Echeveria agavoides Ebony

Echeveria agavoides 'Ebony' is a small succulent plant with a rosette or several very compact rosettes of fleshy green-grey leaves with dark red tips and margins that become chocolate or even dark purple, almost black. It offers an even more contrasting coloration if it benefits from strong sun exposure. This perennial has rapid growth and compact dimensions that are perfect for ornamenting small dry and sunny rockeries or terrace pots. In spring or summer, it bears erect and arched clusters of small reddish-pink bell-shaped flowers, margined with bright yellow. Not very hardy and resistant to drought, grow it in rockeries in the Mediterranean or in pots in the sun or in bright semi-shade in well-drained, sandy to rocky, dry but not too wet soil.

Echeveria agavoides is a succulent perennial that belongs to the family of Crassulaceae, celebrated for its very graphic rosettes of leaves, equipped with small spines in the manner of Agaves. Native to dry and rocky areas in central Mexico, it is a species that especially fears excess water, requiring well-drained soil with a mineral tendency and a sunny exposure. Very resistant to drought, it thrives better with some watering in summer. The plant tolerates little frost (up to -2°C (28.4°F)) and is mainly grown in pots that are stored indoors, protected from frost, from late autumn. Some privileged areas in the Mediterranean region can still accommodate this plant in dry rockeries and slopes.

Echeveria agavoides 'Ebony' is a horticultural variety that stands out for its ornamental colouration, green-grey with reddish tips and margins turning to chocolate and then dark purple. It is a succulent perennial plant with a slightly spreading habit, with a solitary rosette or several dense rosettes forming a small tuft. With rapid growth, it reaches only 15cm (6in) in height and a maximum spread of 30cm (12in). The leaves are fleshy, triangular, thicker and sharper than in other Echeveria. The spiny tips have a more intense, almost black colour. Flowering occurs in spring or summer depending on the cultivation conditions. It takes the form of bright bell-shaped flowers, reddish-pink with a golden yellow edge, grouped along non-fragrant peduncles in clusters.

Plant Echeveria agavoides 'Ebony' in a rockery, on a well-drained slope, or at the edge of a flowerbed if your garden is located by the sea, where frost does not exceed -2°C (28.4°F), in the company of Cape Aster Felicia amelloides, Delospermas, and purslanes that appreciate the same environments. Elsewhere, you can plant it in a nice pot or container, alone or in combination with other succulent plants like Sempervivums, for example.