If you’re new to the plant lady life, you’ve probably been introduced to succulents! I’m trying my darnedest to get my green thumb skills nailed down! I love the warmth and natural vibe plants and succulents bring to a home. I’ve currently got two houseplants that I’ve managed to keep alive for some time now, but I recently turned my focus to my succulents!
You see, people say that succulents are basically immortal. Um, not for me. Ha! I’ve somehow managed to kill off my fair share of succulents. And I don’t really know why. Sigh.
So, I’m learning as I go and thought I’d share in case anyone else out there is trying to keep plants and succulents alive in their homes!
Side Note: I just ran across Laura with Garden Answer, and if you are like me and fairly new to this Plant Lady gig, go watch some of her videos. This one, in particular, has great tips for caring for succulents if you’re just getting started!
And let’s just all make a deal with ourselves right here and now – repeat after me – If I do not succeed in keeping this round of succulents alive, I will commit to only purchasing faux succulents thereafter. LOL!
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Where I’m at in My PLant Lady Journey
Here was my situation… I had a graveyard of succulents gathering around the house. It was getting really sad. And the one succulent I had managed to keep alive was getting leggy and didn’t look all that great anymore. I also had managed to keep an Aloe Vera plant alive, but it looked like it was on its last leg. Something needed to be done!
I picked up a few more succulents to round out the cuttings from my leggy succulent, and then got to work repotting and making a fresh attempt at keeping succulents alive!
Here’s what you need:
- Old Sheet
- Knife or clean scissors
- Garden gloves
- Succulents you want to pot or repot
- Planters you want to use
- Pea Gravel/Pebbles of your choice
- Cactus Soil Mix
- Water
step 1: Prep Your Workspace
The first thing I did was prep my workspace for a super easy cleanup – I’m not a fan of making messes (I’ve got enough messes going on in this house already!). This consisted of using a backup bed sheet draped over our kitchen island.
Then, I gathered all the succulents I wanted to work with. I emptied and cleaned up the planters I wanted to use. Embarrassingly, some of those were the graveyards for old succulents I never cleaned out. Judge me if you want.
I also fixed a little planter that I really love! It brings me joy and has a built-in drain tray, so I thought it was worth salvaging. Somewhere along the line, one piece of it had broken off so I just super-glued it back on. Ta-da!
And finally, I’ve kept a candle jar that I’d burned up because I loved it so much. It was time to clean out the wax residue and repurpose!
If you have candle jars that you are fond of and have another use for, I just used my electric kettle (that thing has so many uses!) to boil some water and poured it right into the candle jar. Then, let it sit for a bit and the wax will melt and then begin to rise to the top, floating. It will begin to solidify again. Then, you can just grab the solidified wax out and dump the water (once it’s cooled off). So easy!
Step 2: Prep Planters
Once all of your planters are prepped and ready to be used, you can go ahead and start filling the bottoms of them with your pea gravel (or pebbles). This is an important step when working with succulents, as they need well-draining soil.
I’ve always used a thin layer of pebbles at the bottoms of my planters, but if you have the right soil (palm and citrus potting mix) you could probably get by without them. If your planters have holes at the bottom or a drainage tray, then it’s even less likely that you have to have pebbles at the bottom. The key is to have optimum root aeration!
Step 3: Prep Plants
As I mentioned above, I had one succulent that was getting really “leggy” and sprawling out in an ugly and unruly fashion. I’ve since learned that plants and succulents will do this because they are not getting enough light. The proper term for this is called etiolation.
It was time to trim it and use those cuttings to propagate new plants! My friend, Keisha, over at 1 Oak told me how to trim them appropriately. I wanted to save the healthy portions of the plant, so I made a clean cut between two leaf nubs to create quite a few new cuttings.
For this type of succulent, I chose to use an entire clipping to start a new plant. If you have other types that have leaves that are plump and easily pop off (like at the top left of the photos below), you can use each individual leaf to propagate new succulents.
I’d encourage you to go watch this video of etiolated succulents and how to propagate correctly! I’m a very visual person, and this is a very informative video.
Step 4: Match your succulents with Planters
The next thing I did was plot out which succulents were going to be used in each planter since I had quite a few to work with (seven total).
I take note of colors and how the plant will grow when I plot this out. Here are some questions to consider: Will it grow wide and need space or just up? Will that color go well with the planter? Is there room for one or more succulents in this space?
Step 5: POtting succulents
Once I’ve got all of my plants matched with a planter, I begin potting them all.
Once you get them all potted up, go ahead and give them a good bit of water. From what I’ve read, until the roots are well established, you want to give them more water than you will once they are mature. I gave all of mine a decent drenching.
do as i say, not as i do
Now, I want to be upfront here because I know now that this is where I believe I made a mistake (however, the jury is still out on if it was truly a mistake because technically all of the succulents I planted are still alive! haha!). BUT, I want you to do better than me the first time around!
In hindsight, I probably should have let the new trimmings dry out a bit before watering. From the video, it said to let them dry out for 2-4 days. Instead, I just “nested” my little trimmings into the planters and watered them like the other new succulents. If you are propagating individual leaves, you definitely want to let them dry out until their raw edge is calloused over.
Then, you simply lay those on top of shallow soil and let them do their thing for a couple of months. You are supposed to spritz them with water every few days. They’ll eventually sprout new flowers. Once the flowers are big enough, you can pot them. And that’s how you get yourself some free succulents!
Another confession (sigh): I had just a couple of leaves pop off during repotting, so I kept them. I made the mistake of “nesting” them into the soil at first (and watering way too much), but I’ve since laid them on top of the soil. I’ll see if they propagate over the next couple of months.
Step 6: Water New Succulents
As I mentioned above, I should have been more careful as I was watering my succulents because I had trimmings/leaves mixed in with already mature succulents. So, we’ll see how things turn out.
However, any new succulent you plant, go ahead and water them. You don’t want to have a surplus of water pooling at the bottom of your planter, so dump it out of the drainage tray if it’s got too much.
Step 7: Clean up
Clean up is always the worst, amiright? But not this time… if you followed my directions and used an old sheet or blanket to do your work, simply roll it up into itself, take it outside, and shake everything out of it. Then throw it in the wash! Easy peasy!
Better yet, do all the work outside and your cleanup will be even easier.
Other Tips
I’d be sure to read the light and watering recommendations that come on your succulent’s tag when you buy it, but just keep an eye on it and water it every couple weeks until you figure out what it needs to thrive in your home.
You can also keep a record of which succulent varieties you have and do some research to see more specifics about how to care for it. I don’t get very serious about this type of stuff (clearly!), but it might be beneficial if you’re serious about success!
From what i’ve learned about succulents so far, it seems to be a bit of an experiment to get them to thrive in your home. You may have to move them to a different area for different light. Water them more or less. Just give it your best shot and see what you can make of it!
And with that, I hope you enjoy your new little plant buddies! I’ll have to report back on how things turned out with this bunch of succulents. Do you enjoy succulents in your home? Which ones are your favorite? Let me know in the comments.
To the Chaos!
-MG
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