GARDENING

HOW TO GROW: SUCCULENTS

Gardeners spend a lot of time looking at the overall picture, and by way of a change it’s good to get down and examine plants at really close quarters.

When you start playing with plants mention all those succulents from deserts and semi-deserts for your garden you have a in fairly warm to very hot climates. refreshing alteration of scale, focusing on individual leaves as For the purposes of this article, we’ll just consider opposed to vast sweeps of a the warmer climate desert plants that are grown as border. It is light work, intricate houseplants in cooler climates. Even though this group and absorbing, yet it can have is quite varied and sometimes plants with very different equally high-octane impact. Succulent plants, with their cultural requirements are included in the same genus (e.g. plump, water-retaining leaves and stems, are often quite Euphorbia and Mammillaria). (Most the succulent bulbs will chubby compared to many species, yet close inspection grow well if treated like this.) can reveal that they look delicate and exotic. Many are ideal to adorn your garden. Light Succulents are a large, diverse group and what counts powered and succulents like more light than most. They’ll is somewhat debatable. Debatable succulents include do best on a south-facing wall (north-facing in the southern halophytes (plants that grow in salt marshes), bulbs hemisphere). Although succulents do well outside all year (many people consider a few bulbs such as Bowia and here you must keep an eye on your plants, as succulents Heamanthus to be succulents), Welwitchia (a weird cone can be burnt by too much light and heat but this rather baring plant all the other generally accepted succulents are depends on the type and where you live. Also plants can flowering plants) and even some cacti. Even if you exclude aclimatetize to some extent. all these, you’re left with a huge range: rain forest epiphytes Most plants (including succulents) are basically solar (e.g. Hoya and Schlumbergera), alpines from the mountains Heat of Europe, cacti from Canada and Patagonia, not to Many succulents will tolerate (if not prefer) to have a

cool winter period when they only have protection from frost (many will tolerate some frost). However there are others that need to be kept above 10 degrees C. If you have a greenhouse, you may like to concentrate on the kinds that tolerate cooler conditions (they include most the small round cacti that have nice flowers, some large cacti, most Opuntias, most Crassulaceae, Aloes, Agaves, some Euphorbias and all Messembrianthemums). If you’re growing your succulents somewhere that stays hot all the time, you should stick to the more tropical kinds: Melocactus, many large cacti, some Euphorbias, stapeliads, Kalanchoes, Pachypodiums etc. although you can probably get away with some of the more tolerant types like Aloes.

Water

This is complicated. Most books advise to water about once a week from spring to autumn and not at all in the winter. This is fine if you’re keeping them cool in the winter, and don’t have winter growing types. If you’re keeping them warm all year, you really need to water all year, but probably a bit less in the winter. Winter growing kinds will need watering about once every 2 to 4 weeks in the winter. You really have to learn to tell when things are looking thirsty. The stemless Messembrianthemums are very fussy about when they get watered and they’re all different!

Pots

Old books recommend clay pots but plastic works just fine. Don’t put plants in pots smaller than about 5cm as this will really dwarf the plants. If you’re going to put multiple plants in the same container, make sure they like similar conditions and grow at about the same speed. Don’t mix winter and summer growing plants or cacti and Crassulaceae (the latter take over) and don’t mix stemless Messembrianthemums with anything.

Fertilizer

Accepted wisdom says that succulents like low nitrogen fertilizer. However I think balanced fertilizer (with trace elements) is perfectly OK.

Compost

Succulents will grow well in wide range of composts. Many people use peat based compost. Others use inorganic compost composed of things like pumice, perlite and sand. I mostly use a perlite-based compost and the only things I’ve found it doesn’t work for are Bulbines. Anacampseros and, more so, Avonia like loam based compost.

Pests and diseases

Again complicated as pests keep evolving immunity and the availability of insecticides keeps changing. The main problems are: Mealy bugs (white fuzzy things that look a bit like small woodlice), root mealy bugs (similar but live in the soil), red spider mites (very small, cause brown scarring) and various types of rot. Many people use systemic insecticides and fungicides every year or so but crassulaceae really don’t like systemic insecticides or Malathion. Red spider mites don’t like being sprayed with water. I use bulb powder in the compost to prevent fungus and root mealy bugs. If you can put your plants outside or let them get cold in the winter, it will help keep the pests down. If you have a plant that dies at the base, you can often chop off the dead and dying bits and get what’s left to take root. You may also be able to graft the top bit. Some more easily grown succulents (good to start with): Aeonium, Agave, Aloe, Apteranthus, Beaucarnia, Carpobotros, Cereus, Crassula, Dracena, Delosperma, Echeveria, Echinopsis (now includes Lobivia, Trichocereus etc.), Euphorbia (some, remember there are tropical and cooler climate species), Gasteria, Graptopetalum, Gymnocalycium, Haworthia, Kalanchoe, Lampranthus, Lithops, Mammillaria (easy species include: boccasana, gracilis and prolifera), Notocactus, Opuntia, Pachyphytum, Plectranthus, Rebutia, Sedum (warmer climate kinds the cold climate types should be grown in the garden in a cold climate), Senecio.