Succulents are easy early plants for spring
I know — you can’t wait much longer. It is spring, but despite the groundhog, despite robin sightings, despite pestering by lawn-care companies, as far as spending time in the garden, it still hasn’t arrived just yet.
In the meantime, to provide relief you could plant up a carefree, mini garden of succulents that can sit outdoors in summer. These cute little plants are everywhere. They’re prominent in garden centre displays and they’re featured in lifestyle magazines as the latest thing to have gracing the home.
My first experience with succulents was as a small child seeing them gracing the roof of our outhouse. It was built like a brick; well, actually, it was built of stone. It had a massive stone slab for the roof, and it was also an early green roof, because it was covered with one of the commonest of succulents, hens and chicks, or house leeks (Sempervivum tectorum).
I don’t know if the roof had been planted there on purpose; there was no soil that I recall. A bird may have supplied the first one and it had eventually colonized most of the roof. The Latin meaning of Sempervivum is ‘always living,’ and to me it appeared that way. Like all succulents, water is stored in the thick, fleshy leaves, and once established the plants appear to live forever with little attention.
This is one reason succulents are popular houseplants, as little care is needed. They’re perfect for people with a busy — wait for it — lifestyle. Those old hens and chicks that survive outdoors summer and winter are just one type. There are other species and countless varieties available now, and it’s important to know that most of the ones sold as houseplants are just that. Unlike the familiar Sempervivum, most won’t survive outdoors in winter.
These succulents are often sold already grouped in an attractive planter, but part of the fun is using them to make your own. Look for echeveria, crassula, jade, kalanchoe, aloe, aeonium, tender sedums, and senecio.
Most don’t grow very quickly and if some do become too big for the container, pinch them back, but by no more than a third. Some might flower, but it’s the leaves that are appealing, which are colourful in a relatively muted way. They come in loads of fascinating shapes and forms — spiky, lumpy, or twirly.
Use anything you like as a container — buy a new one or use any old dish or bowl, providing it’s at least two to three inches deep. Use teapots, tea cups, or anything else you have sitting around. Normally, I’d say make sure there’s a hole in the bottom for drainage, and that is essential if it’s going to sit outdoors in summer where it can be rained on.
If it’s going to stay indoors, I’d still say a drainage hole is important, but if you’re conscientious about not overwatering, you might get away without a hole in the pot. Most succulents exist in fairly dry conditions in the wild where there’s infrequent rainfall, so they will need watering occasionally Discover more expert gardening advice from David Hobson at therecord.com but avoid flooding the container or the roots will rot.
As for soil, it should be an easy draining type. Most commercial potting soil is suitable — add coarse sand or perlite if you want to be certain it drains well, or use soil formulated for cacti. Indoors, locate your succulent planter where it will receive lots of sun. Outdoors, I’d suggest a bit of afternoon shade. Once established the plants can be fertilized lightly. Use at half strength or less.
Speaking of half strength, I really should work out a little before I plunge into real garden work. It can’t be much longer, can it?