Paddle Plant Makes A Beautiful, Easy Care Houseplant

I have a patch of Paddle Plants (aka Red Pancakes, Flapjack Plant and Desert Cabbage) growing in my front garden, but did you know they an interesting yet easy houseplant?  Yup, it’s true. I bought this plant direct from the grower right here in Santa Barbara 8 years ago as Kalanchoe thrysifolia but now they say on their website it’s actually Kalanchoe luciae.  This happens in the world of plants, but regardless of the botanic name, this plant is 1 to consider if you have bright light and can practice restraint with the liquid love.

here’s that red edging on those scalloped leaves which makes this plant so desirable – you need lots of light to bring it out

Some Of Our General Houseplant Guides For Your Reference:

• Guide To Watering Indoor Plants
• Beginner’s Guide To Repotting Plants
• 3 Ways To Successfully Fertilize Indoor Plants
• How to Clean Houseplants
• Winter Houseplant Care Guide
• Plant Humidity: How I Increase Humidity For Houseplants
• Buying Houseplants: 14 Tips For Indoor Gardening Newbies
• 11 Pet-Friendly Houseplants

Find out lots more here:

Here’s  my paddle plant patch in the front garden which provides me with lots of cuttings.  The 1 that you see in these pics and the video is taken from there.  As an experiment, it has lives half of the year inside and half of the year outside.

This is the 411 on taking care of them indoors:

Light:

As bright as possible, near a west or south window, but not in it.  It’ll burn up against the glass or in the window.

Water:

As I said, be stingy – overwatering will rot this plant out in no time. Wait until the soil has almost completely dried out  until you water it again.  And with all houseplants, water less in the winter.

Temperature:

As I always say, if your house is comfortable to you, it’ll be comfortable to your plants. And because this is a succulent, the dry air won’t bother it at all.

Fertilizer:

Once a year is just fine, preferably in spring . You can use whatever organic fertilizer you use on your other houseplants like Organics RX.

Pests:

Mealybugs are what you have too look out for followed by aphids. You can find out more about these pests & how to control them in my book Keep Your Houseplants Alive.

This Kalanchoe luciae will grow slowly indoors, but if you’re patient, it’s definitely worth the wait.  If you travel a lot this plant is a good choice because of its low water and care needs. No need to fuss over this gem of a plant.  Have any of you grown the Paddle Plant (aka Red Pancakes, Flapjack Plant, Desert Cabbage) as a houseplant?

when those babies (or pups) get big enough you can remove them if you’d like to propagate more plants

here’s my patch – as you can see, outdoors they happily clump & spread

In case you’re interested, here are a couple of how to’s I did on propagating & planting your cuttings:

Propagating Succulents

Planting Succulent Cuttings

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Nell Foster

Nell, the founder of Joy Us garden, was born into a gardening family and grew up in Connecticut’s countryside. After living in Boston, New York, San Francisco, & Santa Barbara, she now calls the Arizona desert home. She studied horticulture & garden design, working in the field all her life. Nell is a gardener, designer, blogger, Youtube creator, & author. She’s been gardening for a very long time & wants to share what she’s learned with you.

www.joyusgarden.com/about/

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