Deadheading: It's Not As Bad As It Sounds

There comes a time in most succulent's lives where you're going to have to cut off their heads. Don't worry, it sounds a lot worse than it really is.

Grew under some portulaca, was reaching for the sun.

Most succulent plants look best without long stems. However, most succulents will grow extremely long stems the longer they are alive, which can look awkward. There are also conditions a plant may grow in which cause it to stretch when it should be dish-shaped, and dead-heading is great for these plants, too.

I used a dead stem to prop up the plant heads so they'll grow straight.

Today, I finally cut off the heads of my pink butterfly kalanchoes. This plant, which originally was one, is now three (I gave one to my mother), and the two remaining had stems nearly two feet long. The stems reached horizontally along the ground so the plants could get into the bright sunshine. Not very attractive, so, I cut them off.

The bottom of the stem is close to, but not touching the soil.

You want to use a very sharp knife, preferably as clean as possible. Once you've beheaded your plant, place it in a pot hovering JUST ABOVE some moist soil. This encourages the plant to grow roots to reach that soil. With this plant, the long "leaves" provide a prop to keep the stem from touching.

It usually takes a few weeks for the plant to grow new roots. Yes, you can just cut some heads off and stick them in the ground, but they won't necessarily root that way, and they may rot. For plants you really love, take it slow.

There's a tiny pink plantlet to the right of the pot!

The "leftovers" aren't necessarily useless, either. The rooted stem, once the head of the plant is removed, might begin growing small plantlets where leaves formerly grew, or even at the top where the "head" was removed. Since I had to cut the stem into more than one piece (it was THAT LONG), I threw them all in a pot together with the rooted bits to give them a chance to make some babies.


I don't know how this will turn out, but I'm hoping that at least the "heads" of the plants will root successfully, as they are some of my favorite. The little pink plantlets are just gorgeous, and unlike other mother-of-thousands plants, cannot grow into plants themselves.

The two rooted stems and the other cut pieces.

The Results!

Yog Sothoth Flowers and Spreads

My once-tiny purchase off of Ebay is now so huge it's falling apart under its own weight! It's been an amazing haven for snails, which I've harvested for the turtles that now live in my backyard. Today I pulled bits off and moved them to other parts of the garden to fill in space by becoming monsters themselves.

It's blooming!

It's also started blooming! It hasn't bloomed in the years I've had it, just grown and grown and grown. This type of succulent doesn't die after blooming, it's rather like what most people call a "jade plant."

If I'm lucky there will be half a dozen giant mutant plants in my succulent collection, glorifying and frightening my front yard! I'm guessing these plants are an acquired taste, but I've always been a fan of the strange and bizarre.

First flowers ever!

The stems grow in twists or fan-shapes.

The plant, weighed down, grows roots that anchor it to the ground.

Here, a section of more "normal" plant grows long stems weaving through other plants.

A crest that became too heavy to stay up. Now it will be a new plant.

Another heavy crest, this one will hopefully perk up a bit once it roots.

A third crest, similar to the first. I think of this shape as blades.

One of the original cuttings, now a little fan on its own.

The oldest original cutting has grown to be over a foot tall and going on two feet wide.

Agave Propagation

Succulent plants have many qualities that make them ideal plants for the brown-thumbed gardener. One great quality of succulent plants is their ability to propagate themselves from cuttings and "pup" plants. Agave Americana, otherwise known as the century plant, is practically impossible to kill, and will even try to fill your garden with its offspring.

An adult plant, about 2-3 years old.

Agave are incredibly resilient, but some of those adaptations make them difficult to place in a garden. While agave start out small, they can grow six feet in width and height! Because of this, agave should not be planted within six feet of walkways. If you do plant an agave americana nearer to a walkway than this, you will have to prune the plant to prevent the blade-like leaves from reaching the pathway.  Both of the adult agaves in my garden were planted close to walkways which means pruning to maintain safety!

When weeding one evening, I felt a sharp pain in a buttock. Turning around slowly, expecting to see a hideous insect, I saw that an agave leaf-tip had stabbed through my pants and into my skin! One amazingly easy thing to do to make your agave more people-friendly is to use garden shears, clippers, or even household scissors to nip off the needle-sharp tip of each leaf. This is simple and does not require that one get very close to the leaves, which have spikes along their edges as well.

This agave pup has already started growing its own roots.

An agave will produce pups either at the base, or if there is no access to the top of the soil near the plant, it will grow a rhizome (root stalk) until it finds a point where the new plant will be able to access sunlight. The rhizome is bulbous and "jointed" and easily "pops" apart at each joint where the leaf meets the base of the root. A way to think of it is as an umbilicus that connects the new plant to the parent plant.

Nearly hidden under a shredded leaf, this tiny pup is the only one that's grown at the plant's base.

  After being surprised by a pup from my less than one foot wide agave americana marginata, I decided to take a closer look at my blue plant, and yup, there was a pup nestled at the base under a trimmed leaf! If I hadn't pruned the plant, I probably wouldn't have given it room to grow at the base. After removing the pup I carefully placed the decorative (and functional) rocks so that the soil was covered again.   

A very young agave pup has already grown roots at its base.

  To pull out a pup, dig underneath it enough to expose the rhizome before you pull. One or two quick jerks should break the rhizome at a joint and free the pup from the parent plant. At this point you either throw away the weed-pup, or if wanted, some quick surgery will give your agave pup an independent life.

Slice as much of the rhizome away as you can. The plant's roots should be directly beneath its body, not off to the side.

The rhizome needs to be trimmed so that the roots grow properly. Surprisingly, unlike some other pups I've pulled, this tiny base pup had already grown its own roots, which made my work worry-free. When slicing a plant free you create a huge open wound, which should usually be left to heal itself closed, or callous. This prevents infection, like a scab on a flesh wound.

  I'm not sure why I sliced the rhizome at an angle; I want to say it's recommended by I'm not sure it actually matters if you want the end to callous. Because my blue agave is so prolific, I'm not worried about a pup or two dying, and haven't worried about letting the pups callous after trimming their rhizomes.

The plant is now independent.

  I put the pup immediately in the dirt after slicing the rhizome. This will make a total of six agave pups I've replanted, and four that I've thrown away.  As the agave grows older, owners might want to save some pups in order to replace the agave once it blooms. After an agave blooms it dies, and apparently the bloom itself will contain many new plants.

This pup is about 2 months old.

  The mature agave pup in the second picture has now grown quite a bit! I pulled it out of the ground to do some experimental surgery. Not only did I snip off the sharp ends, but I also "shaved" the spikes on the leaf edges. Maybe I can carefully grow a "safer" agave.

The pup after a trim.

  A final note on agaves is about the end of their lifespan. A century plant will live for about a decade before blooming and dying. As might be guessed, the colloquial name derives from the incredibly long wait until the plant flowers. Once an agave dies, you must remove it. An adult agave will have a tough, heavy trunk, and a blooming agave also has a ten to twenty foot flower stalk! When you plant an agave, do keep in mind that in a matter of a few years it will have to be dug out and discarded. This is important to keep in mind when planning which plants to surround the agave with.