Aeonium [arboreum] Pandemonium

Spring 2010 Aeonium about to bloom [left]

In my mind pandemonium means crazy and aeoniums grow like crazy and do some odd unexpected things. The name Aeonium comes from the ancient Greek "aionos" (=immortal). According to Merriam-Webster pandemonium means

Main Entry: Pan·de·mo·ni·um

Pronunciation: \ˌpan-də-ˈmō-nē-əm\

Function: noun

Etymology: New Latin, from Greek pan- + daimōn evil spirit — more at demon

Date: 1667

1 : the capital of Hell in Milton's Paradise Lost 2 : the infernal regions : hell 3 not capitalized : a wild uproar : tumult

Pandemonium is also the name of a recent Pet Shop Boys album. The first Album I ever bought was Pet Shop Boys Introspective, but that's a whole other story. Now, when I think of the word pandemonium I hear Black Sabbath's Paranoid album in my head and when I see aeoniums ... So before I start going on and on about aeoniums let's get the mood ready.

Here's a little background to get started with

Aeonium is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae.

Most of them are native to the Canary Islands. Some species are found in Madeira, Morocco and in eastern Africa (for example in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia). The rosette leaves are on a basal stem. Low-growing Aeonium species are A. tabuliforme and A. smithii; large species include A. arboreum, A. valverdense and A. holochrysum. They are related to the genera Sempervivum, Aichryson and Monanthes, which is easy to see from their similar flower and inflorescences. Recently, the genus Greenovia has been placed within Aeonium.

The Tree Aeonium (Aeonium arboreum, Aeonium schwarzkopf or Aeonium korneliuslemsii)

Aeonium arboreum var.atropurpureum

This was the first aeonium I ever got and one of the first succulents that made me obsessed with succulents. A friend gave me a large one with an awesome curved trunk in late 2007 that was purple and a really small one that is very dark purple that almost looks black. I didn't know how fast they grew and how well adaptable they are. During that time I also heard the Monks for the first time and listened to Black Monk Time over and over again for about two months.

It seemed like it took forever, but those first two plants took off. When the tree aeoniums are in season, they branch out. You can just snap off one of the branches and stick it in the ground and it will grow into a new plant. [Give it a little time before you water it so it doesn't rot.] Now I have so many plants from those two.

At one point I thought that I was killing the plants because they go dormant in the summer and winter and drop their leaves.

I didn't know that eventually the aeoniums bloom these huge, unbelievable yellow blooms until one day it happened to the plant with the curved trunk. I didn't know if this aeonium was like certain agaves and yuccas that bloom and then die afterwards. After not finding any information on the subject, I cut the top of the plant off to try and prevent it from dying after blooming. The plant continued to bloom after I cut the whole top of it off and it did die, but it gave me lots of babies before it went.

March 16, 2009 April 20, 2009... The Stump Bloom

In the late winter/ early spring I threw one of the aeonium cuttings in the ground and that one bloomed right away.

I think it may have been a branch off the curved bloomer that died. I think they do die after they bloom because this one looks done. You never know with these guys... Maybe it left seeds when it bloomed.

March 2010

July 2010