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Reblooming your kalanchoe

On Tue, 14 Oct 1997, Helen Wu wrote:

> By the way - did anyone ever answer that posted question regarding kalanchoe
> and dormancy?  I trimmed back my kalanchoe after the blooming season and am
> watering it sparingly while it sits in a quiet, low light room in my
> apartment.  Is this the right thing to do?  Until when?  How will I know
> when it is time to bring it back into a bright room and start watering it
> again?

Dear Helen Wu,
	I won a kalanchoe as a raffled table favor at a begonia club
dinner party (forgot the species name, which I happened upon right after I
got the plant).  It was one of those common-in-florist shops types, and
had almost electrically bright fuchsia-colored flowers.  I gave it to a
friend to grow on his front  porch, and it looked good for at least a month.

	However, I read that it is difficult to bloom them the following
year, and nearly impossible to get the same amount of bloom that a
commercial greenhouse grower does.  One author recommended throwing the
plant out and getting a new one.  I'm not saying that you should give up
and do that (far from it; it always seems so wasteful to throw out a
perennial plant), but just wanted to warn you that it might not be easy
getting it to bloom as nicely as it was probably blooming when you got it.
Some of the books on succulents might give some useful suggestions for
growing the plant from  now  on, sorry that I don't have any information
on that.

Cordially,

Keith Dabney

PS:  Oh, in case some of our members have never heard this genus
pronounced, it's "KAL an coe ee".
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