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Kalanchoe 'Pink Butterflies' giveaways and trade

The giveaway is for one plant each for two people, usual rules. I'll try to do this by noon on Thursday, as I would really like to ship on Friday. Shipping $7 Paypal.

That leaves me 3, none of which I want to keep, plus an unrooted one with odd coloration, which is also fair game, but it came unrooted with a little rot on the end. So I'm going to fix that and root it in perlite. Any of the others I'm interested in trading, possibly more than one at a time, for plants, seedlings, cuttings (rooted or unrooted) of Nepenthes that might do well outside in a cool but frost-free climate. I could possibly supplement with other things as well.

I'll post details later about how to propagate these by either cuttings or the pink offsets.

Kalanchoe 'Pink Butterflies' is a stunning plant when grown well. Here's my mom's plant 2 or 3 years ago. The plant is monocarpic, so it's useful to know how to propagate it. She now grows the grandchild of that plant

This is not the plant being given away:



Today I saw one gallon pots of 'Pink Butterflies' at Home Depot. Probably some familiar with the plant know that it used to be a bit pricey. The price is now reasonable ($10-$20) usually online, but still when it's priced like what I saw today it's irresistible, so I got one. This is in spite of the fact that I propagate the plant quite a bit.





Out of the pot, not a lot of roots. It looked like they just stuck cuttings directly into the soil in the pot:



I potted up all but the lighter colored one, so there are 5, put in 3 inch pots, for shipping.



Note on the left the pink offsets, still mixed with some soil. I'll use those for propagation.
 
I love kalanchoe, only has a few kidns though. Would be willing to send N. mirabilis seedling, will psot a picture of them in an update thread over lunch!
 
Mother of thousands! Literally.. these are weedy plants you'll end up with a million in no time :) great to put in a big pot and just let it take over :) i have one myself fun plant to grow
 
Actually, this variegated hybrid is known for NOT being weedy. Many people find it impossible to get new plants from the offsets, even after considerable effort. That's one of the reasons the plant is considered very desirable and used to be a bit pricey.

The pink offsets have little chlorophyll, so under many/most situations the offsets simply die before they have a chance to get going.
 
Would you be interested in trading for key lime pie leaf pulls
 
Vbkid, N. mirabilis is not a candidate for growing outside here, but I might be interested. I'd love to see a picture. It seems like a species that everyone should grow at some point.

jwalker, Adromischus 'Key Lime Pie'? I really don't grow succulents at all, because my growing area is too shady. I only propagate 'Pink Butterflies for that reason--I can't grow it well, so my mom grows the plant. From what I'm finding 'Key Lime Pie' might be good with some shade, but I really have very little sun. Small plants also tend to get lost in my jungle, or destroyed by squirrels, killed by a fallen leaf that doesn't get moved, etc. So in general I avoid them. I also have a policy of usually not trading for plants that are available locally. Often they can be found for less than the cost of postage. However, I am giving away two of the 'Pink Butterflies' for postage, and nobody has signed up...
 
I mentioned in the first post that I would give info on propagation. I propagate these two ways--from the plantlets/bulbils and stem cuttings. Pieces of the blooming stalk work really well, and the plant dies after blooming.

Here are some stem cuttings I started after my mom's plant bloomed and died. What's not obvious is that they have roots. My experience is that ultimately, the side shoots that emerge develop roots, and the original piece of stem rots away.



And here's propagation from offsets/bulbils. I got a ton of plants out of these. Note that there was a lot of skepticism that this would work. The dogma is that the plant cannot be propagated from offsets. I suspect the difference is that I did that under lights on 24/7, which may have allowed to plants to overcome the low amount of chlorophyll. However, I never tested this idea.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1823711/propagating-kalanchoe-pink-butterflies-from-offsets
 
Just looking at Ebay, someone is selling a single rooted cutting for $34.50 (including postage). There's also someone reselling what must be these gallon pots like the one I picked up, for $25. Another person is selling 10 of the unrooted offsets for $7.59. There's still a bit of craziness surrounding this plant.
 
I'm happy to start the signup, and either way am happy to offer htings i ntrade, can PM you later.

1. vbkid, thanks for this chance!
 
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