Mystery succulent growing quickly and dying at the same time
by Harriet
(Rhode Island)
Hi!
I got this succulent for my birthday in early July and I really love it. It was from a small garden shop and didn't come with a label to identify exactly what type of succulent it is -- I liked it because its so different than my other plants but it's uniqueness is making it a struggle for me to figure out what it is.
I've been keeping it on my porch with my other plants and for a while it seemed to be doing very well. It has a main stem as well as three smaller babies now. All of them are growing very rapidly (these pictures are from a couple weeks ago and its grown even bigger since!)
The problem I'm having is that while the top leaves and the stems seem to be very healthy and happy the bottom leaves keep dying. They start at the tips and slowly dry up and shrivel out, eventually falling off. It's happening on both the large plant and the small baby plants. You can kind of see it starting to happen in the pictures. Since its growing so tall the plant now has a large amount of bare stem before its healthy looking leaves.
I've tried to look up online and in some of the books I have exactly what type of succulent this is so I can figure out whats wrong with it, but so far I've had no luck. Most sites I've found have made me think it might be an Echeveria but I'm not sure. The top of the plant has never really looked like a rosette -- the leaves dont grow that close together and they're all pretty large. I'm afraid to try to propagate it before knowing what it is. I'm also nervous about propagating because the baby plants that are growing naturally are already growing in the same fashion as the large stem (growing tall rapidly, with the bottom leaves dying off).
I'm also not sure if this is simply how the plant should grow normally or if I have been caring for it wrong. I first thought that I was watering it too much -- around once a week -- but I'm letting it go with no water and it isn't improving.
Any advice would be super helpful and hopefully I can figure out how to deal with my poor little plant!
