Aeonium
Aeonium arboreum & cultivars (e.g., 'Kiwi', 'Zwartkop')
Through the year 🗓️
☀️ Summer now
Summer dormancy: rosettes close and lower leaves drop; move it to light shade and water only enough to keep the stems from shriveling.
🍂 Fall
The wake-up: resume regular watering and feeding as rosettes reopen, and repot or take cuttings now.
❄️ Winter
Peak growing season: give it bright light, cool temps, and normal watering; protect from frost.
🌱 Spring
Still in active growth. Keep up water and monthly feeding, then start tapering as heat builds late in the season.
The details
Light & placement
- Light
- Bright light with gentle direct sun; appreciates light afternoon shade in hot climates
- Ideal PPFD
- 300–600 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹
- Grow-light distance
- 12–18 in below LED
Water & feed
- Watering method
- Soak-and-dry on a backwards calendar: water when the top inch dries during its fall–spring growing season, and only sparingly while it naps through summer.
- Fertilizer
- Balanced feed at ½ strength, monthly in fall–spring (its growing season); none in summer.
Home & habit
- Soil
- Well-draining succulent mix with a touch more organic matter than desert cacti like; pH 5.6–6.5
- Humidity
- Low–average (30–50%)
- Temperature
- 55–75 °F; grows best cool, stalls above ~85 °F
- Mature size
- 1–3 ft branched stems topped with rosettes
- Repotting
- Every 2–3 yrs in fall as growth resumes; shallow roots suit shallow pots
- Propagation
- Behead a rosette with a few inches of stem, callus 2–3 days, and pot up. The old stem often re-sprouts multiple heads.
When something looks wrong
- Overwatering signs
- Mushy stems, rosettes that flop off, rot at the soil line
- Underwatering signs
- Tightly closed rosettes, curling leaves, heavy lower-leaf drop
- Common pests
- Aphids, mealybugs, fungus gnats
Common problems 🩺
The usual suspects when Aeonium looks unhappy. Most houseplant trouble is watering or light, not disease — see all plant problems if you are not sure which plant is the culprit.
Dropping lower leaves and closing up in summer
Likely cause
Summer dormancy. Aeoniums rest in the heat, the opposite of most succulents.
What to do
Water sparingly through summer and expect tight, shrunken rosettes. Growth resumes when it cools.
Long bare stems with a rosette on top
Likely cause
Low light — though some length is natural to the genus.
What to do
Brighter light with gentle direct sun. Behead and re-root a badly stretched rosette.
Mushy stem at soil level
Likely cause
Overwatering, especially during the summer rest.
What to do
Gritty mix, thorough but infrequent watering, and almost none while dormant.
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