Potting Succulent Cuttings
Among my favorite plants are the exotic forms of succulents - they make excellent container specimens.
If you like growing plants, but don’t really have the time to care for them properly, I encourage you to consider growing succulents. Succulents are so easy to maintain and are able to survive prolonged drought because they store moisture in their fleshy stems, roots, and leaves. Some succulents look like smooth stones, while others display perfect rosettes or puffing, crescent moon-shaped leaves on long stems. Not long ago, I was gifted some beautiful succulent cuttings to add to my growing collection.
Here are some photos.
-
- Succulents are often grown as ornamental plants because of their striking shapes. Succulents, or fat plants, are those that store water in fleshy leaves, stems, or stem-root structures for times of drought. Most varieties need lots of light, at least half a day to a full day of sunlight.
-
- Recently, I was gifted a nice selection of cuttings. Most succulents root easily in the right container and soil. As soon as I got these cuttings back to the farm, I gave them to Ryan to pot up.
-
- Among these beautiful succulent cuttings – aeonium, euphorbia, senecio, jade, prickly pear cactus, and aloe.
-
- Ryan chooses the appropriate size container for each specimen. I’ve been using Guy Wolff pots for many years – he makes every one of them by hand. I love the patina on these vessels.
-
- For succulents, we use a mix specifically formulated for succulents. This mix contains sand and perlite to help prevent soil compaction and improve drainage. The right soil mix will help to promote faster root growth and provide quick anchorage to young roots.
-
- Ryan also adds in some horticultural sand, a very gritty sand made from crushed granite, quartz, or sandstone. Horticultural sand is often known as sharp sand, coarse sand, or quartz sand.
-
- Ryan sprinkles some Osmocote fertilizer with the soil and sand. Osmocote particles include a core of nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
-
- Ryan thoroughly mixes all the elements in a trug bucket. Because succulents don’t like wet roots, it is important to use a soil mixture that is appropriate and will drain well.
-
- Each pot has a drainage hole. A clay shard is placed over the hole to help with drainage. I also like to use clay pots because they allow proper aeration and moisture to penetrate through the sides and to the plant.
-
- Ryan fills the pots with the soil mix, adding just enough so it is filled up to a half inch below the top of the pot. He also lightly taps on the soil, so it packs into the container for added support.
-
- Opuntia, commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae. Prickly pear cactus is easily identified by its broad, flat, green pads. They also have tiny, sharp, and irritating barbed hairs on the pads known as glochids.
-
- The butt end of the cactus pad is left alone for a couple days to heal and dry before setting it in sandy, well-drained soil. In fact, all the new succulents were left to form calluses where they were severed from the mother plants.
-
- Then, using thick protective gloves, Ryan inserts the base end of the prickly pear cactus into the pot just enough so it stands upward.
-
- Ryan adds some pea gravel to the top of the pot. Pea gravel, so named because the pieces are pea-sized, is available at garden centers and comes in different colors.
-
- Here are four smaller specimens planted in one pot. Succulents grow in so many different and interesting formations. I often bring succulents into my home when I entertain – guests love seeing and learning about the different varieties.
-
- Senecio is another succulent grown for its decorative foliage. It is a great plant for trailing over a planter. Before planting, Ryan trims off anything unsightly, along with any leaves that are too close to the bottom of the stem and then just presses the stem into the soil mix.
-
- Aeoniums are fleshy, succulent plants native to Madeira, the Canary Islands and North Africa. Members of the Crassulaceae family, they have rosettes of glossy, waxy leaves.
-
- Aeoniums are mostly grown for their distinctive, unusual shapes and foliage that comes in shades of green or purple-black or variegated in shades of white, yellow, and red.
-
- Here is one in dark purple with a deep green center.
-
- Succulent roots are light in color, long enough to hold the dirt in the pot, and veiny. Healthy roots will appear moist and will taper in thickness the further they get from the plant.
-
- This is a jade plant, Crassula ovata. These succulents look like little trees, with a thick central stem, branches, and oval, green succulent leaves.
-
- A stem cutting should be a few inches long. Ryan also cut off the lower leaves before inserting into the pot.
-
- In the front is euphorbia, a genus of more than 2000 species commonly called spurge. About 1200 of them are succulents, some with unusual shapes and wide, fleshy leaves. After potting, these plants are placed on a table where they can drink in lots of natural light even when the sun isn’t directly over their pots. I am so happy to add all these to my growing collection of succulent specimens.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
