Echeveria 'Martin's Hybrid' (Echeveria agavoides )

Echeveria 'Martin's Hybrid'
Echeveria agavoides

Because you've posted such wonderful photos I feel compelled to say I'm 99% sure that this is not, in fact, E. "Martin's Hybrid." I bought a beautiful 6" specimen of the very same cultivar at the Succulent Gardens Growing Grounds in Castroville labeled E. "Martin's Hybrid," but soon suspected the plant of being mislabeled. Being in the Bay Area, I assume you purchased yours from the same place, or perhaps Half Moon Bay Nursery (the only other nursery I know that carries their stock)? Anyway, a bit of googling shows Martin's to be a much smaller, greener, more vigorously clumping plant, with slimmer, slightly a-symmetrical leaves. The plant you and I have is either an Agavoides x Colorata or Agavoides x Cuspidata hybrid. Because of the Monterey Bay provenance, I'm assuming it's one of Frank Reinelt's hybrids - probably "Victor Reiter" or "Morgain." The fact that I purchased an E. "Alfred Graf" mislabeled as E."Victor Reiter" on the same trip, and failed to see anything else that remotely resembled E. "Victor Reiter" makes me think that's the ticket. Either way - food for thought and a little online succulenting.

Hi Walksimos! I see you just joined us here at DG. Are succulents your true love?

Yes, this is a Succulent Growing Grounds plant which I found and left at Orchards in Lafayette. I see his plants all over! I am forever thinking I will make it down to Watsonville but have not yet. I am afraid I will be tempted to go berserk and I am so out of room. Was it so exciting?

I googled Echeveria 'Martin's Hybrid' also but only found an eBay pic of it which described it as a clumping succulent and one from an Australian site. . Where else did you see it when googling? This does look like like a Echeveria agavoides. Look at these. http://www.echeveriasinoz.com/pics/yamatoren.jpg or http://www.echeveriasinoz.com/pics2/Vashon.jpg http://www.echeveriasinoz.com/pics/yamatoren.jpg

This message was edited Feb 3, 2010 5:46 AM

Have you seen this photo and followed the owner trying to ID it? Read thru the comments and look at the profile photo of this plant in the comment section.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hortulus_aptus/2181805564//
I LOVE this plant. I have been searching for it.

I have this plant below but no tag. I was hoping it was the same one as Hortulus has and would look more so with time and sun but mine is more concave. I am so sad.

This message was edited Feb 3, 2010 6:10 AM

So Hortulus concluded his was Echeveria Victor Reiter.
But I wonder. Scroll all the way down.
http://www.crassulaceae.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=320:echeveria-hybrids-isi&catid=45:hybrids&Itemid=15

I have thought of driving down every street in West Berkeley till I found his house to steal a leaf. LOL

I had this on my wish list at Flora Grubb and one day I got the call and I rushed all the way to that nursery. I went all over the nursery searching for it in a mad rush to claim my long wanted prize only to find out they really had a Taciveria 'Victor Reiter for me.which is so drab in comparison. I wanted PINK and what I got was so bleak. I was so disheartened.

Hi Kell!
Succulents are definitely one of my true loves. Echeverias, Semps, Aloes, Agaves, and Puyas in particular - I'm a sucker for the rosette-formers... You should absolutely make the trip down to Castroville if you can, despite your lack of space - it's a succulent paradise.

Anyway, I'm officially rescinding my comment that our plant is E. 'Victor Reiter' or 'Morgain'. I'd seen the Flikr thread posted by the user "Hortulus" and I sincerely doubt that his plant is different from ours.

An email exchange with a volunteer at UC Santa Cruz (where they have one of the most complete collections of Reinelt hybrids) led me to believe that 'Victor Reiter' is defined by a distinct purple hue, which our plant does not display. The updated information posted on the International Crassulaceae Network also mentions "leaves are strongly tinged with a purple violet hue." The pictures there (http://www.crassulaceae.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1000:echeveria-hybrids-list-v-en-fr&catid=78:list-hybrids&Itemid=15) show a plant with a much more squat structure, different coloration, and a different leaf-tip shape - resembling E. Cuspidata a lot more than our plant does.

A little more scrolling through the site led me to what I'm now sure is the right ID - E. 'Margaret Martin,' an agavoides x colorata hybrid from the UK. It's a dead ringer. Plus the name explains where the naming mistake likely happened at The Succulent Gardens. It's pictured in both the "Hybrids list A" (http://www.crassulaceae.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=331:echeveria-hybrids-list-a-engl-a-fr&catid=78:list-hybrids&Itemid=15) and "hybrids list M" (http://www.crassulaceae.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=937:echeveria-hybrids-list-m-engl-fr&catid=78:list-hybrids&Itemid=15) sections.
Check it out and see what you think.

This message was edited Apr 30, 2010 11:18 PM

Hi Walksimos. I must have gotten lost! Sorry! I found this discussion again trying to ID another lookalike. I agree just now looking at your photo links of E. 'Margaret Martin that it is similar. My only question is how big does it get? It looks small and yours on Flickr looks small too. The one I pictured above is quite large, over filling a 6 inch pot.

Have you discovered any more info in the intervening months?

And PS I have been down to Succulent Gardens now way too many times where they even will even let me leave without paying and leaving an I owe you. Very bad news for my husband. LOL

Here is my new one to ID. I think same one and even bigger than the 6 inch potted one.

Keep two things in mind when trying to ID any Echeveria agavoides: (1) Succulent Gardens is well-known for having the wrong names on their plants; and (2) E. agavoides comes in many different clones, each one looking very different from the other. People have taken advantage of this fact, and placed cultivar/hybrid names on them willy-nilly. For example, you could each have the same E. agavoides clone and one would be called E. a. 'Ebony' and the other E. a. 'Lipstick'. I don't know which E. agavoides your most recent one is, Kell.

I may email Succulent Gardens for I think now they have the name Echeveria Morgain on it. I am almost certain I have bought 2 there named that. Maybe I can find one of them tomorrow as I recall its general location unless it got moved into the hoophouse.

Look at this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/hortulus_aptus/2386539386/
And look down the comments as he shows 2 other photos.

Well, like I said, keep in mind that a lot of his plants are misnamed. The Adromischus I bought from him was ID'd as A. rosea when in fact (once again) there is no Adromischus with this species name. It is, in fact, the regular old A. rufescens. Just another example.

Hortulus is right in that many of the E. agavoides clones will look totally different depending on where/how they are grown. As to the E. Gilva he mentions, there are two forms - blue and red. The blue form stays green/blue and the red form gets red tints and can get very red under higher light.