Echeveria 'Lola'

The Echeveria ‘Lola’ features a beautiful, sculpted rosette in delicate pastel tones that vary with the season. It is a sought-after succulent plant for interior decoration. It is happy placed on a windowsill, in a frost-free conservatory, or on a shelf in an office. Undemanding in water and easy to care for, it appeals to beginners as well as collectors of succulent plants.

Echeveria belongs to the Crassulaceae family. The genus includes plants native to dry regions, mainly from Mexico and, more broadly, from Central America and neighbouring zones.
‘Lola’ is a horticultural hybrid obtained in California by Dick Wright, around 1980; it is presented as a cross-breeding between Echeveria lilacina and E. 'Tippy’, but other sources mention E. derenbergii as a parent. The plant forms a rosette 15 to 20 cm in diameter, borne on a very short stem. Its growth is rather slow indoors. The thick, smooth leaves, spatulate to slightly pointed in shape, display grey-blue to lilac tones, covered with a light bloom. In spring and summer, the mature rosette may develop a fairly short flower spike bearing bell-shaped flowers in yellow-orange. Over time, it is common for the lower leaves to dry out and then fall off: the rosette then becomes slightly "elevated" on a small stem. Conversely, if light is lacking, the plant stretches more, the leaves become spaced out and the stem becomes very visible: this is etiolation, a sign that light levels need to be significantly increased.
Echeverias are considered non-toxic for cats and dogs, although it is preferable to avoid nibbling.

Indoors, provide it with very bright light, a rather dry atmosphere, and a temperature range between 15 and 28 °C. In winter, it is preferable not to go below 10 °C. It is an easy plant if its need for light and its sensitivity to excess moisture are respected. It thrives particularly well near a glazed berry, in a bright kitchen, a light office, or a frost-free conservatory.
Outdoors, it can be placed outside when temperatures exceed 10 °C, in a spot in full sun and sheltered from rain, but must be brought back indoors in autumn as soon as night-time temperatures reach 8°C.

Echeveria 'Lola' can be placed in a terracotta pot or a low stone bowl: its rosette maintains a neat habit there, and its colour stands out well against light-coloured gravel. It is also suitable for "desert" displays with minerals, pumice, and some graphic elements on a shelf. Play with volumes and textures with a star-shaped Astrophytum myriostigma and Mammillaria elongata f. cristata with its tight, almost mineral-like crests. If you like flowering, Echinopsis subdenudata will offer large white trumpets if the conditions are right. As a contrast, use Crassula ovata which forms a small shrub.