Benefits Of Growing Echeveria Plants

Beautiful, versatile Echeveria succulents can be grown as outdoor containers or landscape plants in warm climates and houseplants in any climate. 

These easy-care perennial succulents are native to semi-desert areas of Mexico and parts of Central America. They also thrive in any setting that provides consistent warmth, ample sunlight, and well-draining soil. 

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When you collect Echeveria, you can create low-maintenance container arrangements, rock gardens, and more featuring various leaf shapes, colorful foliage, textures, and blooms. 

In addition to their aesthetic appeal, Echeveria plants have much to offer regarding air-purifying abilities, drought resistance, and even some health and well-being benefits. 

In this article, we present the top seven benefits of growing Echeveria plants. Read on to learn more. 

How to Care for Echeveria Plants and Their Benefits

Echeveria Advantages

Here are the various benefits of growing Echeveria as low-maintenance plants at home.

1. Low-maintenance, easy-care Echeveria plants are a delight. 

Adaptable Echeveria can thrive in a wide variety of settings indoors or outdoors. Hailing from desert regions, these hardy survivors cheerfully face plant care challenges that arise from neglect. 

For example, if you are a gardener who tends to forget to water, you can probably find success with Echeveria. 

Water occasionally and deeply, and your Echeveria plants will store up water in their thick, fleshy leaves and stem to keep themselves well-supplied until their next drink. 

Just ensure to avoid overwatering, as it can result in root rot.

They grow well in full sun to partial shade but thrive in at least four to six hours of bright but indirect sunlight. 

Moreover, you can use a fresh-well-draining cactus mix with good drainage when planting these plants.

2. Drought tolerant, lightly feeding Echeveria adds interest and beauty to a desert garden. 

If you live in a region that faces water challenges, you can count on Echeveria plants to bring color and variety to your rock garden, deck and patio planters, and more. 

Water-wise, Echeveria can make a nice ground cover or bedding plant, even in very hot, dry settings. 

These plants are an excellent addition to xeriscaping projects that use drought-tolerant plants for water conservation. 

A Xeriscape is an excellent low-care garden that requires only occasional deep watering and can often do well with only natural rainfall. 

A well-designed Xeriscape needs little or no fertilizer and minimal pruning and maintenance, so it‘s the perfect place for Echeveria. 

3. Indoor Echeveria can improve the air quality in your home. 

All plants produce oxygen and help clean the air through the process of photosynthesis. In this process, they absorb carbon dioxide and other toxins from the atmosphere and release oxygen. 

According to a NASA Clean Air Study conducted in the latter part of the 20th Century, plants that present a large soil surface area (e.g., Echeveria, Sansevieria, and other strappy, spiky succulents) are better at air cleaning than very leafy plants. 

They are also known for reducing stress levels in any home or office.

4. These pretty plants improve curb appeal outdoors and ambiance indoors. 

There are over 200 interesting, colorful, fascinating species of Echeveria. Their pretty rosette formations come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and textures. Leaves are often intricately patterned. Some are adorned with delicate hairs. 

The right combination of Echeveria plants can make an absolutely breathtaking display indoors or outdoors. 

Outdoor displays enhance the beauty of your home and garden with pretty, pollinator-attracting blooms in the springtime and seasonal leaf color changes throughout the summer and into the autumn. 

5. You can enjoy Echeverias in any climate. 

These easy-to-please plants are happy when kept entirely as houseplants in any climate. 

If you live in a location that is warm in the spring and summer but cold in the winter, you can create beautiful container displays of Echeveria to enjoy on your porch, patio, or deck during the warm months and in your living room or sunroom in the wintertime. 

If you live in a tropical or desert setting, Echeverias can thrive outdoors all year round. 

NOTE: Echeveria propagation is easy from leaf cuttings, leaves, stem cuttings, offsets, and pups. 

6. Like Aloe, Echeveria is said to have medicinal properties and health benefits.

Although not as widely used as Aloe, Echeveria gel has a reputation for providing medicinal and health benefits in folk medicine. 

For example, anecdotal evidence suggests: 

• The gel may be applied to warts and corn to help soften and dissolve them. Split a leaf open and tape it over the corn or wart overnight. Soak in hot water before attempting to remove the wart or corn. 
• The gel alone may relieve the pain and itching of insect bites and stings, contact with nettle, etc. 
• The gel can be mixed with water and gargled to relieve mouth ulcers and/or sore throat. 
• The gel can be mixed with lard and applied to minor rashes and other inflammations. 
• Whole leaves can be split, and the gel is applied as a cooling astringent. 
• Leaves may be chewed to help relieve the pain of a toothache. 
• It can relieve arthritis pain.
• Increases humidity that prevents sore throats and dry cough and relieves dry, itchy skin.

Although no scientific data backs these uses, it is worth noting that Echeveria is non-toxic, and the gel will not harm when used in these ways. 

There is scientific evidence to support the fact that caring for plants of all sorts, including Echeverias, can lower your blood pressure, relieve stress, improve your mood, and give you a sense of accomplishment.

7. Echeveria has some cultural significance and interesting symbolic meaning. 

Succulent plants, in general, often symbolize longevity, endurance, determination, tenacity, survival, and perseverance because they thrive in challenging circumstances. 

Other frequently cited attributes of succulents include peace, prosperity, steady growth, and connection to nature. 

• Because Echeveria is so versatile and easy-going and tends to thrive where they are, they are often thought to symbolize a gracious combination of beauty and adaptability. 

• In Mexican folklore, these plants are said to ward off evil spirits while attracting love and good luck. 

• In Asian cultures, Echeveria plants symbolize wealth, elegance, and beauty. 

Because of their wide variety and often truly astonishing beauty, Echeveria can bring great charm to your surroundings. The plant’s diverse cultural interpretations can add meaning and significance to your choices and arrangements. 

Growing Echeveria Plants Is An All Around Win-Win!

With their drought tolerance, low maintenance, adaptability, and unquestionable good looks, Echeveria plants are an absolute must-have for any succulent gardener. This is especially true for new gardeners or forgetful gardeners. 

The wide variety of sizes, colors, and shapes of these pretty, happy-go-lucky plants makes it easy for even the most brown-thumbed plant parent to create a beautiful, joyful, and rewarding indoor or outdoor Echeveria display.