Plant in full coastal sun to shade and is cold hardy into the mid-20°s F without damage. It is particularly water thrifty in shade and for this reason this plant is often found in shady neglected corners of older gardens where it survives without irrigation but seems to look better and will flower more regularly when grown in full sun with infrequent irrigation.

The name Kalanchoe as described by the French botanist Michel Adanson in 1763 was an adaption of a name for a plant in the genus in a Chinese dialect, most likely a dialect of Hokkien, spoken by overseas Chinese in the Philippines in the late 1600s. The name came to Adason's attention through Georg Joseph Kamel (Camellus or Cameli), a Czechian botanist and Jesuit missionary in the Philippines. Kamel referred to this plant as "kalanchauhuy" in his writings with 'ka-lan' being a Buddhist term for the physical grounds, gardens, or groves of a temple combined with 'huy' meaning a "flower". The name for the genus Camellia also honors Kamel. Though it seems that the correct pronunciation of the genus should be kal-an-KOH-ee, there are some who pronounce it "kal-an-choe" with some claiming the former is the American pronunciation and the latter the British, while others point to the Chinese origin of the word and suggest it might be pronounced "ka-lan-choi". The specific epithet from the root word 'caro' means "of flesh" or "fleshy" in reference to the thick fleshy leaves of this plant.

Kalanchoe carnea 'Modoc' has been in cultivation in Southern California for many years as Kalanchoe 'Modoc' with the name 'Modoc' that is believed to be in reference to Modoc Road in Santa Barbara. John Bleck, aloe breeder and Santa Barbara's senior plantsman extraordinaire, thought the plant collected from the Harvey estate on Modoc Road during a visit there by a 1962 Hortus West Tour to Santa Barbara that was organized by Elizabeth (Betty) Marshall and it was then that this plant was noted growing there and this was when UCLA botanic garden manager (later the UCLA Mathias Botanic Garden) Dave Verity got a cutting and circulated the plant in Southern California as Kalanchoe 'Modoc'. Another possibility shared with us by the late Ray Sodomka, owner of Turk Hessellund Nursery in Montecito, was that his nursery's namesake, Thorkild (Turk) Hessellund, had moved the nursery from its original site on Modoc Road and he later told Ray that this plant was growing in abundance at that location and so called the plant by this name.

The botanical name Kalanchoe carnea remained unknown to us until 2002 when Mr. Stephen Jankalski alerted us that this plant is a selection of Kalanchoe carnea and that the plant was popular in Europe from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Nicholas Edward Brown first described Kalanchoe carnea in The Gardeners' Chronicle in 1886 but did so from garden collected material received from a Mr. H. Laver, the Mayor of Colchester, northeast of London and the plant was thought to have come from either from the Cape Region of South Africa or from Nepal. The World Checklist of Vascular Plants however currently synonymizes this species as Kalanchoe laciniata, a plant that ranges from the Arabian Peninsula west to Eritrea on the Horn of Africa (the Somali Peninsula) so to northwest Namibia.

We grew this plant from 1998 on after getting a cutting from a Santa Barbara garden. 

Information displayed on this page about Kalanchoe carnea 'Modoc' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.