Kalanchoe daigremontiana
What grows three feet tall and sprouts thousands of tiny baby plants all along the margins of the leaves? The mother of thousands plant (Kalanchoe daigremontiana), that’s what.
If you want a succulent that you can reproduce easily and share with all your friends and family, and maybe even their friends and family, you’ve found it.
The name might have tipped you off, but one plant can produce thousands and thousands of babies.
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Not only does mother of thousands produce lots of seeds, but it also produces tiny plantlets with their own roots at the margins of its leaves.
These drop off the leaves and anchor themselves into the soil.
Species that can reproduce in this way are known as viviparous.
In Zones 9 to 11, you can cultivate this unique succulent outdoors. Otherwise, you can keep it indoors as a houseplant or even let it live outside for the summer and indoors for the winter.
Can’t wait to learn more? Excellent, because that’s what we’re about to go over with the following topics:
Kalanchoe daigremontiana (formerly Bryophyllum daigremontianum) is commonly known as Mexican hat, alligator plant, flopper, devil’s backbone, or mother of thousands, not to be confused with mother of millions (K. delagoensis), a species in the same genus.
Mother of thousands is native to a small area of southwest Madagascar and has been introduced in many subtropical areas, from Florida and Puerto Rico to Italy and Brazil.
In some areas, such as South Africa, it has become invasive.
Quick Look
Common name(s): Mother of Thousands
Plant type: Succulent
Hardiness (USDA Zone): 9-121 (outdoor)
Native to: Madagascar
Bloom time / season: Spring
Exposure: Indirect light, part shade
Soil type: Loose, sandy, well draining
Soil pH: 6.0-7.5, slightly acidic to neutral
Time to maturity: 5 years
Mature size: 2 ft wide x 3 ft high
Best uses: Specimen, potted plant, borders, xeriscaping
Taxonomy
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaaceae
Genus: Kalanchoe
Species: Daigremontiana
The leaves are lanceolate or oblong, or sometimes triangular, with bands or spots of black or deep purple on the undersides.
While it rarely blooms indoors, when grown outside, this succulent flowers in late winter or early spring with lavender or pink blossoms on long stalks.
British botanist Sir Thomas Hanbury was known to collect and grow mother of thousands in the early 1900s at his botanical gardens in Mortola Inferiore, Italy.
It has since become a popular houseplant, cherished for its unusual appearance.
Unfortunately, its popularity is a problem in some areas, like the Caribbean, where it has become a noxious or invasive weed that pushes out local plant populations.
Mexican hat’s success is a result of the plantlets, which readily drop from the parent and establish themselves quickly.
note
If you have curious cats or hungry dogs, keep mother of thousands well out of reach. Never consume any part of it, and wear gloves when pruning.
All parts of K. daigremontiana contain the steroid daigremontianin, which causes severe heart issues if ingested.
How to Grow Mother of Thousands
Like many succulents, cultivating mother of thousands is pretty straightforward. If you provide the right growing conditions, it’s a very low-maintenance plant.
Temperature
Let’s talk about temperature first since it’s such an important part of keeping mother of thousands healthy.
K. daigremontiana can’t tolerate a prolonged deep freeze, and a frost or a light freeze might kill the foliage, but the roots will generally remain intact.
So while you can grow mother of thousands outdoors in Zones 9 to 11, it will only remain evergreen in Zones 10 and 11.
Temperatures between 55 and 85°F are ideal to promote the healthiest growth. This is easy to maintain indoors.
If you are growing outdoors and there’s an unexpected deep freeze on the horizon, you can try to mitigate the damage by propping wool blankets covered by plastic to prevent water from soaking in over the plants until the weather warms up, but not for longer than a few days.
Light
Mother of thousands is happiest in bright, indirect, or dappled sunlight all day long.
Morning light is fine, too, but don’t expose it to the harsh afternoon sunlight unless you want to see what a very sad kalanchoe can look like.
You can tell if your Mexican hat is in the correct light exposure because it will have plump, compact growth.
If it starts to look leggy, it means the mother of thousands isn’t receiving enough sunlight.
Soil
When it comes to soil, sandy or loamy is fine, but the key is that it absolutely must be well-draining.
All kalanchoes are prone to root rot if they are in standing water, so poorly draining, heavy, clay soil is a quick route to problems.
In a container, any succulent or potting soil is fine. I’m a fan of Rosy Soil’s cactus and succulent mix.
It’s made using pine bark, compost, pumice, sand, and root-boosting mycorrhizae for a healthy, chunky environment that drains well.
Rosy Soil
You can find Rosy Soil available in four-quart bags via Amazon.
Watering
The soil should be allowed to dry out completely between waterings.
When you do water, you want to moisten the soil but not make it soggy or muddy.
These plants do much better in drought than they do with too much water, so it’s always safer to err on the side of too little rather than too much.
In the winter, you’ll only want to provide enough water to keep the leaves from wrinkling and wilting.
Fertilizing
Feed the mother of thousands with a very mild, balanced, or nitrogen fertilizer once a month during the spring, summer, and fall.
I like Arber’s product because it’s mild enough for a succulent like kalanchoe but has a bit of a boost of nitrogen, which foliage plants need in abundance.
Arber Plant Food
It’s available in 16-ounce bottles at Arbico Organics if you’d like to give it a try.
Maintenance
You don’t need to prune mother of thousands, which is fantastic if you like the hands-off approach. The only kind of maintenance you need to do is to remove any leaves that die.
As the plant matures, it will shed older leaves and develop new ones.
You can let those older leaves fall off on their own, but it looks nicer if you gently pull them off. If they don’t come away readily, leave them in place until they do.
You should also remove any broken or diseased foliage when you see it with a clean, sharp pair of pruners. Just remember to wear gloves!
Repotting
Specimens in containers will need to be potted up every few years until they reach their full size of about three feet tall and three feet wide.
Remember that mother of thousands spreads quickly. If you don’t stay on top of it, you’ll find yourself facing a big problem.
Pluck out any volunteers as soon as you see them, and consider moving garden plants into containers if they are getting out of hand.
Where to Buy
There are a few K. daigremontiana cultivars out there, but they are hard to find anywhere outside of specialty succulent stores.
Look for those like ‘Jaws of Life,’ which has folded leaves that resemble alligator jaws snapping shut, or ‘Leopard,’ which has dark spots on the foliage.
You can also find interesting hybrid cultivars like ‘Pink Butterflies,’ with its pink splotched leaves.
The species plant is pretty easy to find, occasionally I’ve even seen it for sale as a novelty potted specimen at chain grocery stores in my area.
Mother of Thousands
It’s available via Amazon in three-packs of bare root plants.
Mother of Thousands Propagation
In some areas of the world, gardeners are more curious about how to stop K. daigremontiana from propagating itself all over the place rather than encouraging it to do so.
Some of my fellow growers like to joke that all you need to do is chop a bit off, throw it onto some soil, and you’ll have a new plant in about four weeks.
It’s not quite that easy, but not far off. Vegetative propagation is most popular, but starting from seed is also possible. Why don’t we go over that, first?
From Seed
Mother of thousands will bloom now and then, though it’s not predictable or consistent in the case of indoor specimens. If it happens, blooming is generally more common in the early summer.
Houseplants might bloom in the early winter if you take them outside during the summer. If you leave the grayish-pink or orange flowers, they will eventually turn into seed heads that you can harvest.
Each seed head can contain thousands of seeds, which is part of the reason that mother of thousands can become invasive.
You can purchase seeds, but make sure to obtain them from a reputable retailer. There are lots of sellers out there selling seeds that aren’t the right species or that aren’t viable.
Not all seeds will be viable, so make sure you start more than you think you’ll need.
Since the seeds are so incredibly small, it’s pretty hard to sow an exact number, as it’s like trying to separate grains of dust.
When you have your seeds:
- Fill a seed tray with succulent potting mix and moisten it.
- Sprinkle the seeds evenly over the surface. It can be hard to spread them evenly, so feel free to mix the seeds with a bit of sand to make the process easier.
- Cover the tray with plastic or glass and place it in an area with bright, indirect light.
- Keep the soil moist and within a few weeks, new growth will emerge.
Don’t worry if not all of the seeds germinate – they have a notoriously low germination rate.
When the seedlings have at least two sets of true leaves you can transplant them to individual containers as discussed below.
From Cuttings
You can also propagate Mexican hat from leaf or stem cuttings. The best time to do this is right after flowering when the plant goes dormant.
1. Look for a healthy leaf and cut it away from the stem using a clean pair of scissors or clippers. You don’t need to remove the entire leaf. Just cut it an inch or so away from the stem.
Since the stems can grow lateral roots, you can also remove a section of stem, if you prefer.
The stem should have at least a few nodes, which is the spot where a leaf will emerge, and should be bigger than the diameter of a chopstick.
2. Place the cutting in a cool area out of direct sunlight and let it sit for a day or two until it forms a callus over the cut end.
The callus is like a natural bandage that the succulent produces to protect itself, and this will help prevent rot as we wait for the leaf or stem to develop roots.
3. When the cut area or areas feel dry and slightly hard, you can pot up the cuttings. Assume that a few cuttings won’t take and plant more than you think you’ll want.
4. Fill a seed tray or pot with a soilless potting mixture or a succulent soil. Moisten it lightly and then gently tuck the leaf or stem in just deep enough that it stays upright.
5. Moisten the soil when the surface dries out, but take care not to overwater. The medium should feel just barely moist, like a well-wrung-out sponge.
6. Keep the cuttings in an area with bright, indirect light or some direct morning light and indirect light in the afternoon.
After a week or two, the cuttings should start developing roots. There’s no need to check at this point, but if any of the cuttings start to turn black or wrinkled, toss them. They won’t take.
Between three and six months after planting, you should start to see little leaves emerging from the base of the cutting. You did it!
Let the leaves grow about an inch before transplanting them as described below.
From Plantlets
Let’s talk about those funky baby plantlets growing along the margins of the leaves. Technically, these growths are known as bulbils, which are vegetative clones of the parent plant.
These plantlets will eventually develop their own roots and drop off the parent plant. When they do, you can scoop them up and plant them somewhere else.
Or, you can gently pull them off the leaf when you see the roots have developed.
Set the plantlet on the surface of moistened succulent potting soil or in the ground if the parent is growing outside.
If you intend to move plantlets outdoors that were previously growing indoors, you’ll need to harden them off first.
If you have access to an existing mother of thousands plant, this is the way to go. It’s incredibly easy and reliable.
Transplanting
Whether you started your own seedlings or plantlets, want to move an existing specimen, or you brought a potted mother of thousands home from the store, the transplanting process is the same.
Gently remove the plant from its existing container and loosen up the roots if they have become tangled or bound.
Then, place the root ball in the new container or in a pre-dug hole in the ground. The hole doesn’t need to be any larger than required to accommodate the rootball.
Fill in around the roots with potting medium or removed soil and firm it up gently. Water until the soil or medium is just moist.
If you are keeping your mother of thousands in a container, whether indoors or out, be sure to choose a pot with drainage holes that is just a bit larger than the root structure.
You can provide a larger pot if you want to allow the plants to spread, but you need to use extreme caution not to overwater.
Managing Pests and Disease
Some plants will constantly challenge you with their pest and disease problems. Not mother of thousands, though, as she’s pretty darn tough.
Sometimes spider mites, scale, and mealybugs will come visiting. The most obvious signs of pest problems are yellow or speckled leaves.
Diseases are even less common unless you are a chronic overwaterer. If so, root rot may come a knockin’.
Root rot is simply what happens when the roots aren’t able to absorb enough oxygen as a result of overwatering.
The roots turn soggy and die, making the top of the plant wilt, turn yellow, and shrivel up.
Learn about these problems in our kalanchoe growing guide.
Powdery mildew can also be a problem. We have a whole guide dedicated to this common disease, which causes a white or gray coating on the leaves of the plant.
The Mother of All Kalanchoe
It’s hard not to love a low-maintenance plant that doesn’t need much attention to look its best.
Mother of thousands is the perfect plant for someone who likes bold, low-maintenance plants.
Just be prepared to answer all the questions from people who want to know what the heck it is and how they can get their hands on one.
It’s the perfect eye-catching option for container gardening.
Outside, so long as you are prepared to monitor the spread, it’s a beautiful specimen, border, or xeriscaping option.
What attracts you to mother of thousands? Is it her prolific nature? The dramatic leaves? The easygoing attitude? Share with us in the comments section below!
And for more information about growing succulents in the Kalanchoe genus, add these guides to your reading list next:
