Yesterday, I went to a succulent nursery in Whittier that I’ve been to before. It was so fun to see their selection again. They really are an amazing place.
I took a moment to stop by the table I got my tephrocactus geometricus from. There was one there that was blooming! So cool!
But then I saw something even more exciting. They had crested aeoniums!!!
I’ve been looking for them!
At first, I saw big ones in fancy pots for a lot of money. But then I saw smaller ones for reasonable prices. Woo hoo!
I got two of them. One has striped leaves:
…and the other has purply-black leaves:
So what is a crested aeonium? Cresting is when succulents sometimes experience a genetic mutation that causes their stems to fuse together or to crinkle into clumps. Here’s my dark-leaved crested aeonium again, this time followed by a picture of a regular aeonium:
See the difference? The mutation doesn’t happen a lot, so it’s harder to find. Once you have a crested plant, you can take cuttings though. I suspect these are going to get more and more common.
Awww…. I’m so glad you love the mutants! You’re like Professor X!