We’re starting to get a sweet collection of cresting succulents these days. Check out this Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’. Fab color and adds a lot of punch amongst the green and gray succulent. Parents of this cultivar are Graptopetalum paraguayense and Echeveria gibbiflora. Crazy how some plants can cross breed between genera.

I believe this was the first cresting succulent that we had in our garden. Back in the day, we picked up some Graptopetalum paraguayense cuttings from a buddy. Turned out that a couple of them started to crest. We’re not exactly sure how, why or when cresting happens, but found this article from the Cactus and Succulent Society of America that explains some of it. Seems that the growing point starts to go a little funky where the single growing point turns into a growing line or plane. Then the plant may form a crest or fan shape. It’s not limited to just succulents, but can occur on a variety of other plants. Yesterday, we noticed that one of our Euphorbia flowers is starting to crest. Strange.

Here’s a cresting Echeveria ‘Doris Taylor’ which we added to our collection a couple of months ago. Recently, we saw one available over at Urban Bazaar, which was awesome. Sometimes known as the Woolly Rose, parents are thought to be Echeveria setosa and Echeveria pulvinata. It has hairy leaves and normally grows in a rosette.

Another fun succulent that I picked up from work is this cresting Aeonium ‘Sunburst’. You can really see the flat stem here caused from the growing point happening over a line. BTW, cresting is also known as Cristate.

Okay. These next two, we aren’t exactly certain what they are. Would love some help on IDing it…or even some guesses. If I had to take a bet, I would say this on above is some sort of Pachyveria.

Here’s another to we’re not exactly sure, but think it’s another Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’…just growing under different sunlight conditions in our garden.

Here’s a crester we no longer have, Senecio vitalis. The succulent was growing in a container and I think it got tossed during one of our revamping our garden sessions…oops.

We just planted this last one, Echeveria ‘Winter Sunset’ crested form. It has a cool looking stem and the rosettes are curving more than I could hope for. Does anybody have some fave succulents cresting in their collection? Would love to hear about them. Post some pics on our Facebook.

– Far Out Flora