besides most sellers tend to sell plants which are medium sided pups as succulents are slow growers. In the growth phase most succulents tend to show more green than the true colors they display when they are mature.
In our kind of hot subtropical climates we see dramatic changes happen in the winter months. The cooler weather brings about the most attractive colors in most of the succulents here. This image above of the PVN was taken during the month of September when the temperatures started to fall. You'd notice a pink shade creeping into the new growth and some of the older leaves taking a duller shade of purple. The bottom leaves which were bleached slowly fall off.
A tiny PVN pup in the pink of health
There is this common belief that succulents being desert plants enjoy being exposed to the blazing sun. The opposite is true of these plants especially in hot tropical and subtropical climates. You often notice sunburn and bleaching of color on the leaves in plants when they are over exposed.
A sun battered Crassula campfire.
I had to learn these lessons the hard way. Nonetheless as a keen observer of nature I tend to quickly notice the changes and move my plants to places with better growing conditions.
A bleached and sometimes lackluster look is often noticed in plants which are overexposed to the sun in the summer months. This could also happen if the plants are left in a place where they are beat down by the scorching heat of the mid day sun. You'd notice in the image above how this crassula campfire looks after it has been exposed summer sun for a few weeks. There are times you also notice some kind of sunburn in those thick flesh leaves.
The same plants earlier in the season.
You'd notice dramatic differences happening in the same plant depending on the exposure. Succulents tend do well when they get the morning sun and a good amount of dappled light through the day especially in the summer months here where I live. This is one way to keep the plants looking their best through the year. Most importantly the plants need to be protected from the scorching afternoon sunlight.
This image above is that of a cutting/pup starting to take root and slowly taking on a pinkish hue.
The new growth here looks more colorful and healthy.
In winter you'd notice tones of peach and pink taking over the green and red shades of the leaves. The shades blend into each other and are more mellow and pleasant to see.
These are how new pups which have been separated from the mother plant look after two weeks of planting. They lose the pink/red hues and turn predominantly green in their growing phase. Once they are well rooted the colors come back.
We don't have autumn here but these are some fall colors we see demonstrated by nature in our succulents.
A crassula ovata in winter, this plant normally sports green leaves for most part of the year.
Hope you enjoyed did reading this post, I had loads of fun presenting this. Thank you for all your support and appreciation.