Check out our detailed article on How to Grow and Care for Echeveria Elegans and include this stunning succulent in your home and garden!
Do you want an easy-to-maintain succulent in your plant collection? Here’s all you need to know about growing Echeveria Elegans!
Have a look at the best Echeveria Varieties that Grow Bigger and Fuller here
Echeveria Elegans Information
Echeveria Elegans, commonly known as the Mexican Snowball or white Mexican Rose, is popular for its beauty and easy-care nature.
This succulent is native to Mexico, and its small size, easy-care nature, and adaptability make it an ideal houseplant. This succulent is rarely bothered by pests or diseases. It’s also drought-tolerant and deer-resistant. The fast-growing rosettes make Echeveria Elegans an ideal plant to use to cover the ground around larger, slow-growing succulents, like agave or aloe vera.
This succulent develops 4-6 inch rosettes that are tightly fitted together. It’s an ideal plant to use for a ground cover, green roof, or to grow in a container. The reddish-pink flower stems appear first and will grow straight up from the plant for 1 foot.
Propagation
Echeveria Elegans is self-propagating and produces new offsets around the base of the mother plant. These new offsets will form a tidy cluster and continue to spread in a container or outdoors in a warm climate to create a dense mat of living carpet.
The new offsets are easy to transplant – just scoop them out of the soil and place them wherever you want. Additionally, this succulent can be propagated by taking a stem cutting or a mature leaf and placing it into potting soil.
Requirements for Growing Echeveria Elegans
These succulents need a location that is in bright light. A full-sun outdoor location or an indoor location with a sunny windowsill would be the best. Grow lights can also be used to provide indoor plants with enough bright light each day.
If you live in a warm area, keep the plant safe from the harsh afternoon sun.
When the succulents are being grown outdoors in USDA growing zones lower than 8, it’s best to grow the plant in containers and bring them indoors for the winter.
Succulents need to be planted in well-draining gritty soil. Use potting soil specifically formulated for cacti and succulents that are 50% to 70% mineral grit, such as coarse sand, pumice, or perlite.
You can use a DIY soil mix that is created from an all-purpose potting mix, coarse sand, and/or aquarium gravel.
When planting Echeveria directly into soil outdoors, unless the soil is naturally sandy, incorporate coarse sand into the soil to enhance drainage.
Here are the best soil for succulents here
Coarse soil allows water to drain away from the plant’s roots quickly. When growing Echeveria Elegans in a container, make sure there are plenty of drainage holes in the bottom.
Water deeply enough for water to run out the drainage holes, then wait for the soil to dry fully before watering again. Echeverias are highly sensitive to overwatering, which can cause root rot and attract mealybugs. You can also use a moisture meter to be sure.
Echeveria Elegans Care
Fertilizing is not necessary but can be used to encourage faster and larger growth. Only fertilize during the growing season using a balanced liquid feed, diluted to 1/4 of its strength, once in 12-14 days.
Alternatively, you can also use a specially-formulated cactus/succulent plant food and feed one-half of the recommended amount.
Re-potting
Re-potting is not something that has to be done often, but every few years, the Echeveria Elegans may outgrow its container. If the plant outgrows its pot, gently remove it and clear away soil from its roots and place it in a larger container that is filled with fresh cactus/succulent potting mix.
Spring is the beginning of the active growing season for the plant and is the best time to repot.
Pests and Diseases
Pests rarely affect echeveria, but many succulents are sensitive to fungus gnats, mealy bugs, and spider mites. Use insecticidal soap and neem oil to get rid of these pest infestations.
Overwatering or damp conditions cause rot; when tissues rot, they become brown, red, or black and turn soggy, spreading a foul smell.
For treating root rot, take out the plant from its pot, wash the roots, cut away the dead parts, allow the plant to stay in the air for 2-3 days, and re-pot it in a new pot in fresh dry soil.
