Echeveria derenbergii
There are many types of echeverias to choose from, but if you want one that has beautiful blue rosettes with leaves outlined in red and a spreading growth habit, put painted lady echeveria on your short list!
With the right care routine, these botanical beauties will make gorgeous houseplants and develop a low-growing spread out in the landscape.
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Like all echeverias, painted lady is easy to grow, whether in a pot on your windowsill or out in the landscape in suitable regions.
Our guide to growing echeveria covers how to cultivate these delightful succulents. In this article, we’ll discuss how to grow painted lady, Echeveria derenbergii.
Ready for a peek at what we’ll cover?
What You’ll Learn
Painted lady echeverias (Echeveria derenbergii) are evergreen succulents with leaves that form in clusters of low-growing rosettes.
Those leaves are spade shaped with pointed tips. And when exposed to bright light, the leaf margins and tips become outlined with a lovely burgundy color, inspiring the species’ common name.
This slow-growing species has a spreading, mounding growth habit.
E. derenbergii produces rosettes that are three to four inches tall and wide, on clumping plants that can spread from 12 to 36 inches wide.
Like other blue succulents, the foliage of this echeveria species has a layer of epicuticular wax – also known as farina – which gives it a blue tint, and helps to protect the leaves from sun, pests, and disease.
The bell-shaped flowers are yellow and red, appearing in winter or spring.
There’s another succulent in the same genus, E. nodulosa, that sometimes goes by the same common name as the subject of our article, but is more often known as painted echeveria.
Whereas E. derenbergii looks like its leaves were delicately outlined by a steady hand, the foliage of painted echeveria looks like it has been drawn on hastily with a broad tipped marker, widely outlining both the leaf margins and asymmetrical petal shapes on the centers of the leaves.
Quick Look
Common name(s): Painted lady echeveria
Plant type: Evergreen succulent
Hardiness (USDA Zone): 9-12 (outdoors)
Native to: Southwest Mexico
Bloom time / season: Winter, spring
Exposure: Full sun to light shade
Soil type: Gritty, well-draining succulent and cactus growing medium
Soil pH: 5.6-7.8, acidic to alkaline
Time to maturity: Up to 4 years
Mature size: 12-36 inches wide x 3-4 inches high (includes entire “clump” of plants)
Best uses: Houseplants, rock gardens, fairy gardens, xeriscapes, and planters
Taxonomy
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Genus: Echeveria
Species: Derenbergii
Painted lady echeveria is a naturally occurring species, whose native range is in arid locations in southwestern Mexico.
This echeveria species was classified botanically in 1921, and is a member of the Crassulaceae or stonecrop family.
It’s related to other popular succulents you might be familiar with, including hens and chicks, jade plant, kalanchoe, and donkey’s tail.
Recognized for its ornamental characteristics, painted lady echeveria was honored with the RHS Award of Garden Merit in 1993.
These succulents can be cultivated indoors with sufficient light, or grown outdoors year round in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 12.
How to Grow Painted Lady Echeveria
Caring for painted lady echeveria is pretty simple, if you provide the conditions this species requires.
Light
Let’s start with sunlight, because if you get that right, it will be easier to manage the rest of this plant’s needs.
Adequate sunlight is also what will bring out the beautiful red hues of the leaf margins.
Painted lady echeveria plants need at least six hours of direct sunlight per day.
However, it’s also a good idea to situate these succulents where they will receive some light shade during the hottest part of the day during the summer months.
If you aren’t growing these succulents outdoors year round, choose a sunny, south-facing window, and turn the plants each time you water.
You may also need to supplement with a grow light, since even sunny, south-facing windows don’t usually receive full sun all year long.
To check that the plant is receiving the right amount of light, you may want to use a light meter.
You’ll want to make sure that these plants are receiving at least 800 foot candles for six hours or more.
There are different types of light meters to choose from, depending on which light sources you are using.
Soil
Next, let’s talk about soil because your watering routine will be a failure if the potting medium you choose isn’t right.
What do these plants want? Drainage, drainage, drainage!
If you want to make your own succulent potting soil, I recommend a mix of 50 to 70 percent gritty mineral content and the rest organic matter. The soil should have a pH of 5.6 to 7.8.
For the organic matter part, I like to start with one of my favorite peat-free, all-purpose houseplant growing mediums, Rosy Soil Houseplant Mix.
Rosy Soil Houseplant Mix is available in four- or eight-quart bags from Rosy Soil via Walmart.
For the grit, mineral ingredients such as coarse sand, lava rocks, and pumice will all work nicely.
If you don’t already have any on hand, you can pick up a bag of 1/8-inch horticultural pumice from General Pumice Pro
If you have a bag of cactus and succulent soil on hand and want to use it, go ahead and amend it with some grit.
Too much grit won’t hurt but too much organic matter can lead to oversaturated soil.
Water
Wait until the potting medium has dried out completely before watering.
When you water, you want to do so deeply until the liquid comes out of the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot.
I like to place the pot in a bowl and pour water evenly over the growing medium using a watering can.
Repeat, then allow the pot to drain thoroughly.
Learn more about watering succulents here.
Temperature and Humidity
The ideal temperature range for painted lady echeverias is between 60 to 80°F. Watch out for cold spells – these are only cold hardy down to 15 to 20°F.
Humidity levels between 40 to 50 percent are sufficient.
If the humidity in your home is higher than that, you can compensate by providing more air flow.
Are you cultivating these plants in your yard year round? Find tips for growing succulents outdoors here.
Where to Buy
If your local garden nursery has a decent succulent offering, they may carry this plant among their selections.
Luckily, painted lady echeveria is also fairly easy to find online.
You can find plants available in two-inch square pots via Amazon.
Maintenance
There are a few other maintenance tasks besides providing adequate light and water that you’ll want to do to take care of a painted lady echeveria.
Repotting
Let’s start with repotting. If the plant is rootbound, planted in the wrong type of growing medium, or its been two or three years since you last changed out the potting soil, go ahead and repot.
Only increase the pot size if the plant’s roots fill the container its currently growing in. Otherwise, repot it into the same size container.
Fill the new container with growing medium leaving half an inch to one inch of space from the rim of the container.
Poke a hole in the center of the growing medium, then insert the plant’s roots. For larger specimens, use the tines of a for to gently loosen up the outer edges of the root ball.
If you’re changing to a new type of potting medium, try to remove as much of the old medium from around the root ball as possible.
Next place a shallow layer of growing medium in the bottom of the pot.
Hold the echeveria in the pot with one hand, and use the other to fill in around it with potting medium. Cover the root ball, but not the plant’s foliage.
Rather than watering right away, allow the plant to settle in to its new container for a week.
Fertilizing
As with most other succulents, a little gentle fertilizer will encourage robust growth.
But it’s important to apply it only during the growing season and to use a gentle fertilizer formulated for succulents.
I recommend Dr. Earth’s Succulence Cactus and Succulent Plant Food, available in 16-ounce pump bottles via Arbico Organics.
Read our guide to fertilizing succulents for more tips.
Seed Saving
If blooms form, once they fade you can prune them off with a pair of sterilized garden snips.
If you’re interested in saving seeds, first inspect the flowers and make sure they have been pollinated.
Pollinated echeveria flower petals will fade and you’ll see star shaped seed pods that swell and turn from green to brown.
When flowers have faded or all seeds have been harvested, you can snip off the flower spike close to the rosette.
In addition to these maintenance tasks, when handling the plant, avoid touching the foliage with your hands as oil from your skin can damage the protective farina.
Painted Lady Echeveria Propagation
Your options for propagating this succulent include growing from seed, leaf cuttings, stem cuttings, or offsets.
We’ll provide guidance for each of these propagation methods, as well as directions for transplanting.
From Seed
Let’s start with propagating new specimens from seed!
Before you sow, you’ll need to make sure you have the right ingredients to make a growing medium.
For painted lady echeverias, you’ll need a growing medium that is grittier than the typical succulent and houseplant growing medium, as discussed above.
To sow seeds, prepare a small nursery pot with growing medium, sprinkle the seeds onto the surface of the medium, and moisten with a spray bottle.
Keep the pot or tray on a heat mat and under a humidity dome, and keep the growing medium moist until the seeds have germinated.
Then acclimate the young seedlings to ambient conditions and wait about a year before transplanting them.
Learn more about propagating succulents from seed here.
From Leaf Cuttings
Painted lady echeveria can also be propagated from leaf cuttings.
To do this, remove a leaf from the bottom of the rosette, then allow the wound to callus over for around a week.
Small, hair-like roots may also form at the wound during this time.
Once the leaf has a callused wound and possibly roots as well, place it horizontally in a two-inch pot filled with growing medium, and spray the medium with a water bottle, so that itis moist but not soggy.
A plantlet will grow at the leaf wound.
Want to learn more about propagating succulents from leaf cuttings? Read our guide!
From Stem Cuttings
Stem cuttings can also be harvested to grow new specimens.
- Using a clean, sterilized pair of garden snips, take a four- to six-inch long cutting including a rosette and a length of stem.
- Trim the cutting so that there’s about one inch of stem left below the rosette.
- Place the cutting in a dry location out of direct sunlight for about a week to allow the wound to callus over.
- Once the wound has callused, fill a three- or four-inch nursery pot with growing medium, poke a hole in the middle of the medium, and insert the stem.
Rather than watering right away, wait a week.
From Offsets
E. derenbergii produces offsets around the base of the mother plant, and these can be separated to grow new echeveria specimens.
Remove an offset from the mother plant, allow it to callus over for a week, then plant it in a small nursery pot filled with potting medium.
Give the offset a week to acclimate to its new set up before watering it.
Learn more about propagating succulent offsets in our guide.
Transplanting
If you have brought home a potted plant from the store or your seedlings or offsets are ready for transplanting, follow the guidance in the repotting section above to transplant into new containers.
Managing Pests and Disease
Are you keeping your painted lady echeveria outdoors year round or during the summer months?
This plant will resist both deer and rabbits, and isn’t particularly bothered by insect pests either, particularly if you remove dead leaves and flowers.
However, there are a few pests to keep your eye out for: scale, mealybugs, and succulent mites.
Succulent mites can be particularly difficult to see, but the damage they inflict causes discolored foliage.
Learn more about identifying and controlling succulent mites in our guide.
As for disease, the one you’re most likely to encounter is rot.
What causes succulents like painted lady echeveria to rot? It happens when we’re not getting those basic needs right: the proper combination of water, light, and drainage.
If your succulent is rotting, go back and review the how to grow section of this article to make sure you’re providing the right amount of light, water, and drainage.
And to learn more about how to deal with rotting succulents, read our guide.
Best Uses for Painted Lady Echeveria
Painted lady echeverias can make wonderful houseplants as long as you provide at least six hours of direct sunlight, or the equivalent from a grow light.
They are considered nontoxic, so are ideal if your household includes vegetation-munching felines or toddlers that can’t stop putting things into their mouths.
Feeling whimsical? Why not include one in a succulent fairy garden?
Outdoors in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 12, these xerophytes can also be used as ground covers in rock gardens or xeriscapes.
Portrait of a Lady
If you provide plenty of sunlight and drainage, and allow the potting medium to dry thoroughly between waterings, you shouldn’t have to worry about this lady breaking your heart!
Do you have any of your own observations to add to this portrait? Let us know in the comments section below. And if you have any questions, feel free to drop them there as well – we’ll be happy to try to help you!
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