Succulent Sunday - Echeveria Imbricata

This morning I noticed that the Echeveria imbicata 'Briar Rose' in the pot with my crepe myrtle has started forming a bit of a crest:

Echeveria imbricata 'Briar Rose' cresting,
and not looking terribly awesome...

I bought the mother plant on ebay in 2009, and we had some good times, but over the years our relationship has deteriorated and isn't all that it should be.

I don't recall exactly, but I believe that the main plant I brought from our old unit to this place in 2011 was the original plant I bought (or possibly the head of the original plant) and before coming here all of my succulents had lived inside on sunny windowsills. Whether it was the change to outdoor living or 'its time', I don't know, but it ended up succumbing to the dreaded mealy bug, and the two babies that sprouted from a couple of the leaves that I saved haven't thrived.

Mother plant (center of in pot in middle of photo) with babies, flowering.
Obviously it gets its cresting tendencies from Mum... (Feb 2012)

Mother plant in better times (July 2011)

I don't know what it is with echeverias, but I do find them harder to keep alive than other succulents. They seem to fail to thrive and just look sickly all the time, and have a nasty time with all sorts of sap-sucking insects. It's probably something I'm doing (or not doing), or could it be climate - perhaps echeverias are less equipped to deal with the subtropics than other succulents? The only thing is that my MIL doesn't seem to have the same problem and she lives only a few suburbs away...

While it's a pity I can't grow them myself, I can still admire them in my MIL's garden, or online in other bloggers' gardens at least, which will just have to do!