Secrets to growing and displaying succulents
Part 2: Finding the right container or garden spot for your succulents
Once you get the knack of growing succulents, see Part 1: How to grow succulents, the fun part is choosing a container or spot in the garden to place them. Mostly low-growing type of plants, Echeverias, sedums, aloes and cactii make fascinating and hardy ground covers. They drip and drape over the sides of pots or metal containers, filling in all the nooks and corners of the space given them like in Amanda Azevedo’s ‘tiny dancing’ shoe, left.
Cherrie Carine’s rusty pot of echeveria and sedum, possibly ‘Rosy Glow Red’
Color, too, is a factor when choosing a container. Bluish-grey galvanized tubs and pails are an excellent choice and the blues blend well with the blue-green and grey-green varieties. For contrast with succulent colors, and for our rust lovers, rusty containers make an awesome contrast color-wise, just look at the Ghost Plant ‘hens and chicks’ tucked inside this rusty old brake rotor.
Rusty old Brake rotor makes an unusual ‘container’ for ghost plant. Photo: Sue Langley
Spiderweb sempervivum, Hens and Chicks ‘Cebenese’ Photo: Sue Langley
Who knew this would bloom? Photo: Sue Langley
Other Flea Market succulent containers to use:
- Galvanized mop buckets
- Iron pots
- Hypertufa troughs
- Shoes and boots, large or small
- Enamel pans
- Porcelain or granite sinks
- Nooks in statuary
- Terracotta pots
- Cracked concrete birdbaths
- Abandoned fountains
- Old typewriter!
- Old wheelbarrow
- Wire baskets
- Colanders
Patty Fitch Hicks’ cheery basin of Sedum makinoi ‘Ogon’
Kirk Willis’s whimsical ‘family’ of boots, one pair for each of them!
Hen & Chicks Dudleya cymosa flower Photo: Sue Langley
Jeanne’s lovely overflowing egg basket
A charming echeveria ‘hen’ tucked into a bit of soil in a pair of Kirk Willis’s child sized boots
Stone-like hypertufa trough is a rustic choice as a succulent container Photo: Sue Langley
Hypertufa troughs and containers are well suited to succulents. They grow similarly to the tiny plants that alpine plant hobbyists love to grow in stone troughs. Learn how to make your own easy hypertufa troughs!
Nancy K. Meyer’s hens ‘n chicks blooms and grows
Sometimes you don’t know if a succulent will bloom. Nancy was quite surprised at this odd one!
Want to learn some growing tips for succulents? See Part 1 here.
White Sedum, S album clusianum, fills in between rock edging Photo: Sue Langley
6 Comments
My hens & chicks were planted in an old cinder block for several years. Last year I replanted some into an old iron pot, then added a small solar light to the pot to set at my front walk. I couldn’t believe the change in my hens….they exploded with new growth, chicks everywhere, spilling over the edges of the pot. I love it! Their color even changed….darker green with purple tips . Was this change caused by the solar light?
I don’t think so Merle, it was probably the transplanting itself,…they wanted to spread out… 🙂
Very nice post Sue. That rusted brake rotor speaks to me the way the blue leaves work with that rust. Succulents are so wonderful to work with. I am using them more and more with other plants in containers now too though I have to say some of the most striking displays I have seen are a single variety thoughtfully planted in an interesting container…like that brake rotor.
Patty, you can believe probably how fast I snapped that thing up….luckily my husband doesn’t think I’m too crazy…
Wonderful ideas for succulent containers! TFS my egg basket … after seeing your series here on ‘succulents’ I definitely am going to do more container gardening with them! Lovely!
Your ideas and photos inspire me. Have an old toaster that is going to have plant goodies “poppin’ up” soon!