These plants are 5 month old rooted cuttings. They started as rosettes on this plant (pictured in bloom about a year ago):



Here pictured in October shortly before beheading:



And preparation of cuttings for propagation.

How old was the plant that these came from and what is its fate afterwards. I see this is titled "A year in the life of...". Does it re-sprout from the rootstock? Do you treat your cut surface or harden them off? Thanks for sharing this process.

The original plant was a 5 year old seedling. It died and was reborn through the process of making those cuttings and rooting them last October. I don't save the bottom part after I behead these plants. You can try to cut the heads off one by one so as not to kill the mother plant, but I went all the way this time. It's easier if you can work from the bottom.

There were 13 heads, some doubles, of which 1 was given away and the 12 you saw were planted. I let them sit in a bright, dry place with good airflow for a couple of weeks and then pot them up mostly on top of the soil (just the little nubbin of stem buried). Timing is important when you propagate Dudleyas this way... always best to start in the fall.

So the "year in the life of" included a period of rootlessness, which was surprisingly brief.

For what it's worth, I think all Dudleyas that branch can be propagated this way. And the solitary ones you can force to branch by coring, then root the branches when they are big enough. Depends on how bold you are with a paring knife really. These plants are incredibly resilient and they really want to root in the fall and winter. But you cannot grow them from leaves like you might with Echeverias or other members of that family.

There are some differences evident in the pictures above, with respect to color and rosette size... and that's not just a change in camera, it's more because of the change of seasons. At the start of spring, Dudleyas are their lushest and fullest and most photogenic. Then through spring and summer (the dry season here, their dormant season) the rosettes shrink up dramatically, and some of them change color. By the start of fall the rosettes are at their tightest and smallest. The seasonal changes might be 2-fold or so. I am not going to repot these propagations until the fall even though some of them look like they are already filling their pots. The more reliable way to know when they need a bigger pot is to do a head count. The mother plant had 18 heads in a pot just one size up from where these 1 or 2-headed plants are currently.