Grow a Succulent Garden

This lens is a tribute to succulent gardening. Succulents are drought-tolerant, winter hardy, water-wise and so easy to grow. These evergreen perennials need very little care, are easily propagated and turn your garden from drab to fab.

I am showcasing my first succulent hanging garden and the arrangements of various colorful rosettes. These are indeed one of nature's wonders.

All pictures were taken by me (Bakerwoman).

This is a striking readymade succulent hanging garden which I quickly snapped from the local nursery in the summer of 2011. You can see why I could not pass this up. I usually flinch at the sight of thorny cacti, but these succulents were predominantly rosettes with only one centrally located plant lined with sharp yellow teeth. It found its home in a sunny location in the backyard trellis which can be viewed from the breakfast nook.

Winter came and went and my plan to protect this warm weather specimen by stationing it in a drier and warmer location did not pan out. To my amazement, the succulents tolerated the low 40s winter weather and rain and have sprouted little rosettes and stalks of attractive flowers.

It was a nice and warm Sunday morning, and I went out to the backyard with my trusted camera for chance meetings with interesting subjects-- like hummingbirds, wild turkeys, crows, and perhaps, parasailers. Kidding aside, I was lucky enough to take pictures of all mentioned. However, I was distracted by three stalks of clustered bell-shaped flowers standing proud and tall over the succulent hanging basket. The dense colony of rosettes have matured and grown with baby offshoots in displays of green, yellow, mauve, and tinges of pinks. Strands of trailing succulents hang down on both sides of the hanging basket. It was then that I decided to take photos of each type of succulent and introduce them to the readers in a lens.

Cacti and succulents are desert plants and retain water and therefore do not need regular watering like normal plants.

Also known as 'Liveforever' and 'Houseleeks'

Latin translation: Semper means forever and vivo means live. The name "Sempervivum" has its origin in the Latin Semper ("always") and vivus ("living"). Sempervivum are called "always living" because this perennial plant keeps its leaves in winter and is very resistant to difficult conditions of growth. (Wikipedia)

Plants send out many offspring, forming a dense colony. The parent rosettes are the hens, and the smaller rosettes are the chicks. The foliage of hens and chicks plants are normally green at the base and reddish brown at the tip, all with close, rigid dented edges.

The layers of silver-gray and pink longish leaves forming the rosettes of the Graptoveria acualis are one of nature's wonders. It is an evergreen perennial with succulent leaves. Tiny cream colored flowers sprout in Spring. Propagation is by leaf cuttings, offsets, and seeds.

This Graptoveria rosette has pale-yellow petals partly due to its location in the sheltered side of the trellis. It is tucked away on the right side of the hanging basket (3 o'clock) and only gets filtered sunlight. The foliage are known to turn pink to pale-pink in the Summer, silvery-grey and blue in all seasons.

The Aeonium rosettes are the size of saucers, some up to 9" wide. The arrangement of the leaves look like a pinwheel, hence its name pinwheel plant. It is a native of the Canary Islands and Morocco, and thrives in dry, sunny locations.

The starter succulent basket had two Aeonium rosettes last Summer and now has two additional shiny and eye-catching pinwheels.

Spectacular bloomers

This intimidating rosette of sword-shaped leaves with yellow teeth along the leaf edges and tips almost stopped me from taking the succulent basket home. I usually shy away from thorny cacti and plants with spikes.These usually do not like me. It is appropriately named Aloe distans as I stay away from it as much as possible.

Echeveria coccinea has velvety leaves covered in a fine silvery fuzz giving the leaves a blue-green color. Echeveria is named after the 18th century Spanish botanist Atanasio Echeverria Codoy.The species name "coccinea" comes from "coccineus" = "red" referring to the petals that are yellowish-white at the base and red (coccineus) at the tips.

The flowers of the Echeveria coccinea grow in stalks of bell-shaped clusters. The picture below captured the striking crimson-colored flowers which have not completelely opened up into "bells."

A cat's meow

The Crassula is an evergreen succulent with variegated spade-shaped leaves of green and yellow with a blush of pink. Just like a calico cat, the crassula has three colors. It is an excellent trailing plant that like bright light and porous soil. It should be handled with care since the leaves and branches break off easily.

Senecio radicans is native to South Africa, and is commonly known as the "String of Bananas". The trailing strands of stems have green banana-shaped leaves with fascinating translucent "windows". It bears tiny white pom-pom-like flowers that are fragrant, sort of cinnamon-scented.

I have removed all of the spent little white flowers before taking the photos.

Get creative and assemble them in time for Mother's Day.