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alexandrans

Is it normal for Kalanchoe to grow 60centimetres tall?(1.97 feet)

alexandrans
17 years ago

This is the story of the weirdest Kalanchoe Blossfeldiana Ive ever seen.

It was Halloween 2002 when I bought the necessary gadgets for the day. Here in Sweden itÂs a custom to buy plants with orange flowers that day. Anything black and anything orange goes. Kalanchoe with orange flowers is THE Halloween plant here! So I went and bought this little fellow who was as cute as a button and as small as a toy. The entire plant was 3 centimetres tall (1.18 inches) and 7.62 centimetres wide (3 inches) with about 20 leaves and a few flowers. Now this kind of plants you usually keep for a month or so Âtill it drops its flowers and then itÂs a matter of time till you throw it in the garbage. In a couple of occasions IÂve heard people keeping them for a year or so, maximum, but they never even saw them bloom again and since its not the prettiest plant without flowers, well, itÂs very common that people throw them away. Well not me. I kept it. And it started growing and growing. It was weird it was growing really because I didnÂt pay so much attention to it. I decided to repot it in a bigger pot and thatÂs about all I did for it. In the end I put it in a room all alone in front of a window and sometimes I even forgot to water it for weeks. It a rather ugly plant but I can never throw away something because itÂs ugly. So 3 years later it was 60 centimetres tall (1.97 feet). It couldnÂt stand on its own anymore so I had it against the window supported by threads tied in various places so that it could stand up. Since I had no idea what these plants are supposed to look like  if they are hanging plants, standing plants or bush plants  I had to improvise and decide myself if it would stand or hang. Then one dark winter day in December 2005 I saw the weirdest thing. Little buds! I couldnÂt believe my eyes. I never thought IÂd see a plan like tat blooming ever again. I mean thatÂs the main reason people throw them away. By January it was blooming like crazy!!! Lots and lots of flowers and lots and lots of buds kept on coming. It was blooming until May 2006. For five whole months it was blooming and blooming and growing and growing. Then it stopped. Then this summer it started looking kind of sad. As plants do when you over water them. But I didnÂt over water it. In fact I let it dry a little bit like you do with succulents and then water. But still, it looks as if it is saying bye bye. IÂm posting a couple of pictures of its blooming time. IÂm not posting any pictures of how it is now because it just looks the same without the flowers and you canÂt really tell from a picture that it is feeling bad. You have to touch it to understand and see that the leaves are not shiny anymore.

So my question is.

Have you ever seen a thing like that before? Is Kalanchoe Blossfeldiana supposed to grow so big? Is it blooming every 3 years? Is it a winter bloomer? Do you think that this was its swan song? Should I cut it down? And if I do and it grows again so big, should I let it or should I keep it in a standard height by pruning regularly? Is it supposed to stand or hang?


Thank you, for reading :)

Have a nice day.


Alexandra


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