Kleinia stapeliiformis In Bloom

The kleinia stapeliiformis or senecio stapeliiformis locally known by various names such as pickle plant, candle plant , candle stick plant. This is a beautiful succulent. I bought this plant about six months ago just because it looked like a pencil with purple and white markings. I was looking for some tall plants for my succulent arrangements and this fit the bill. The seller had no clue about the name or any information about the plant.

I was surprised a week ago to see one of the stems put out a spike. I forgot about it completely and when I went to my garden last evening I saw a bud on the plant. This morning I was surprised to see a beautiful flower bloom on that pencil like stem. It isn’t a big flower just about a couple of cms. radius with very tiny flowers.

I love the bright red color with tiny yellow spikes growing randomly. This has inspired me to feed this succulent some Phosphorous and potassium  based fertilizer to get them all to bloom. I generally don’t feed my succulent any kind of fertilizer, just some compost tea when the growing season begins after winter.

This succulent needs very little water and rots easily when  watered heavily. It prefers a good drink every three to four days even in the tropical summers. The purple coloration on the stems becomes visible when water is reduced to once a week and the plant is kept in direct sun.

This was a wonderful surprise for me, this tiny flower made my day!