Echeveria agavoides 'Red Tip' - Echéveria à feuilles d'agave, Echévéria petit agave

With Echeveria agavoides ‘Red Tip’, the agave-leaved echeveria adorns itself with distinctly red tips. This succulent plant forms a compact rosette of fleshy, apple-green leaves, which tips become distinctly coloured red when the plant enjoys good light. Easy to grow in our warm and somewhat dry interiors, it makes a lovely impact in pots, either alone or in a succulent display.

Echeveria agavoides belongs to the Crassulaceae family and originates from Mexico, where it grows on dry, often rocky ground, in desert-like or arid scrubland environments. This species is also encountered under botanical synonyms such as Cotyledon agavoides and Urbinia agavoides, as well as Echeveria yuccoides or Echeveria obscura according to sources.
This plant develops a rosette 7 to 15 cm in diameter, which can widen further with age; its thick, ovate to triangular leaves measure 4 to 7 cm long and end in a rigid point. In spring, if conditions are right, slender flower stalks can rise well above the foliage. They bear bell-shaped flowers that are coral red to rosy red with yellowish tips.
The name ‘Red Tip’ is in circulation in cultivation but is not stabilised; it covers forms close to selections marketed for their reddish margins and tips, similar to ‘Red Edge’ (introduced in the 1970s).
This plant is generally considered non-toxic for cats and dogs, although any chewing may cause mild digestive discomfort.

Indoors, provide it with very bright light with a little direct sun, a rather dry atmosphere, and a temperature of around 12 to 28°C (avoid prolonged exposure below 5°C). It is an easy plant for beginners, provided you do not combine lack of light with excess water, which are the main causes of decline. It particularly thrives on a well-exposed windowsill, in a bright conservatory, or on a shelf near a large window.
Echeveria agavoides can be grown both indoors and outdoors, provided it is given plenty of light and very free-draining soil.
Indoors, it likes to be placed in full sun behind a well-exposed window, with temperatures between 18 and 24°C, and moderate watering, only when the compost is completely dry.
It can be moved outside as soon as temperatures exceed 10°C, in full sun and sheltered from rain, but must be brought back indoors in autumn before the first frosts.

Plant the Echeveria 'Red Tip' in a terracotta pot or a mineral bowl; in a group, it works wonders in a "dry and bright" style display. Pair it with Crassula perforata for its graphic columnar habit, with Crassula sarcocaulis or with Echeveria 'Devotion' which colours an intense burgundy in full sun. The whole maintains a consistency in cultivation, while varying the shapes and textures, without cluttering the space.