Echeveria Imbricata (Blue Rose) Succulent Care and Propagation

Despite the name Blue Rose, the Echeveria imbricata is not a rose at all. It’s a succulent that looks like one and produces rosettes. This succulent is beautiful and easy to grow and propagate as long as you meet its simple care requirements.

Echeveria imbricata or the Blue Rose is a self-propagating plant that is simple and convenient to care for. It thrives well with bright light and moderate watering in fast-draining soil. You can let it self-propagate through offsets or propagate it in the spring through leaf cuttings.

This succulent is a gorgeous plant that has soft coloring and grows consistently. The remainder of this article will explain how to care for the Echeveria imbricata and discuss some propagation methods.

How To Care for the Echeveria Imbricata

The Echeveria imbricata is an attractive plant. It’s also known as the Blue Rose because of its light blue, grey, and pink leaves that look like a rose from a bird’s-eye-view.

This succulent is extremely undemanding when it comes to growth and maintenance needs. It has three basic requirements for survival: bright sunlight, moderate water, and rich soil. Keep reading to learn about each of these requirements.

Follow a Regular Watering Schedule

The Blue Rose succulent is native to Mexico, so it’s used to hot temperatures and little water. As a result, this succulent can survive periods of drought and doesn’t require a robust watering schedule.

The Blue Rose succulent should be watered once every two weeks if planted indoors under stable temperatures. It should also be grown in a pot with appropriate drainage holes. That way, the plant can drain any excess water and dry out thoroughly before its next watering.

As with most succulents, the Blue Rose succulent doesn’t do well when overwatered. The roots can only absorb so much before they begin to get soggy in the soil and rot. Root rot can severely injure and eventually kill your plant.

Keep it Under Suitable Sunlight Conditions

This succulent thrives in full sunlight, but it can also survive in areas with partial shade. The Blue Rose succulent can be grown outdoors to get the amount of sunlight it needs.

Ideally, you should provide your succulent with at least 6 hours of bright sunlight every day. Placing it in an east-facing garden during summer or next to a south-facing window during the winter should give it all the light it needs.

The Echeveria imbricata won’t do well in a north-facing garden or window because it receives the least amount of sunlight throughout the day. Under such conditions, the rosettes won’t appear as full and rounded as they should. The plant may also become leggy.

Grow the Plant in Rich and Fast-Draining Soil

This succulent doesn’t enjoy sitting in standing water. The Echeveria imbricata will thrive if your pot has enough drainage holes and a well-draining substrate.

In the garden, using sandy soil or mixing soil and pebbles will improve drainage. In pots, you can also line the bottom of the container with rocks, which will help keep excess water away from the roots.

Additionally, Echeveria Imbricata grows well when there is some type of fertilizer mixed into its soil. You can add appropriate succulent fertilizer to the soil during the growing season to keep the plant happy.

It’s often interesting to plant the Blue Rose succulent with other plants. It looks incredibly unique when planted in the same pot with different varieties of succulent plants. Just ensure that the companion succulents have similar soil, water, and light requirements.

Observe Proper Pruning and Winter Care

The Blue Rose succulent can grow rather large, and in order to maintain its gorgeous shape, it will need to be pruned regularly.

Additionally, because this succulent grows best in hot climates (like those of Mexico), it can only be grown outdoors in hardiness zones 9-11. It can’t survive in cold temperatures and thus will need specific winter care.

Pruning Echeveria Imbricata

The old leaves will often fall off on their own, so pruning isn’t entirely necessary for this succulent. However, leaving the dead foliage on the plant will make it harder for the plant to adjust to a new environment, especially before transplanting it.

You should prune the Blue Rose succulent before transplanting it from the garden to an indoor pot. Always sanitize your shears or scissors to remove any dead or dying leaves from the plant.

You can also prune the plant during spring and summer by removing spent flowers. It will encourage fresh flowers to bloom.

Winter Care for Echeveria Imbricata

If your succulent is planted outdoors in a garden, it’s necessary to bring it in for the winter months so it doesn’t die. The plant will still go dormant for this time of year, meaning it will not need quite as much water.

To unearth the Blue Rose plant, you will need the following:

Gardening gloves
A trowel or garden spade
A prepared pot to transfer the plant

Every plant develops a root ball or a ball of connective roots a few inches beneath the ground. It’s necessary to pull out the root ball along with the plant during the transplant process.

Follow the steps below when transplanting the Blue Rose succulent into a pot before winter:

Prepare the new pot for your succulent. Fill the pot ¼ of the way with nutrient-rich soil and keep it nearby to make the transfer easier.
Push the trowel straight into the soil about an inch (2.54 cm) away from the stem of your succulent. You should locate the root ball a few inches into the soil (depending on the size). Do this around the entire circumference of the stem. Slowly and gently pry the root ball out from the soil, along with the succulent, and make the transfer into the prepared pot.
Fill the pot the rest of the way with soil and bring the plant inside for the winter. Remember to use a well-draining succulent potting mix to prevent the soil from staying moist for too long during the cold season.
Keep the pot next to a southern glass window during the day to give it enough light. Ensure that the windows are closed to avoid cold drafts that can injure the plant.
Water the succulent thoroughly to keep the plant hydrated. Wait until the soil is dry before adding water. Echeveria imbricata typically needs to be watered about once a month in winter.

Treat Plant Pest Infestations

This succulent doesn’t often contract any fatal diseases, but it can occasionally deal with pests. Common plant pests like aphids and mealybugs love feeding on the fleshy foliage of the Blue Rose succulent.

Keep an eye out for these pests whether you have indoor or outdoor plants. If your Blue Rose plant has pests, there are a few things you can do to treat it. Here’s how:

Separate the infested plant from any others. These pests are notorious for being incredibly contagious. They will gladly move on to the neighboring plants if given the opportunity.
Bring your potted plant to the bathroom. Place it in the bathtub, isolated from others. This is where you can complete the plant’s treatment.
Use rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball to wipe away all of the mealybugs you can see. Once you’ve removed all of the visible ones, spray a mixture of rubbing alcohol, water, and dish soap on the entire plant.

Other pest infestations require a similar treatment. Insecticidal soap or water are common substances to spray your infested plant with.

Slugs and snails are sometimes reported as a nuisance with outdoor Blue Roses. Manually removing and relocating them elsewhere should help. You’ll have to keep a close eye on your succulent to remove any new ones.

Propagating the Echeveria Imbricata

The best time to propagate the Blue Rose is in spring or early summer. Propagating the Echeveria imbricata is simple. You can choose a healthy leaf and grow a new plant.

Here are the different ways to do so:

Propagating Blue Rose Cuttings in Soil

Remove some of the leaves from the mother plant. You can do this by twisting them gently or cutting them with sanitized scissors.
Allow the leaves to dry out so that the ends of the stems are callous. This may take several days.
Place the calloused end in well-draining soil. Cover about ½ – 1 inch (1.25-2.5 cm) of each leaf with soil.
Keep the soil moist and wait. The succulent will start to grow an entirely new plant from the upper ends of the leaves you put in the soil.

Rooting the Blue Rose Succulent in Water

Soak the lower inch (2.5 cm) of the leaf in a clear glass of distilled water. The salt in tap water might damage the cutting.
Secure the leaf so it doesn’t drown in water. Ensure that the leaf doesn’t touch the bottom of the glass.
Replace the water every three days. Keep an eye on the water level to make sure that the bottom of the leaf is always hydrated. Otherwise, it won’t grow roots.
Wait for 1 to 2 weeks for it to sprout roots. Once the roots reach about 2 inches (5 cm) long, you can transplant the young plant into the soil.

Echeveria Imbricata Can Self-Propagate

The Blue Rose succulent is a slow-growing plant. It can grow up to 20 cm (8 in) tall and 15 cm (6 in) wide.

The older the plants get, the more their older leaves produce a red outline along the edges. This gives the succulent a glowing look from the bottom up, which is quite appealing.

Mature Blue Rose succulents will also produce their own flowers multiple times in their lifetime. The flowers grow on long stems from the center of the plant.

One Blue Rose succulent usually grows three to four flowers at a time, with tall pink stems that stick straight up into the air.

When your Echeveria imbricata exhibits the changes mentioned above, it’s a sign that it has fully matured. Over time, the mature succulent will grow smaller rosettes called offsets. These offsets have their own root systems and can be transplanted into new pots to grow new plants.

While this is nice because the plant will self-propagate, it can also be slightly invasive. You’ll need to remove any of these new succulents if you don’t want them to spread in your garden.

Of course, if your Echeveria imbricata is in a pot, it can only self-propagate so much before it overcrowds the planter. Occasional pruning or removing unwanted offsets will help prevent this problem.

Final Thoughts

The Echeveria imbricata, or the Blue Rose succulent, is an easy-to-maintain succulent. It needs water every two weeks, bright sunlight at least six hours a day, and well-draining soil. It enjoys drying out between every watering because it cannot stand excessive water that could potentially cause root rot.

It’s also resistant to plant diseases but is susceptible to pest attacks, such as from mealybugs and aphids.

This succulent can self-propagate under suitable conditions, but you can also propagate it through leaf cuttings in soil or water.