I could almost start calling this one an invasive weed - that's how fast it grows! Covered in small, lilac flowers in spring and ever greed with tiny little leaves became my favorite of this type of succulents.
Drosanthemum
To make it easier for me, I call them all Ice Plants. I am not sure how terribly wrong I am doing so, but they all look similar with their daisy-like flowers, long pointy leaves and growing habits. So why the hell not :p
Care
It is a succulent. So as any succulents it hates being over watered, though I noticed it is very tolerant to larger amounts of rain from time to time. While I did manage to rot many of my plants with too much love water or rain, those are fine no matter where I put them.
Only in winter it is better to keep them on the dry side.
It also likes sun and it is extremely tough cookie! I can place it in the sunniest, hottest spot and it will be fine. But I noticed It grows best with morning sun and more shade in the afternoon. Constant shade will result with more leggy stems and less flowers in spring.
I have it growing in two pots and one was trimmed very short before spring and now looks very compact and nice.
The other one grows in a tall vase and I let it fall down. But it grows so fast that in no time it starts crawling on the floor and wants to root in any pot it can get to. Weed!! I am telling ya. I have to cut the long stems few times a year (those normally are used to propagate and given away).
Propagation
Cuttings! The easiest and fastest way to propagate any of those type of plants. Just snap a piece of fresh stem, let it dry for a few days and stick in a soil. That's it :)
This one here, since it grows very long stems with tiny little branches on will grow even when put on top of a soil, so the new young branches throw some roots.
I am guessing a leaf propagation could work too, but that I have never tried. Why, if it is so easy with stem and there is plenty of them?
Leaves and flowers
Oh yes! Those I likely! The flowers are adorable! And there can be so many of them on one stem that you will not see the leaves. Of course, as I mentioned, lots of sun will help growing more flowers buds. Flowers will last for a few days, but they will bloom one after another for a few weeks.
The leaves are no less cool! And among all of my Ice Plants those are the only ones with this bubbly texture. If you take a closer look, it looks like a million of tiny, silicone bubbles are stuck to the leaf. This is to protect the plant from hot sun and it really works well.
And this is what I see in the morning from my kitchen. They are just right there at the balcony door :)
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Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
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