Floribunda in Abundance

The blooms glow.

  There are a few succulent plants I've inadvertently fallen in love with as I've watched them thrive in my first household garden. Surprisingly I've grown attached to a plant that doesn't seem to be quite as well-known as many other fast-growing succulents.

The glowing fuschia spheres behind the blooming aeonium are calandrinia floribunda.

  A few pieces of calandrinia floribunda my brother scrounged while walking his dog were stuck in the dirt at my house. One year later...

The plant grows in chunky clusters.

As the stem extends, old leaves create a bit of extra protection.

   Floribunda gives you a lot of plant with a very little flower, but that flower packs a punch. Not quite ground cover, the plant grows stems which remain bare. This is the only detraction from the plant's beauty, but it can be a big one. The stems look sturdy, but they break easily, and the plant itself is low-growing, except for the flowers which are three feet above the plant body.
 The plant grows so quickly its name is easy to understand, and is great for filling in space, though again, the stems can be a drawback.

The tip of a former bare stick.

  The bare stems don't always display so clearly, as new growth hides the unsightly bits. Since I've been harvesting pieces of my two plants to grow in other parts of the garden. This leaves the stems more exposed than they usually would be.

  I broke off a large piece of plant and pulled off individual rosettes with flowers to plant in other parts of the yard. I was left with a bare clump of stick, which I stuck in the ground near the hose-bib. It sprouted quite quickly, and I'm sure that in a year I will have an entire mature plant covering up that unsightly dirt!

Bees are constant visitors.

The left-over clump of stems, already sprouting leaves at every stem and crotch!

I do not possess a single succulent which grows as quickly and easily as floribunda does. It's for this reason I've spread it around, as there is plenty of space to fill and I can't buy all of the larger plants and trees I want just yet.