Evan's favorite

I am not sure which one I would have expected to be my husband's favorite plant in my somewhat broad indoor/outdoor collection of flowers, but it is definitely not this one:

Evan's favorite plant, also known more formally as Kalenchoe blossfeldiana, is a type of succulent, of a larger family of Kalenchoe plants.  In fact, if you have a good memory, you might recall that I actually have another type of Kalenchoe plant, of the magical notoriety.

And just in case you don't believe me, here is another picture of it as a baby.  See, it's written right there on the pot.  

Anyhow, these are actually quite popular as gifts, so you have probably seen them at your local Whole Foods.  In the past, I had actually always seen them in their single petalled version, like so (sources here and here):

I did not actually become aware that they existed in this other multiple petalled type until we went to the Keukenhof where in addition to tons of tulips outside, they were also having a flower show.  One of the flowers featured was the Kalenchoe blossfeldiana.  And it was here that Evan decided he liked them.

Wow! And in Dutch orange!

In the interest of keeping things short and sweet, I will not say too much about them.  I'm feeling bullet points today...  blooming Kalenchoe care:

• They're easy to grow with long-lasting flowers--  a great starter plant
• Plant in well-drained soil (preferably cactus mix)
• Lots of sunshine (they're succulents, remember)
• Not too much water, especially if they're not flowering (they're a succulents!)
• When the blooms turn brown, cut them off so that they will re-flower
• They generally rebloom in the spring, but there are ways to "force" reblooming by altering how much light/dark they are exposed to.  (That's Kalenchoe advanced, so we'll save it for another time.)

And that's all you really need to know to keep your Kalenchoe alive!  After all of the flowers turned brown, Evan insisted that it had died and we should throw it away.  Fortunately, however, I trimmed the dead blooms, and sure enough, it rebloomed (and I didn't even have to wait until spring!).  So it's still his favorite.

Look how much it's grown!

Finally, here's the track of the day, both because it is also Evan's current favorite (he has good taste-- this woman can sing) and because my brother-in-law and very soon to be sister-in-law are getting married this weekend.  Congrats Cal and Rachel!