Description: 'Scarlet Rose' is an interesting small growing cultivar, which shows strong relations to Aeonium smithii. The leaves are soft and slightly furry having a velvety feel and the plants stems are lightly covered in fine hairs. Growth is quite vigorous and plants branch readily from a young age, quickly forming a small open shrublet to 30cm high. During spring and summer the rosettes close up, forming a beautiful rose shape with splashes of scarlet on the outer leaf edges.
Plant Care: This is strictly a winter grower and is summer dormant and needs to remain on the dry side over the dormancy period. We grow our plants in good direct light during winter, then in a slightly shadier position during summer away from the very hot afternoon sun. We highly recommend plants have excellent drainage, keeping watering to a minimum. Overall it is not hard to grow and we have found this much easier to maintain than Aeonium smithii, which can be a little temperamental at times.
Origins: Of unknown origins, we suspect this to be a hybrid between Aeonium smithii and Aeonium saundersii.
It shows numerous traits characteristic to A. smithii, such as the hairy stems, soft delicate foliage and the strong pronounced idioblasts (specialized cells), on the undersides of the leaves.
Comparing the two, 'Scarlet Rose' tends to grow much quicker, branch very easily at a very young stage and the rosettes develop into a lovely rose shape which don't become as restricted or lose as much foliage as A. smithii does during the summer dormancy.
Comparatively, Aeonium smithii generally has glossy leaves with a wavy margin and the plants stem are extremely hairy.
Comments: This plant has a tendency to flower very regularly which results in the flowering stems partially dying back once the blooms have finished. DO NOT BE ALARMED BY THIS as the plants will almost always reshoot from the base of the flowering stem and grow new rosettes, EVEN IF IT IS A SINGLE STEM. The stems may remain bare for a short period of time before new growth has occurred, so DO NOT throw out your plants if this occurs, as 95% of the time they will reshoot. *** Please be mindful of this when purchasing this plant.
Please read carefully before purchasing:
- Plants for sale are displayed in 70mm pots. You will receive the same or similar plant as in this photo. Please use this as a guide to the size of the plants available for purchase.
- Please refer to the postage and handling guide for information on how orders are posted, weekly cut off times and postage costs.