Aeonium ‘Voodoo’

In the Spring I described a group of plants I had bought online from Amulree Exotics. Amongst them was an Aeonium variety called ‘Voodoo’. It is easiest to quote Amulree’s description of the plant:

AEONIUM 'VOODOO' A new cross between A zwartkop & A undulatum, similar at first glance to zwartkop but instead of black heads these are red/purple and get 3 times the size and up to 5ft tall! Full sun will intensify the colour.

Certainly, when I took delivery, the plant looked very similar to ‘zwartkop’ but not so intense in colour. It has now grown, not so much in height, but in breadth. It must be nearly a foot across its head.

It’s quite eye-catching and a lovely colour. As Amulree says, the colour does intensify according to the amount of sunlight it gets.

I always think I have a tendency to over-water plants and worry that I might particularly over-water drought-loving plants. However, I’ve also come to wonder if I don’t water enough and I know that Aeoniums can take quite a lot of water in the growing season. I’ve noticed that this Aeonium has grown a lot in the last month and can only guess that it has liked the wet weather. This is also the second year that I’ve noticed plants like Echeverias growing bigger and faster in late summer / autumn. I will experiment with watering more in the summer months next year. I’ll probably kill everything!