Guest author Dan Songster submitted this article featuring Chalk Dudleya as the Plant of the Month for May.

• Dudleya pulverulenta (Chalk Dudleya or Chalk Liveforever)
• Type: Perennial Succulent
• Light: Can take full sun on coast but likes a bit of shade inland
• Soil: Good draining, rocky soils best
• Water: Can live with only rainfall, often okay to water carefully in early summer

The Basics 

California has many lovely Dudleya species and one of the showiest you will ever see is found here in Orange County! It is our native Dudleya pulverulenta, commonly called Chalk Dudleya.

The striking silver grey foliage is obviously the most recognizable aspect of this plant. Its basal rosette can measure a foot and a half in diameter and almost the same in height. What a beauty!

Up close in sunlight, the chalky powder coating on the leaves gives it an almost white appearance that is particularly attractive in early morning or evening when it tends to glow. The chalky, farinose covering helps protect the plant from temperature extremes. 

In the Garden

Introduced into horticulture by Theodore Payne, he wrote in his plant catalog in 1941:

“An odd looking succulent having large leaves in a symmetrical rosette from which rise flower stems 2 to 2 1/2 feet high crowned with large numbers of pale red flowers. Both the leaves and flower stems are covered with a dense white bloom as if dusted over with flour. Gallon cans, 35 cents.”

I certainly do NOT consider it “odd looking,” but I like his price of 35 cents! It is a strikingly attractive plant that can make quite the addition to almost any garden or landscape style. 

As mentioned above, the foliage stands out in the landscape, but from May to July, one to several stout pow­dery white arching stalks extend out from the main plant by up to 3 feet, topped with cherry red, bell-shaped flowers hanging downward. They are such lovely decorations! Those flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds.

How to Grow 

Those attempting to grow the plant in their gardens are advised to plant it in a more or less horizontal position. Chalk Dudleya needs good drainage and thus is most commonly found in nature on the sides of sandy, rocky cliffs. Understandably, in your garden, they would ideally like a situation that mimics their cliff dweller nature, such as tucking them into rock gardens, into beds with sandy and rocky soils, tucked into crevices in rock walls, or used in containers.

Terry LePage’s California native plant blog entry, Darling Dudleya, wrote:

“Dudleya like to be planted at an angle to prevent water from pooling in their rosettes, and they like impeccable drainage. So plant them horizontally. Really. The ultimate rock garden plant. Also, they look cool growing horizontally. My very own Dudleya pulverulenta was languishing at the top of a mound, ‘till I yanked it out and jammed it horizontally into the steepest slope I had in the shade. Now it is happy.”

If you lack a steep embankment or hillside, and especially if you have clay soils, simply dig out where you will be planting it and amend with generous amounts of sand, pea gravel, or decomposed granite, creating a shallow mound. Add a fair-sized boulder on the south side and, as mentioned, it is best to plant Dudleya at an angle to allow water to drain off its leaves.

San Marcos Growers say that although “this plant tolerates going without irrigation in summer, it can look better with careful watering below the foliage.” Bert Wilson of Las Pilitas Nursery agrees, emphasizing that any water be kept off the foliage. 

Some folks avoid watering in summer almost completely and simply let the plant leaves dry out, turn reddish, then desiccate. The plant can seem to almost disappear until the winter rains when the succulent leaves regrow (coming back to life seemingly overnight), prompting one of its familiar common names: Dudleya Live-Forever.

Encounter in Nature

One lasting memory I have was on a field trip in the Santa Ana Mountains 25 years ago. Our group saw Chalk Dudleyas coating a steep canyon wall more than 200 yards away. In the shaded canyon, the large fleshy leaves give it the coloration of old coke bottles from a distance with their shimmering blue-gray-green. That is when I fell in love with Dudleya pulverulenta!

Another Chalky Dudleya

Travelers going south into Baja Mexico find Britton’s Dudleya (Dudleya brittonii) in the coastal areas on the Pacific side of Baja California between Tijuana and Ensenada, and on Isla Todos Santos, where it grows on cliffs and hilly areas in lava rock and other very porous soils. It may be found in another country, but that part of Baja is still well within our California Floristic Provence.

With very similar looking leaves, it is also quite showy as a result of that striking rosette. In fact, most people can’t tell the difference between these two Live Forevers until they flower. Stout silvery-white spikes arch upward and blush red as the clusters of pale yellow flowers begin to open in late spring to early summer. The silvery-white flower spikes of Britton’s Dudleya are not at all like the Chalk Dudleya we mentioned with its cherry red teardrop-shaped flowers hanging down off of bright white stems. 

Britton’s Dudleya does best if planted in a well-drained soil in full sun along the coast, but it needs protection from afternoon sun in hotter inland locations. 

The Biggest Difference

Between these two Liveforevers, Britton’s Dudleya is by far easier to grow. I mean it is night and day! I will never stop growing Chalk Dudleya but I understand the feelings of gardeners such as Gerhard Bock, who writes in his Succulents and More Blog:

“That wasn’t the first Dudleya pulverulenta I’ve killed; in fact, it was my third. Following my maxim that you have to kill a plant three times to conclusively determine that it’s not suited for your garden, I’m now done with this species and will stick with Dudleya brittonii, which is beautiful and forgiving.”

Have you grown Chalk Dudleya or a Britton’s Dudleya in your garden? Has one Dudleya been easier for you than the other? Write us back and share your experience with us.