The Echeveria lilacina plant, also known as the Echeveria lilacina Kimnach & Moran, and the Ghost Echeveria plant, is a small succulent plant that is grown for its beautiful foliage. Its foliage is thick and forms a rosette shape, and the entire plant looks like a giant-size green rose. Its thick leaves help it store water. It uses this stored water to survive harsh summers in its native environments.
The Ghost Succulent plant is native to desert regions of Mexico but now is grown worldwide as an ornamental plant. It can survive outside its natural environments; this makes it a perfect choice for an outdoor and indoor garden plant. The Ghost Succulent plant is very easy to grow and take care of. Below is a complete guide to help you grow, maintain and take care of your Ghost Succulent plant plants.
Overview
| Common Name | Ghost Succulent, Echeveria lilacina Kimnach & Moran |
| Scientific Name | Echeveria lilacina Kimnach & Moran, Echeveria lilacina |
| Genus, Family | Echeveria Genus, Crassulaceae Family. |
| Size, Type | Small and succulent. |
| Color of stem, leaves, and flowers | Green Leaves, short green stem, and branches, yellow to white flowers. |
| Flowering Season | Starts in late winter and ends in early spring. |
| Perennial/Annual. | Perennial in most parts of the world, but in cold areas, can be annual. |
| Hardiness | USDA Hardiness zone 9b to 11b. |
| Temperature range | From -4 to 10 Degree centigrade. |
| Sunlight | Full sun to Partial Shade. |
| Growth Rate | Very slow. |
Lineage
The Ghost Succulent plant is one of the plants that belong to the Echeveria genus of the succulent plants from the Crassulaceae family. These plants are known for their specific appearance. Their leaves are arranged in rosette formations that give them their unique look. This unique look is what makes them attractive to people from all over the world. In the past few years, their demand has been increasing. Their easy-to-grow nature, combined with their beautiful flowers, and rosette shape, makes them a perfect choice for your indoor plant, office decoration, or outdoor garden plant as well.
The Ghost Succulent plant has four hybrids, below are the details of them
- Echeveria Moondust
- Echeveria Orion
- Echeveria Lilac Dream
- Echeveria Lola
Properties and the care guidelines for these hybrids are also similar. The only difference between these is that they all have different sizes of leaves, flowers, and clusters.
Appearance
The Ghost Succulent is a small plant, only reaches a few inches high and wide. Its leaves are short and grow in layers. These thick leaves are pointy at the ends and spread wide below. These leaves form layers and each circle around the stem of the plant. This creates a beautiful rosette shape or appearance of these plants. Its leaves have a dusty green color and are thicker. Apart from these leaves, the Ghost Succulent plant also grows small off-shoots. These can be used for the replantation of this plant. These offshoots grow between rosette formation or layers of leaves and extend to the outside.
The Ghost Succulent plant also grows small flowers that grow on small branches. Its flowers have different colors depending upon the variant or hybrid that you choose. The colors of flowers can be white, yellow, pinkish brown, and yellow. The sizes of these flowers are also different. The Ghost Succulent plant forms clusters in the place it is grown, the size of these clusters can also vary depending upon the hybrid you choose but they all have a similar rosette-shaped appearance.
Flowering
The Ghost Succulent plant is a flowering plant and produces small flowers. These flowers grow on branches that grow upwards in direction. The flower’s color depends on the hybrids that you are choosing. But mostly they are yellow, pink, and white. The Ghost Succulent plant’s flowers are slightly bigger than the flowers of most other species and varieties from their family. Flowering usually starts at the end of the winter season. Flowering lasts till the early spring arrives, after that, these flowers wilt and produce seed sacs. These seeds can be used for the plantation purpose, but planting them through off-shoots and cutting is considered a preferred method as the seed collection, storage, and plantation requires a lot more time.
Natural Habitat
The natural habitat of these Ghost Succulent plants is the northern region of Mexico, which is harsh, and colder during the winter, and temperate during the summer. In summer temperatures do not rise too high. And during the winter temperature in this region barely falls below zero. Growing the Ghost Succulent plant outside its natural environment or habitat also requires these conditions to be fulfilled.
You can grow it in very cold regions, and also not in very hot regions. But if you do so, you will have to protect your plant from cold during winter and hot during summer. It will also impact the flowering and growth patterns of the plant as well. In the natural habitat, Ghost Succulent plant grows on sandy soil that is nutrient-rich. So, if you are planting it outside its natural habitat, make sure to plant it in sandy soil that contains all the nutrients for its growth.
Facts
Here are some of the basic facts about Echeveria lilacina
- The Ghost Succulent plant is known as the Echeveria lilacina.
- It is native to the Northern parts of Mexico that are not very warm nor very cold.
- The Echeveria lilacina or Ghost Succulent plant grows small flowers of multiple colors.
- Ghost Succulent plant has four different varieties of hybrids that can be grown worldwide. Each of these has its flower color, leaf pattern, and plant size.
- The Ghost Succulent plant has a very beautiful rosette formation in its leaves, that is why it looks like a silvery rose flower.
Requirements to Grow Echeveria lilacina
| Soil | Sandy, well-draining, and nutrient-rich. |
| Sun | Full sun to partial shade. |
| Water | Provide water once the soil becomes dry. |
| Fertilizer | Feed every 30 to 40 days. |
Soil Requirements
The Ghost Succulent plant needs soil that has all the basic elements for growth in it. It requires nutrient-rich soil to grow. Apart from nutrients, the soil must be neutral or slightly acidic. The Ghost Succulent plant thrives in well-draining soil, while if the soil is not well-draining, it can kill the plant. The Ghost Succulent plant should be grown in soil that has a higher content of sand in it. Sand makes this soil well-draining and allows it to quickly drain the water.
If you are making your soil at home, you should mix the sand and soil in proportion. After that, add some layers of pumice and perlite to the pot. Above these, add a mixture of soil and sand. You can also add compost to your soil mixture to make it more nutrients rich. Adding fertilizer will also provide more nutrients. You can spread this type of soil over the layers of pumice and perlite. Pumice and perlite will hold sand and soil, meanwhile allowing only the water to escape from the pot. In this type of soil, your Ghost Succulent plant will thrive and grow faster.
Sunlight Requirements
The Echeveria lilacina is a succulent plant, and that is why it has similar sunlight requirements. It needs a full to partial shade environment to grow and thrive. It can also be grown indoors. The Echeveria lilacina or Ghost Succulent plant needs full sunlight exposure during most of the year. But on very hot summer days, it needs protection from extreme ultraviolet sunlight exposure. If you are growing it indoors, you must keep it somewhere bright as it needs direct or indirect sunlight to grow. Keeping it closer to a window facing east.
You can grow the Ghost Succulent plant in a place where it faces the sunlight during the morning, and evening, meanwhile during the afternoon, it is under the shade. This kind of sunlight arrangement helps the plant to grow properly. Full sunlight exposure all day long would impact the health of the plant and might cause it to change its leaf color, other than that, there are no other side effects of full sunlight on this plant.
Temperature Requirements
The Ghost Succulent plant is a plant that needs moderate temperatures to grow. Its native environment has a temperature range between -4 to 10 degrees Celsius. This is not a very cold nor very warm temperature. Growing it outside its natural habitat also requires the temperature to be normal, not too high and nor too low. It is also not protected from the snow. So, if you are growing it in a very cold region, you will have to protect it from cold temperatures. You can keep it indoors to protect during the winters if you are living in a very cold region.
But, if you are growing the Ghost Succulent plant in a warm area, you must also protect it from very hot temperatures during the summer. You can keep it indoors to protect it from the harsh weather and temperature in hot zones. Controlling the temperature is very important, as it determines the flowering season and other growth patterns. So, if you are growing it outside its natural habitat, its flowering season might slightly change. It can flower earlier in hot zones and later in cold zones.
Water Requirements
The Ghost Succulent plant needs a regulated water supply, it does not like to be flooded all the time, nor does it like to be completely dry. You should check the soil before watering. If the soil is wet, do not water and wait for one or two more days. But if the soil is dry, you should water it. Delaying the watering after the upper layers of the soil has been dried, can lead to severe growth impacts on the plant. You can check the soil for dryness, by scratching the soil from the top layer in the pot and checking for moisture in it.
Fertilizers Requirements
The Ghost Succulent plant needs nutrients to grow. If the soil runs out of nutrients, plants would eventually die. So, you must keep feeding your plants fertilizers regularly. Fertilizers contain all the basic plant nutrients. You should buy a succulent plant fertilizer for the Ghost Succulent plant and feed it. You can create a mixture of fertilizer and water and feed it to your plant after every 30 to 40 days.
Repotting
The Ghost Succulent plant does not need frequent repotting, you can occasionally do it once it outgrows the pot it is kept in. You should replace the soil with fresh soil, and add more nutrients. After that, you can uproot and replant the Ghost Succulent plant.
Pruning
The Ghost Succulent plant requires minimal pruning. You can prune its leaves and branches after the flowering season ends. Instead of pruning it, you should use its leaves and offshoots for the propagation of the plant. Below is given the procedure for propagation.
Problems
The Ghost Succulent plants may be attacked by the common pests of succulent plants. You can get rid of them by spraying pesticides.
Propagation
The Ghost Succulent plant is propagated using three different methods, offshoots separation and replanting, cuttings, and seeds. You can collect the seeds during spring and plant them after letting them dry. Water these seeds and they will sprout in a few days. Another method of propagation requires the separation of the offshoots that grow from the mother plant. You can separate them and replant them in new pots. The third method requires taking cuttings from a mature Ghost Succulent plant and keeping them in the rooting hormone. These cuttings will develop some roots and then you can replant them.
