Succulent Fancy

It was late April and the gardener in me just couldn't get enough gardening in. Lucky for me I have two friends with birthdays close together, so after a fun lunch at Twisters (I highly recommend it if you live in the Kansas City area. Delicious at the right price.) we headed back to my house and started a little project.

Succulents, its the craze for the last few years. And I'm just jumping on board. You can buy these little babies anywhere. I picked mine out at a couple different places. I don't claim to know everything about these little guys but I do have a few pointers. So here we go:

The really bright colorful succulents need to be outside in a real dry climate where they will soak up the heat. I stuck to shades of green. I will eventually put them outside this summer here in the midwest but the cool nights of spring are no place for them.



I do know that they may do ok in the midwest if planted in the ground outside as my sister in Iowa used to grow chicks and hens like crazy. So I bought a few of a different type and am trying it in my own Kansas yard.



Ok, Now, select a vessel. All I asked of my friends was to bring a vessel of their choice to our little planting party. This is the one I originally chose. I got it at a Thrift store. But when I saw the size of the plants versus the size of my vessel I had to think up something else.

I bought potting soil for cactus. You need a good draining soil. Succulent roots do not like to be wet.












Layer the bottom of your vessel with small stones. About an inch deep maybe less if you vessel is not tall as ours were.
















Now add your cactus potting mix.


















As you could see there are several little babies in each pot when I bought them. Carefully pull them apart. This is a great sharing craft planting party.











Now put their little bottoms in your dirt. Root side down of course. Sheryl wanted to place a few of the small stones on top of her soil. But I have full confidence my babies will grow so big I won't be able to see the soil in just a short time. The chicks and hens had little guys you can see them in the picture. Snip them off from momma and plant them with the stem in the soil. For more info on that check this out.The others had roots of their own already. That really big guy in the center of the pot was a little bigger. Before I planted him I snapped off several of the lower leaves.

Propogation: Lay these guys on a smooth flat surface for a few days. Then move them to a layer of soil. Now you can mist them. Just mist not drops of water. Remember succulents like it dry. You should see little shoots come off of them that will grow their own set of roots. Awesomesauce! Now you have more succulent friends to plant in other vessels. Here's more info.






Sorry, I got off track. Back to our new vessel of succulents. Water them to make the soil moist through and through. Now, hands off. Only mist if your soil is dry to the touch. Then after about a month lightly mist once a month. I used this site to gain more knowledge. I hope this helped. I got all my info off of different sites from Pinterest. Who doesn't love Pinterest? Right? So many cool ideas. 

Thanks for checking in on me. Next time I'll show you what I have been doing in the yard.

Linda