I'm curious to see pictures showing potentially clumping plants grown as solitary plants with the aid of regular thinning.

2 pictures to compare here... the same species, the same clone, but one plant raised from (self pollinated) seed without any depupping, and the other raised from a cutting, with regular (~yearly) depupping. The plants are in the same size pot.

One plant is bluer because it's in the sun, the other has some green in it because it is partly under shade cloth. But the main difference is the diameter of the stems, when allowed to compete with each other or not.



Anyone else with pictures along the same lines?

That leaves me out. I never separate anything.

But it is interesting. One root supporting multiple heads as opposed to one root being able to put all energy into supporting just one.

HI Baja, I am rather lazy , so I just let my intially solitary ones continue on clumping. I just let Mother Nature do its thing later on, naturally drying off some parts thus allowing some more wiggle space in a tight clump. I do not purposely thin them out. I like them clumping and growing into wonderful specimen sizes in its limited container space.

Count me as a clumper. This Haworthia probably could have used a new container this past spring. Didn't happen. Hopefully next spring. This photo is from 2017 and it's still in the same container - a bit crowded now . I have considered removing offsets on a couple of Aloes to see what they would do without a bunch of kids running around and snacking on the food supply.

I often see Jade plants in clumps. I think they look better alone in a tree form.
I working on fixing his uneven sides. But it's slow.

That's a nice looking Jade but his eye is a little blood shot.

That is a nice looking clump of Haworthias (and I can imagine a couple of years filled it out some).

And Eric, the proportions on that jade plant are fabulous. Nice looking plant.

I too am hesitant to break up a clump before its time, in general practice, because I'm always looking for ways to avoid extra work. Every fall and winter I go through two forced rounds of breakups when I share the wealth with the neighbors, and that has actually worked wonders when plants were well overgrown in their containers. It keeps the patio plants within reasonable size limits and gives me the pleasure of seeing that multiplication process start all over again from 1. These plants are all going back to solitary in a month's time, most likely:

Oh-No! Not the Euphorbia! I love those Medusa types and haven't been able to find one.

Same here.

Last December, I purchased a Euphorbia inermis var. huttonae from Arid Lands Wholesale in Tucson, AZ (they sell to individuals, too). The plant was very healthy and bare root. Arid Lands sells many different euphorbias and other succulents and cacti. Their website is aridlandswholesale.com. I bought4 other plants which were also very healthy. I would buy from them again.

I like Aridlands, except for their horrible website. Their plants are great! Guess I'll try again.

Daisy, you should, I agree their website is a bit of a pain, but their selection is pretty awesome and their plants are great. Latest I got from them was a couple of Sanseveria both arrived bare root but in great condition and after a little settling in period are coming along great.

(FYI, I hope to ship the offsets this week, we are finally below 100 and there to stay from the looks of it).

Baja_Costero said:That is a nice looking clump of Haworthias (and I can imagine a couple of years filled it out some).

Thanks, Baja. Hopefully it will have more room to spread next spring.

I appreciate the Euphorbia photo. I had wondered how mine might propagate itself. I guess it offsets from the photo?

I don't think your plant will offset. None of my larger medusas of that type (esculenta/inermis) have done so. I think they are only propagated from seed.

Hallow said:

I often see Jade plants in clumps. I think they look better alone in a tree form.
I working on fixing his uneven sides. But it's slow.

LOL! I haven't seen them in clumps at all or, if I did, I didn't recognize them. I would agree with you here and this is a case where I probably wouldn't let the plant clump. The tree form which they do naturally is more attractive. Unless I had a huge shallow container and could grow a grove where the tree form wasn't obscured. Maybe if I grew two containers, then I might let one clump. Mine has three small plants growing where leaves have fallen and rooted, but they grow slowly and are still very small and don't interfere with the tree look.

Nice looking plant there!

Interesting thread. You very seldom see them as clumps in commerce. At least I don't in this locale. Since I don't know all that many plant fanatics who grow a lot of things and because I'm as hands-off as possible when I get a plant doing well and I'm curious about what they'll do, I tend to just let them run amok as long as they stay healthy .
I took some photos of a couple I've left to their own choice about how they grow. It was windy and mid-day, so the photos aren't the best, but they are good enough to show their pattern of growth.

Another Haworthia. This one is H. mirabilis v. badia in about a 10" diameter clay container. I like what it's doing.


Gasteria liliputana 'Dwarf Ox-Tongue' in about an 8" clay container. It just finished blooming heavily and I need to remove the bloom stalks. Another one I'm liking as a clump.


I'm liking this Kalanchoe 'Flapjack', but I also liked it as an individual speciman. I had it a couple of years and it bloomed. There was no offsetting until well after the blooms were in progress, so I was afraid I'd lose it as a monocarpic plant. Never have been confident of identifying which specific plant I have, but am inclined to think it's probably K. luciae.


Here it is a single speciman.


And here it is with the bloom stalk, which ultimately made the plant 8' tall from the bottom of the container, a 6" clay pot, to the top. The stalk actually lasted into a second year. It was hard to handle and top heavy, so when I thought it was a spent bloom stalk I cut half off when it was going back outside in the spring, but it continued to bloom on the lower half and lasted through the end of spring. It also made little plantlets around the blooms which I ended up rooting and gave away after they were growing well. Lots and lots of powder on the stalk.


The plants rooted from the plantlets off the stalk. I didn't remove and try all of them. I wasn't sure what they were, for sure. They just looked like tiny plants.

Awesome Kalanchoe pictures, exactly what I was hoping to see when I started this thread. Though I am also enjoying the other clumps galore.

My experience with that Kalanchoe is that once it starts offsetting like crazy, it sort of strangles itself out so that no one head gets to proper flowering size. I saw flowers once when my plant was solitary, and then never again once it turned into a clump.

The same is actually true of my dwarf blue agave ("Rosa Gorda" by one name) above... one solitary plant I put in the ground went on to bloom, but a clump just got more congested without any head blooming.

The container now is very heavy and thick. Larger than the 6" clay pot. I have stuck a finger in there a couple of times and pried out a pup to give to someone. That Kalanchoe gives such a different effect as a solitary plant than when it's grown as a clump, I've considered prying one out and growing one as a solitary plant while keeping the clump. I like both. I liked the bloom stalk stage too. I thought it was really neat and interesting. I think all the offsets in the photo were all off the original plant once it decided to do it. That stalk had a lot of age on it, though, before there was any offset showing up.

Speaking of clumpers and never transplanting ...

Two residents of a community pot I planted several years ago. Notice how the first one is wrapped around the chain holding up the shelf its sitting on? Security issues?

@DaisyI Security? The tips on that should make it secure! Is that a Gasteria in the second photo? Both of those look good.