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Paddle Plant Makes A Beautiful, Easy Care Houseplant

ByNell Foster Published on

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.

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

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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?

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

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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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37 Comments

  1. Hi Sarah – My Kalanchoe thrysofilia flowers have scent. To the best of my understanding, K. luciae flowers don’t have a scent. These plants are very similar in form but vary in coloration. Nell

  2. Hi there!

    So I have a very happy paddle plant in my college dorm room but I noticed the lower leaves are starting to brown and shrivel up. Do I need to pull these off/do anything or just let them be?

    Thank you 🙂

  3. Hi Hannah – What a great plant for your dorm room! The lower leaves eventually die off on this plant – it’s just how it grows. You can gently pull them off now or wait until they’re totally brown. Nell

  4. Hi Nell, I a Flapjack (not sure if it’s K. thrysifolia or luciae, but over the four months it developed an extra-chalky substance on the edge of leaves and the leaves were looking a bit droopy. I haven’t been able to find any descriptions of such a blight anywhere else but you seem knowledgeable and I hope you can advise. A few other things to know: I kept the plant outdoors but away from bright light for the first two months (bad I know). Then I repotted it into a shallow but wide terra outta dish using pretty rich potting soil (also bad). I moved it indoors to a north facing window. I haven’t over-watered. Today I took it back of the pot, sprayed off the white stuff and will put it in a tighter pot with more sand and in a MUCH brighter window. Can you tell me though what that white stuff was? Will my solutions fix it? I have a houseplant insecticide spray if needed. Thanks!

  5. Hi Lauren – If it’s chalky & powdery like you say, it’s could the protective coating these Kalanchoes develop to aid them in retaining water. Mine always got it outside. Powdery mildew is also common on these plants, especially indoors, due to be kept too moist. You say the leaves are drooping, but only a bit. But, powdery mildew isn’t “chalky”. Check out pictures of these 2 causes to determine which it is. Nell

  6. Hi Nell, keep up the good work with the blog and your youtube channel. Is it possible to propagate the paddle plant in December by stem or leaf cutting? Thank you.

  7. Thank you John. Spring & summer are the best times to propagate succulents (& most plants) but you can really do it at any time of year. My Paddle Plant is taking over my mixed succulent pot so I’ll take the cuttings sometime in January. Nell

  8. I live in west Tx and have brought my red pancake kalonchoes inside for the winter. They have grown a stalk abt 5 ft tall with the tiny little yellow flowers. Will I need to cut the stalk off at some point? Thank you.

  9. Hi Nancy – Yes, I always cut the bloom off because leaving it on can cause the plant to become spindly. I’ve found the longer you leave it on, the more babies will be produced. Nell

  10. hello! what do you do with the parent plant after removing the pup from the stalk? do you let the incision callous out as well before repotting or can you dab some cinnamon on it and repot without callousing over? thank you!

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