Succulents and Righting Past Wrongs with Houseplants

Three weeks ago I posted here about my new plant obsession - succulents.

Since then I've posted about it on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and I've also made a YouTube video on the subject - why?

Background

As I said in my last post, my history with houseplants reads like the plot of a murder mystery, except I'm clearly the villain. I've starved them of light, water and food, then drowned them for a while, and finally dumped their lifeless forms in the compost heap - dark eh!

When I rescued a sad Echeveria 'Perle Von Nurnberg' to try my hand at succulent propagation, I fully expected to fail, but I've learnt so much recently, from various succulent websites and YouTubers, that my crown cuttings have rooted and are growing, babies are forming on the rooted stems, and many of the leaf cuttings have grown roots too.

Now

Spurred on by this success, I bought some more 'Perle Von Nurnberg' from the reduced section of my local DIY store, bought some unidentified Echeveria, a Graptopetalum 'Opalina', and some Pachyphytum oviferum (aka Moonstones) cuttings, plus some mixed cutting from Little Bunny Lilac's Etsy store. My collection was growing fast

Then I realised I had a problem -  I'd run out of window sill space!

We had a large plastic shelving unit going spare, so I decided to invest in some grow lights, and fit them to the shelves for a fancy grow-station.

After lots of research, I went for the Sunblaster Nano Tech T5 light combo kits. They come with the full-spectrum light tube, a reflector, fittings and fixings, a power cable and a double ended cable so you can connect two lamps together. If you would like to see me installing the lights, then do watch the Youtube video, I'd appreciate the views (and don't forget to like,share and subscribe while you're there ;-) )

I started with four lamps, enough for two shelves...then I went on a shopping spree at Surreal Succulents, and had to buy two more for a third shelf - Oops

Succulent Grow Shelves

So here we are just three weeks down the line, and I have already had to expand my infrastructure twice over. I'd better not do it again in three weeks time!

Let's give you a list of the plants on the shelves, as far as I can, many plants are supplied unlabelled, and Echeveria for example come in hundreds and hundreds of hybrid varieties. Unless you have bought a named variety, grown from a named variety parent plant by a reputable source, you will be unlikely to identify it with any certainty.

Echeveria	Runyonii ‘Topsy Turvy’	‘Perle von Nurnberg’	prolifica
Graptoveria	‘Opalina’	‘Debbie’	acaulis	‘Pik Ruza’
Sedum	morganianum burrito	Rubrotinctum ‘Aurora’	‘Sandra Mottram’	clavatum
Crassula	ovata	mesembryanthemoides	ovata ‘Gollum’	‘Horn tree’	perforata	tetragona
Sedeveria	‘Leitzia’
Haworthia	cooperii
Pachyphytum	oviferum
Kalachoe	pumila
Senecio	rowleyanus
Cremnosedum	‘Little Gem’

My succulent journey is well and truly on the way, I'm looking forward to propagating lots of young plants so that I can start making projects with them all. Keep a look out for upcoming posts and YouTube videos.

Love
PB xx

The Start of a New Obsession - Succulents

You know when you get that 'feeling' about something or someone, and you just know it's the start of something big? Well recently I got that for an Echeveria at the local DIY superstore.

Echeveria - Isn't it pretty!

Historically, I've not had huge success with houseplants, and after a while I get annoyed with crusty looking soil, dusty window ledges and sunlight being blocked from rooms. Not to mention my extreme clumsiness - potted plants and cream carpets do not mix!

Then I was given a Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis), then another, and another...I've got about 10 now (I think), they really love my West/ Northwest facing kitchen window. Then someone gave me their ancient Hoya (Wax Flower). I was terrified I'd kill it, but it also adores my kitchen window sill!

As I watched more videos from my favourite YouTuber (besides myself of course lol), Laura at Garden Answer, I realised how diverse the world of succulents is, the stunning arrangements you can create with them, and the propagation techniques you can try and (hopefully) master. My interest was piqued, but I wanted to start gently. So I got myself some Sempervivum (aka houseleeks, Hen and Chicks or Ice Plants), and created some exciting outdoor planters and projects.

Sempervivum are a brilliant way into the world of succulents

Sempervivum are completely hardy in the UK, and will survive down to zone 4 in the USA (−34.4 °C (−30 °F)) - That's pretty darn cold!! The range of colours and textures is lovely, and they are so easy to propagate. When the 'mother' plant (or Hen) grows baby offshoots (chicks) on thick fiberous 'stems', you can either gently pull them off the hen and plant them somewhere else, or allow them to form a beautiful clump. Eventually the hen will die (after about 3 years), and you can take that opportunity to renovate the clump, or just position some of the chicks on top of the brown patch the hen leaves behind.

The large central 'Hen' surrounded by her 'Chicks'

They are quite the most forgiving succulent, and being outdoor plants are much much less demanding than indoor (tender) succulents.

But then I saw it...shriveled and stretched out (etiolated), planted in a chunky glass container with no drainage and marked down from £5 to £2...

The true state of this poor Echeveria

So I thought, I could use this poor sad creature to practice propagation etc on, the worst thing that could happen is that I kill it outright, and lose £2, but potentially I could have 10-12 leaves, a crown and a rooted stem to grow new plants from - isn't that a really exciting concept?

In fact it was so exciting that the following day I went back and bought the other 3 discounted Echeveria and created this...

Leaf cuttings and Crown cuttings read to get growing

80 leaf cuttings, five crowns, four rooted stems (not shown), and an experiment with an unrooted stem, which unfortunately started to go mouldy, so I threw it away for the health of all the other cuttings.

I should mention that there is a really important step in between taking the cuttings and laying them on damp soil to form roots, and that is to allow the wet wounds to dry out and form a callous. This prevents the cuttings soaking up too much water and rotting off. It can take 3-5 days for this to happen, and smaller wounds will callous faster than large ones like crown cuttings.

In this photo the cuttings and soil surface had just been damped down with a spray bottle, I will now leave them alone for a week or so in a bright location, but out of direct sunlight.

This is a brave new world for me, and you can fully expect more blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts on the subject.

Do you have a passion for succulents? Have you had a go a propagating them? Leave me a comment below and lets have a chat :)

Love
PB xx