Echeveria Laui ‘La Roseta’ Care Guide (2024)
If you’re a succulent collector, you’ll surely love Echeveria laui. It’s most attractive feature is seen in its fleshy and powdery leaves having a tinge of blueish-grey to pink shades. It’s of no surprise that many breeders have gone extensive in their pursuits of multiplying this species.
Interested to know more? Here’s a quick overview about this succulent.
Plant Profile
Common Name: La roseta
Scientific Name: Echeveria laui
Type: Succulent
Origin: Mexico
Habitat: Mountain slopes
Size: 6 inches (15 cm) tall and 5 inches (12.5 cm) wide
Toxicity: Non-toxic to pets and humans
Colors: Blueish-grey to pink leaves
Blooms: Peachy-rose flowers in stalk during summer to fall
Plant Care
Light: Full sun to partial shade
Watering: Low
Temperature: 65° – 70°F (18° – 21° C)
USDA Zone: 9b-11b
Air humidity: Low
Soil pH: 6.0 to 7.0 (acidic to neutral)
Fertilizing: Feed weekly with weak liquid fertilizer during growing season
Propagation: Leaves, cuttings, or seeds
Repotting: After a few years (2 to 3)
Pruning: Removal of dead leaves and flower stalks
What’s Unique About Echeveria laui?
The Echeveria laui plant is unique because of its color. The powdery touch in the leaves make the color look soft and attractive. The green shade is made more appealing with a tint of blue and pink. Even without the flowers, the foliage is a beauty on its own.
The native of its roots can be traced back to Mexico and were found mostly in mountain slopes. It’s a member of the Crassulaceae family, and undoubtedly the most popular among its group. La roseta is known as the Echeveria laui common name.
Appearance
Are you wondering how Echeveria laui’s appearance differs from the others? Well, nothing much except its unique color. The form of the plant is very much alike with other members of the Echeveria genus. There are some distinctions that you can observe once you get familiar with the plant.
Here are a few of them:
Foliage
The foliage of Echeveria laui forms a rosette. Each leaf has an almost rounded shape because it’s fleshy and chubby compared to other species. Once you tap your finger on the surface, you’ll notice a white powder coating. Such a thin cover layer, known as farina, gives the leaves a soft feel and pastel color.
This farina, however, serves a lot of purpose aside from adding to the plant’s aesthetic. On a more important note, this powdery coat serves as protection of your Echeveria laui succulent. It helps defend the plant from harsh environment conditions and even pests attacks. Isn’t that amazing?
Flowering
Aside from the gorgeous foliage, you’ll be more in love once you find the Echeveria laui flowering. Wait until the summer season has arrived. If you’re lucky, you’ll see some flowers appearing from each rosette. This can last until the fall.
A short stalk will normally form from the succulent. Sometimes there are more than one stalk per rosette. This will bear the peachy rose flowers of the plant. The good thing is that they remain alive even after the blooming season is over. Just make sure to deadhead the spent flowers to refocus the succulent’s energy into its foliage.
Size and Growth
Like many succulent species, the Echeveria laui’s growth rate is slow. The plant needs a few years before it reaches a mature size. And even when it matures, the maximum size that it could get is only 6 inches (15 cm) in height and 5 inches (12.5 cm) in width.
Nevertheless, the manageable size of Echeveria laui makes it favorable for growers who have limited space. Since the plant is small, it will certainly fit whatever tiny space available you have. Just let it sit there and let it take its own time to grow without much of a fuss.
Also, make sure to check out our in-depth Echeveria lilacnia plant care guide.
Fragrance
It would be nice to see Echeveria laui blooming and smell the flowers produced by it. But don’t expect too much because the plant does not have any fragrant smell. Rather, the foliage and the flowers remain odorless despite its inviting appearance.
Although there’s no distinct Echeveria laui fragrance to discover, there are a few hybrids that have an interesting smell. The hybrid of luai x lilacina, also known as Echeveria ‘Moon Dust’ have been described to have flowers that smell like coconut.
Be cautious though when trying to smell the foliage of Echeveria. Remember it does have a powdery coating and that could irritate your nose. Not a good thing if you have allergies.
Toxicity
It’s safe to grow Echeveria laui at home even if you have kids and pets around. There are no harmful substances embedded in the plant’s system that could potentially lead to toxicity. This means that you could enjoy the plant for as long as you want. This succulent is indeed heaven sent.
For Humans
Echeveria laui plants are so attractive that we couldn’t blame the children if they do get a bite. While this may initially send us in hysterics, we can definitely mellow down. The plant is perfectly safe. Your children aren’t harmed. There’s no toxic problems.
Nevertheless, please don’t allow your kids to grow into the habit of tasting ornamental plants. We’ve known how many toxic houseplants there are. If they happen to experiment on a toxic plant, you’re doomed. Make sure to warm them not to taste or eat any portion of your Echeveria laui or any other ornamental species they found at home.
For Pets
Echeveria laui toxicity isn’t also a problem for pets like cats and dogs. This is definitely good news for our pet parents who have a number of furbabies living with them at home. You can have this succulent on display without fear of intoxicating them.
Even if they accidentally ingest the leaves, it won’t harm them. This succulent is indeed a beauty both in and out. Nevertheless, make sure to keep it away from your pet’s reach. The leaves of this plant are quite fragile that they’d easily tear off with one naughty movement. Place your echeveria in a secure location.
Suggested Uses
You’ll never regret growing Echeveria laui. This plant will surely become an eye candy once cultivated as a houseplant. It’s a perfect table top centerpiece or another element in a dish garden landscape. They will look best when planted in decorative pots.
Outdoors, you can also use it as a groundcover. It will thrive in rock gardens. You can pair them with other species of succulents and cacti to make an appealing scenery. However, planting outdoors is recommended only if you’re living in areas under USDA zones 9b-11b. If not, we suggest that you tend to your Echeveria laui indoors.
Echeveria Laui Care
Despite its extraordinary charm, the Echeveria laui care and maintenance is very easy. This succulent survives drought conditions pretty much like most of the species of the same family. You can leave the plant undisturbed for a relatively longer period and it’ll still thrive.
So, here are the basic things you have to remember.
Light
Make sure to give serious attention to the Echeveria laui light requirements. The plant needs an ample amount of light. Full sunlight is best but a partial shade will also work if indoors. Ideally, there should be around 4 to 5 hours of light exposure to help the plant grow well.
Be careful though not to hastily transfer your succulent from an indoor setting to an outdoor environment. Such abrupt change in light intensity could stress your plant resulting in falling off of those gorgeous leaves. Better keep the Echeveria inside the house as long as it receives enough light.
Watering
Watering of Echeveria laui is the most tricky part. Most gardeners, especially the beginners, fail in this area. Are you seeing those fleshy, rounded leaves? Try to squeeze them and you’ll see some water flowing out.
The plant’s foliage is meant to store water for the plant’s supply. That’s why they can last even without daily watering. No need to worry about the plant getting wilted. Echeveria laui is drought-ready. What works best is the soak and dry method. Once the soil gets dry, you drench it thoroughly with water until it’s saturated. Then, wait for the soil to dry again.
Temperature
Succulents need a warm environment to thrive. During summer, the best Echeveria laui temperature ranges from 65° – 70°F (18° – 21° C). A temperature of 50°F (10° C) during the winter season will also be tolerable. We don’t recommend leaving the plant outside when it’s freezing cold. Those leaves will end up bruised after thawing.
During extremely hot seasons, you could add a little shade to protect the foliage from scorching. The plant may develop some white and pale patches which eventually turn to leaf browning. Damaged leaves will barely recover so it’s better to remove them and wait for new growth to emerge.
Air Humidity
Always remember that succulents love a dry environment. Thus, it makes sense that you place your Echeveria laui in a location with low humidity. You should avoid areas like the kitchen and comfort rooms for they naturally have high air moisture.
Normally, the average condition indoors suits well to attain the desirable Echeveria laui humidity. Just be careful not to add extra moisture. No misting. No humidifier either. It would help to separate your succulent from those plants that love high humidity. Instead, group them with other drought-tolerant species.
If your succulent is starting to rot, that could be a sign that it’s receiving excess moisture.
Soil
Most of the time, a soilless potting mix is used as the medium for growing succulents and cacti. Lucky for us, there are many options of ready to use mix that we could buy online. Those commercial mixes have been specifically prepared to suit the needs of our succulents. In fact, there are mixes that are specific to Echeveria plants that you can purchase.
Whether you choose to buy or mix on your own Echeveria laui soil, the important thing to remember is that it must drain well. Amendments such as sand, pumice, perlite and the like helps achieve that. A soil pH of slightly acidic to neutral (6.0 to 7.0) is also ideal.
Fertilizing
In general, this succulent does not require frequent fertilization. However, the potting mix can get depleted of nutrients through time. Thus, there’ll be a need to add fertilizer to ensure sufficient plant nutrition.
During the growing season, you could feed a liquid fertilizer every two weeks. Mix the fertilizer in water so it gets diluted before you pour them on the potting mix. It’s critical that the concentration of the fertilizer is just weak to avoid burning the plant. There are also designated succulent fertilizers that you could buy online. During winter, cease the application of fertilizer.
Propagation
It’s always best to propagate a plant as gorgeous as this Echeveria laui. Thankfully, there are numerous methods you could explore to produce a number of this succulent. You could use leaf and stem cuttings for the propagation of Echeveria laui. All you need is take off a healthy cutting and bury it in the soil until it develops its own roots.
Starting from Echeveria laui seeds is also another option. It would take about 4 days to 1 week for the seeds to germinate. But because the plant is a slow-grower, it would take years for the whole plant to mature.
Repotting
Repotting Echeveria laui isn’t a demanding task. You don’t have to transplant this to another pot more often. On the average, it will take 2 to 3 years before it would need repotting. This succulent doesn’t have an extensive root system anyway so a large container isn’t really needed.
Once it’s time for repotting, all you need to do is remove the succulent from its old pot. Carefully shake off the used potting mix until the roots are visible. Then, settle the plant in a new container using fresh medium. You may also cut off the echeveria offshoots that have grown overtime.
Pruning
Most of the time, there’s no need to prune the plant. If you’ve observed, the Echeveria laui shape and form is designed to remain compact and small. Unlike bushy plants, this succulent doesn’t have branches so no need to worry about having undesirable growths.
There are certain instances, however, that pruning Echeveria laui is needed. But this just involves removal of dried and dead leaves as well as stalks. Compared to the regular pruning task, this one is quite simple and routinary. You can count this one as part of cleaning up the succulent so it remains neat and attractive.
Echeveria laui Common Problems
All species of plants encounter setbacks. Although there are easy to maintain ones, we cannot avoid some difficulties throughout the time we’re raising them.
So, we’d like to discuss here the common Echeveria laui problems. It pays to know these things ahead of time so you’ll be prepared to handle them.
Pests
The powdery coating on the leaves of the Echeveria adds up to its protection. That’s why it’s a blessing to have those on. You’ll see that this succulent wouldn’t get much troubled by pests because of that layer.
But if you’re wondering what Echeveria laui pests are there, be prepared to encounter mealybugs, mites, and thrips. We’re sure you’re familiar with most of them as they frequently visit most indoor plants. They are, however, manageable.
Just make it a habit to observe your succulents regularly to spot for foreign organisms. Manually remove them whenever possible. If not, wipe them off with cotton dipped in alcohol.
Diseases
Rot and fungal problems are the common Echeveria laui diseases that you should watch out for. The culprit behind such is no other than overwatering. The higher the moisture level in the soil and the surroundings, the higher the chance of attracting fungi and other pathogens. So, beware of your watering routine.
The key to prevent rotting is to withdraw watering for a longer period until the roots recover. We also recommend that you re-pot your Echeveria right away. But first, remove the damaged and dead roots. Treating the plant with fungicide also helps prevent the spread of the disease.
Growing Problems
Aside from the threats of overwatering, there’s no other serious problems involved when you care for Echeveria laui. All you have to ensure is that it receives all the basic things it needs like sufficient light, minimal water, right temperature and humidity as well as the correct potting mix. With such, your succulent will be happy.
Once these growing conditions are well-established, maintaining the plant will be an easy job. The plant isn’t hard to please. It will just surprise you with a delightful treat as it shows off those subtle pink colors on its foliage. No need to mention the flowers!
FAQ
How long does it take Echeveria laui to grow?
It will take years for a young Echeveria laui to grow to a mature and desirable size. This succulent is a slow-grower so be extra patient.
Can Echeveria laui grow indoors?
Yes, it’s suited to an indoor environment provided that there’s plenty of light available. Be strategic in looking for a location. It needs sufficient light to thrive.
Is Echeveria laui poisonous to humans?
Nope. Good thing this species doesn’t contain any poisonous substance in its system. However, we don’t recommend that you deliberately taste any part of this plant.
How often should you water Echeveria laui?
The soak and dry method works best for Echeveria luai. Water only when the soil gets dry. Make sure that it’s deeply watered and well-saturated.
Why is my Echeveria laui dying?
Your Echeveria may have encountered problems with lack of light, too much water or pest infestation and disease. Look for the signs first for you to find out which of these is the cause.
Does Echeveria laui need sun?
Yes, it does. Full sunlight is most preferred by Echeveria luai. At least 4 to 5 hours of sunlight will make the plant extra happy.
Is Echeveria laui toxic to pets?
No. Most Echeverias including this species are safe for pets. There’s no need to worry over their safety because this succulent isn’t a threat to life.
Can Echeveria laui grow in shade?
The plant can grow in partial shade. However, make sure that there’s enough light coming in. Otherwise, your Echeveria will shed off its leaves and worse, die.