Succulents

Advice to a friend

You’re going to need somewhere sunny to put them. They won’t survive in shady or dark places, which probably means the window sill in your apartment. Do you know how much light it gets? What times of day the sill is sunny? How much does it vary in winter v. summer?

Once you’ve got a spot, you’ll need some sort of planter. You can use all sorts, depending on the effect you want:

Some places I’ve had luck getting containers:

How you fill the container depends on two things:

  1. Does it have a drainage hole on the bottom (or are you going to drill one)?
  2. How deep is the container?

If it’s a terracotta pot with a drainage hole, you can probably get away with just some decent cactus potting soil. But if it’s deep or has no drainage hole, you’ll probably want to put some gravel in the bottom (stones about half-inch to one inch diameter) in a layer that’s at least 2” deep, more if you want, but no more than half the depth of the container (and only that much when it’s a really deep container). The balance you’re striking here is between improved drainage v. rocks that cook the roots of the plants. You want to have enough space for excess water and soil above that’s deep enough that the roots don’t live too much in the rocks. [Or maybe no rocks at all; see Sublime Succulents’ post.]

On top of the rocks, you might want some charcoal. This will keep smells down and purify the water you use. The best place to get this is probably a pet store in the aquarium section. You just want basic activated charcoal. This step is optional if you’re using something like terracota or careful with your watering. If you’re using a container that has a narrow opening at the top, this is a good idea.

For soil, buy any potting mix for cacti. Normal potting soil is okay, but cacti potting soil is better. It has more sand in it, which helps with drainage.

For plants, the easiest sort to grow are things like Aloe or Jade. Big, spiky, juicy. You’ll notice when they want more water, and they’re low maintenance. The more complicated-looking (and beautiful) the shape of the leaves, the more likely it’ll be fickle. The hardest ones for me to grow are ones in the Crassula family, but they’re worth it. Home Depot and Lowe’s generally have a cart of them near the houseplants year round. You might also look into wholesale flower markets in Chicago for a fun early-morning adventure. I had some luck at one in Los Angeles. Gethsemane is good. Sprout is my very favorite in Chicago—it’s definitely worth a trip; they’ll have smaller plants (good for terrariums) and a bunch of variety. Look at the labels for sun and watering requirements or ask someone at the store, but basically all of them want tons of sun and occasional (like once a week or less) waterings. You dig a hole, take them out of their temporary container, break the very bottom of the dirt up so their roots spread out, and cover the whole base of the plant and roots with soil, and that’s basically it.

It could be nice to cover the top layer of soil with lava rocks (Sprout probably has these, they look great and aren’t too hard to work with) or sand (it’s a huge pain when it comes to watering and it limits your options to reconfigure things as plants grow without using all new soil, but it can be quite pretty).

You might want tongs for handling the spikier plants. Kitchen tongs can work well. Gloves aren’t necessary—hands are washable. Feel free to buy fertilizer but you shouldn’t be doing that more than once every 2-3 months. Follow the directions on the box. I generally use Miracle Grow.

Water sparingly. The soil should only be damp right after watering. The more you water, the more the plants will grow and the more likely it is bad things will happen, but you have to water them some. I recommend about a 1/3 cup per plant per week, more in the winter when things are dry in your house, more if there’s some sort of heating or cooling blowing on them all day.

The thing I’m still trying to learn to do well is pruning, particularly with things like Jade.

There are tons of inspiring pictures online, and I think West Elm really had a thing for them in store displays for a while, not sure if that’s still the case.

Wish list

Sources

I haven’t ordered from any of these, but I might want to: