Here are some awesome Succulents that Change Color that you can grow in your home and garden for that unique change of shade!
You might have seen these fleshy plants in a shade of green mostly, but there are Succulents that Change Color according to sunlight exposure, watering, and temperature. Find out the best ones in this article.
Have a look at some stunning colorful succulents here
Why Succulents Change their Colors?
Sun, water, and temperature play a vital role in determining the color of succulents. These plants take their best color when exposed to more sun and might appear dull and pale if they don’t get proper light.
Similarly, keeping the succulent underwatered or in a slightly stressed state, for example in bit root bound pot, will bring out the colors. Watering them regularly will make them appear deep green.
Temperature also plays a significant role in the shade of these plants. Some succulent varieties change the color of the foliage in the cold season.
Quick Tip: Keeping the succulents in bright sunlight for long, watering them less, and keeping them root bound is the best way to make them colorful!
Succulents that Change Color
1. Sunset Aloe
Botanical Name: Aloe dorotheae
Sunset aloe changes its color to light green in partial shade and fierce shiny red in full sun. The foliage develops white spikes beside its edges when exposed to bright light.
Have a look at some amazing Aloe varieties here
2. Kiwi Aeonium
Botanical Name: Aeonium haworthii ‘Dream Color’
Also known as ‘Dream Color,’ this showy succulent offers a rosette of spoon-shaped fleshy leaves with a creamy-yellow center that slowly changes into the bright pink-orange color with a thin rose-red band at the margins.
Here are the best Aeonium types you can grow
3. Red Pagoda
Botanical Name: Crassula capitella
This branching succulent has fleshy yellow-green leaves adorned in bright red tips. The color will get more intense in winter in response to cool nights and bright sun.
Tip: For best leaf color, provide full sun with some shade by saving the plant from mid-day heat during hot months.
4. Chocolate Sundae
Botanical Name: Sempervivum Heuffelii ‘Chocolate Sundae’
‘Chocolate Sundae’ offers beautiful rosettes with bright red tips and a lime-green center. The red hue turns more intense according to the season or when exposed to bright sunlight.
5. Red Rubin
Botanical Name: Sempervivum ‘Red Rubin’
‘Red Rubin’ has an evergreen rosette of fleshy emerald green foliage patterned with burgundy red tips. This variety changes its color with the season, which intensifies in cool climates.
6. Crosby’s Prolific
Botanical Name: Aloe ‘Crosby’s Prolific’
This beautiful succulent offers a rosette of deep green foliage with speckled skin and toothed edges. You can make it intense red by keeping the plant in bright sunlight and see the foliage changing color into exquisite orange-red!
7. Perle Von Nurnberg
Botanical Name: Echeveria ‘Perle Von Nurnberg’
This echeveria is popular for solitary green rosette that changes its color to purple-pink under direct sunlight. It looks great in small pots and works best as a tabletop plant.
Have a look at the best Echeveria types here
8. Raindrops
Botanical Name: Echeveria ‘Rain Drops’
This gorgeous variety has droplet-like globular bumps near the tips of light-green foliage with red edges. The leaves change color to red or pink in bright light and cold weather.
9. Transiens
Botanical Name: Haworthia transiens
This haworthia variety has a rosette of fleshy light green leaves. If you want to change the color, place it under full sun, and the leaves will turn brown-red with translucent edges!
10. Hummel’s Sunset
Botanical Name: Crassula ovata ‘Hummel’s Sunset’
‘Hummel’s Sunset’ was awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993 for its beautiful leaf color. It changes color from green to gold and red in winter.
Check out different types of jade plants here
11. Giant Jelly Bean
Botanical Name: Sedum lucidum ‘Obesum’
‘Obesum’ displays round, fat, glossy green foliage that turns into stunning cherry-red in full sun. The plant also forms star-shaped white blooms.
Check out more color-changing sedum varieties here
12. Voodoo
Botanical Name: Sedum spurium ‘Voodoo’
This showy plant makes for a great groundcover. It showcases evergreen foliage, which turns into a deep pink hue in the intense heat of summers with rose-pink flowers!
13. Melaco
Botanical Name: Echeveria ‘Melaco’
The bright green rosette of the plant changes its color to shiny brown-red when exposed to the sun. It also grows flowers in orange color that are bell-shaped!
14. Alpenglow
Botanical Name: Graptosedum ‘Alpenglow’
A hybrid, it is also a great plant for hanging baskets, thanks to its trailing stems. The rosette has a green hint, and the plant takes a brilliant hue of pink-red in bright sunlight and infrequent watering.
15. Pencil Cactus
Botanical Name: Euphorbia tirucalli
With thin pencil-like foliage, the plant looks quite a stunner with its green foliage. Expose it to bright sun and you’ll see it take a magnificent hue of red-orange.
16. Black Prince
Botanical Name: Echeveria ‘Black Prince’
The small and short rosette of this plant has a bright green color initially, which slowly turns into a shade of deep brown. Grow it in full sun and watch it transform!
17. Moonstones
Botanical Name: Pachyphytum oviferum
With its cute chubby leaves, this is a must-have plant in your succulent collection. The plant has silvery blue-green leaves that turn to pink-purple in prolonged sun exposure.
18. Paddle Plant
Botanical Name: Kalanchoe luciae
The plant has smooth to touch flat leaves that are initially green in color. If you want the foliage to be in the shade of red-pink, keep it in sunlight for long!
Have a look at some great Kalanchoe varieties here
19. Houseleek
Botanical Name: Sempervivum tectorum
Hens and Chicks is an evergreen succulent variety, which looks quite stunning with its tiny rosette offsets. It takes a shade of pink-red when exposed to sunlight for long.
20. Black Beauty
Botanical Name: Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’
If you love dark foliaged plants, then you must grow this one! It takes a dark purple color in plenty of sun and almost looks black from a distance.
