Succulents

The Beauty of Succulents as Planters and in Floral Design

All suc­cu­lents are in the cac­tus fam­i­ly. Most of them do not have any spikes that would hurt you when you touch them. The most com­mon types of suc­cu­lents we use in flo­ral design, liv­ing wreaths, suc­cu­lent pump­kins, and planters include Echev­e­ria, Cras­su­la (Jade), Aeo­ni­um, and Kalanchoe.

Growing Succulent Tips

• Choose the Right Con­tain­er: Always plant suc­cu­lents in a con­tain­er that fea­tures at least one func­tion­al drainage hole. This allows excess water to escape imme­di­ate­ly, pre­vent­ing the roots from sit­ting in stag­nant mois­ture. Un-glazed mate­ri­als like ter­ra­cot­ta pots are ide­al because they nat­u­ral­ly breathe and help soil dry faster.
• Use Spe­cial­ized Cac­tus Mix: Nev­er use stan­dard gar­den­ing soil, which traps mois­ture and caus­es root rot. Instead, choose a well-drain­ing prod­uct like Mir­a­cle-Gro Cac­tus, Palm & Cit­rus Mix. To max­i­mize aer­a­tion and ensure rapid drainage, you can blend in a hand­ful of min­er­al grit like per­lite or pumice.
• Pro­vide Indi­rect Out­door Light: While suc­cu­lents enjoy being out­side in the fresh air, pro­tect them from harsh, direct mid­day sun, which can scorch and per­ma­nent­ly scar their leaves. Place your pots in bright, indi­rect light, fil­tered shade, or an area that only receives gen­tle morn­ing sun.
• Water Once Per Week: Estab­lish a base­line rou­tine of water­ing your suc­cu­lents about once a week. They do not require fre­quent mois­ture, and the soil must nev­er stay damp. Always use the “soak and dry” method: pour water thor­ough­ly until it runs out of the bot­tom drainage hole, then let it dry out completely.
• Test Soil Before Water­ing: Before exe­cut­ing your week­ly water­ing, push your fin­ger about an inch deep into the mix. If it feels even slight­ly damp, wait a few days and test again. Always adjust your sched­ule dur­ing high humid­i­ty, rain, or win­ter dor­man­cy when they need far less water.
• Prop­a­gate New Plants From Leaves: Suc­cu­lents are incred­i­bly easy to mul­ti­ply. Gen­tly twist a healthy leaf off the moth­er plant, ensur­ing it snaps away clean­ly at the base. Set the leaf aside on a dry paper tow­el in a cool spot out­doors in the shade for two to three days until the exposed end dries and cal­lus­es over to pre­vent rot. Lay the cal­lused leaf flat on top of a tray filled with well-drain­ing soil, place it in bright, indi­rect light, and mist it light­ly with water every few days. With­in a few weeks, tiny roots and a minia­ture plant­let will sprout from the leaf base, ready to even­tu­al­ly be trans­plant­ed into its own pot.

Bouquets with Succulents

Com­bin­ing suc­cu­lents with fresh flow­ers and green­ery cre­ates a strik­ing, mod­ern bridal bou­quet, but suc­cu­lents require spe­cif­ic mechan­i­cal prep before join­ing the arrange­ment. Because they lack tra­di­tion­al long stems, each suc­cu­lent rosette must be unpot­ted, cleaned, wired, and taped indi­vid­u­al­ly to form a secure stem struc­ture. Start by remov­ing suc­cu­lent rosettes—such as Echev­e­ria or Aeonium—from their nurs­ery pots. Gen­tly strip away excess soil from the root ball and peel off dry, dead low­er leaves to leave a clean rosette. Sub­merge the root base in a buck­et of clean water, gen­tly shak­ing it to wash away remain­ing dirt. Thor­ough­ly dry the stem and root area before apply­ing mechan­ics, as mois­ture pre­vents flo­ral tape from adher­ing. For branch­ing vari­eties like Jade, sim­ply snip clean cut­tings direct­ly from the plant.

Large Suc­cu­lents: Insert a heavy-gauge wire straight into the cen­ter base of the rosette to act as a core sup­port. Fold a lighter-gauge wire about one-third down its length, posi­tion it along­side the stem and heavy core wire, and wrap the longer end tight­ly around both all the way down.

Small Suc­cu­lents: For small­er blooms or bou­ton­nieres, skip the cen­ter heavy wire and use only the fold­ed lighter-gauge wire, wrap­ping it secure­ly along the stem.

With dry hands and dry mate­ri­als, anchor flo­ral tape at the base of the rosette. Gen­tly stretch the tape as you wrap downward—stretching acti­vates its sticky properties—twisting and pulling to ful­ly cov­er all exposed wire down to the end.

Succulent Floral Designs

We add bam­boo skew­ers to the stems of suc­cu­lents to cre­ate an arti­fi­cial stem and then add them into designs. We can also tape and wire stems for extra security.

Succulent Pumpkins

Succulent Jewelry and Succulent Rings

Succulents on Guitars!

Living Succulent Wreath

In a base of moist moss, Kit Wertz from Flower Duet, added suc­cu­lent cut­tings from her gar­den to make this wreath. Once a week dur­ing the dry sea­son, she sub­merges the wreath in water for about 5 min­utes and then lets it drain before re-hang­ing!  This wreath has var­i­ous types of jade and aeoniums!

Succulents on a Eucalyptus Wreath

Kit added dif­fer­ent types of euca­lyp­tus to a box wreath form using pad­dle wire, then added accents of pep­per berries. Final­ly, she added a fea­tured Echev­e­ria to the cen­ter of the berries! This wreath dried well and looked great for about two week out­side the front door.