I have been seriously thinking of buying one of the above - am fascinated by the colorful leaves - not particularly interested in blooms.Will be growing them indoors during cold months and moving them to sunny patio in summer.

I also enjoy growing plants from seeds - as opposed to starting with purchased plants. Would appreciate comments from anyone experienced in growing these plants as well as recomendations as to vendors for plants and seeds.

K. luciae is vastly more common than K. thyrsiflora, and for practical purposes the only one of the two which is widely available in cultivation (though plenty of the former is mislabeled as the latter, including in the database here). You can easily distinguish the two at the time of flowering, if not sooner.

I have grown K. luciae for years and it is a pretty plant. Given its propensity for producing offsets, I would imagine they would be easier and much faster than seeds. In some cases you need to separate the offsets regularly (like once or twice a year) in order to ensure that the mother plant continues growing. Flowering is terminal and leads to the death of the mother plant, as well as more offsets.

Thank you, Baja, for your helpful comments. I am still reading up on this subject before making up my mind on what vendor to select.

Further discussion about the name confusion:
http://garden.org/thread/go/50...

I did not grow mine from seeds, but I find them very forgiving plants, if exposed to cold and rain, will really suffer big time, but as long as you have a good firm stem remaining, it will come back once temps go warm and dry. I truly enjoy how cold stressed they go here, very red. So just make sure you keep them dry and safe indoors during the cold season, and move to your patio as you have planned during the warm season.

I grow mine outdoors at the mercy of our weather here, our winters being mild, and with rain. I just try to make my media very well draining, so it gets time to dry out and I position my plant in the sunniest side of my patio so it can get as much sun it can:

See how the plant comes back from almost being dead:
Photo taken in March 2014 to late April 2014:




Love its stressed colors:
Apr 2010


Feb 2013


Feb 2016

Hi Tarev. Thank you for your comments and photos. Guess it might be better for me to start out with a small plant - rather than seeds. I doubt that I can find any vendors for this plant in Central US or the East coast. Have looked at San Marcos Growers and Mountain Crest websites; looking at Green Pages I see that Mountain Crest has a few recommendations but no comments on San Marcos. Would you recommend either of these nurseries for buying K luciae or do you have other nurseries you might recommend? Is it possible to buy rooted cuttings of this plant, if so where? Thanks again for your comments and photos.

Don, you'll find small plants and seeds on evil bay. If buying on ebay look at seller feedback.

Thanks, Steve, for your suggestion. Will give ebay a shot. Have never ordered anything from them but will check to see if I can find anything that appeals to me.

Hi Don, I often see kalanchoes here locally in our nearby garden stores, so they are not too difficult to find here, but they don't ship.
Online, I saw this webite: http://www.trionursery.com/sto... though I have not used them ever. You may have to consider if the shipping cost will be okay for you.

Thanks for the info, tarev. Will do some more checking around. Appreciate all the help you guys and gals provide.