Cocoa colored frilly foliage
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With a name like Echeveria ‘Chocolate Ruffles’ what else could this plant be but delicious? The very pretty spoon shaped foliage forms a loose rosette of purple and mauve mottled with pale cocoa colours.
Paler green-blue new foliage forms from the center. The edges of each leaf ruffled as the name suggests.
Care of Echeveria ‘Chocolate Ruffles’ is as for all Echeveria; a warm and bright environment for best colouring, and well drained soil – hold the lime please – Echeveria prefer a more acidic soil than most other succulents.
Water thoroughly and allow to dry between waterings.
One issue I have had with this variety is a susceptibility to mealy bugs, which infest the tightly curled new leaves in the crown, so double check this area.
Eventually, the stem will elongate, and the plant resembles a palm tree – not a look I like, so I’ll behead them and re-root the top, leaving the stem which will sometimes produce some more small rosettes which you can also propagate.
This uncommon beauty is well worth the attempt, although it doesn’t seem to be available at very many mail order nurseries, I think it deserves to be more widely sold; hopefully it will be in the future.
I find this variety somewhat slow growing and shy, so I keep it separated from other more assertive varieties. Ultimate height and spread seems to be less than 15cm (6″) each direction, so use this lovely and well behaved plant in a group of separately potted specimens.
