Wedding Centerpieces: Succulents

Recently had a wedding and we decided that we would make all our own centerpieces. We made three types: Orchids, Vines, and Succulents.  Here is how we made the succulent dishes!

For the orchids, click here

For the Bird Cage Vines, click here

Each dish contains one big succulent in the center and numerous smaller succulents (5-10) around the edges.  The more succulents you can get into the pot, the better it will look!  We started with the big center succulents; make sure they are big enough considering how large of pots you are using.

The smaller succulents are then added around the large succulents in a circle, making the pots as full as possible.  The most important thing is to have as little substrate (dirt)showing as possible.  We used a mix of 50/50 perlite and dirt, which helped keep the pots super light and easy to move around.  A lot of the smaller succulents are trimmings from other plants and don't yet have full root systems so we just stuck them directly into the dirt. 

Once all the succulents and dirt were in place, we started covering the top with a layer of pebbles.  I bought the pebbles in a bulk bag used for landscaping, and they came covered in mud, so they needed to be washed first. 

 The dirt was completely covered with pebbles.  Had we been more creative we also could have alternated pebble color and such.

Finally, we added a ribbon around each pot before putting them on the tables.  

Wine Cork Succulent Garden

Wine Cork Succulent Garden

This fall I found myself with quite an abundance of tiny jade plants thanks to my experiments this summer learning how easy it is to propagate jade plants.  Fortunately, The Culinary Capers had a suggestion on what I should do: Make tiny cork succulent gardens.  There are a number of websites describing this out there, but it is an extremely simple idea:  Take a cork, drill or dig a hole in it, plant a tiny succulent in it (don't forget to water it!).  There are a million things you can do with such a tiny garden; put a magnet on it and slap in on the fridge, put a suction cup on it and stick it on the window, put a pin on it and attach it to your hat, the possibilities are endless.

I don't predict these to have very long life spans (the fingernail full of dirt that they are in will be used up pretty quick) but they are adorable.  I used a chopstick to help push the dirt and roots into the hole.

Update: Two months later it appears to still be alive! At the very least this could be an amusing way to transport tiny jade plants. 

Update: June and it's still alive (over seven months later!).  I'm planting it back into a regular pot to see if it is still viable. 
   

Single succulent terrarium with Zebra Haworthia

This is a small terrarium I made for a friend last fall.  I had a glass bowl at the house, and thought it needed to be put to good use.  I purchased a zebra Haworthia succulent, and found some old rocks, dirt, and sand at my house.  That's all you need!
For all my succulent garden and terrarium posts, click here.

First I put some rocks at the bottom of the bowl to allow drainage.  You don't want a succulent to ever sit in water, so the rocks in theory help keep the plant sitting above any water that pools at the bottom after watering.

Next I put in some sand, then dirt, then the succulent, then some more dirt.  The idea is to get loose, sandy soil.  You can make this all simpler by just using succulent/cactus soil instead of mixing sand and dirt.

Lastly I added finishing touches: polished river pebbles and some seashells.  Done!  The plant has been doing quite well for half a year so far.  You don't need to water these very often, which makes them easy plants to have around the house.

DIY Succulent Terrarium

I had a problem earlier this year which was too many pots of succulents and not enough space for them.  To fix this, I decided to put them all in a single large terrarium.  I had an old glass bowl to use (it had once been a flower vase), so I didn't even have to buy anything!
For instructions on a smaller succulent terrarium, click here

Supplies: succulents (a cactus would work as well), dirt, sand, rocks, large glass bowl/dish/terrarium.  Also nice: gravel/rocks for top layer.



Plant selection: I just used all the succulents I had in stray pots that needed a new home.  This was not ideal (one of them it turned out was terrible for living in a terrarium and died), but consistent with my general theory of succulents which is: Buy a bunch and see what happens! When you buy your succulents you can ask someone at the garden store which ones do very poorly with humidity (don't get these ones for a terrarium), but I enjoy succulent roulette personally. 

If you don't already have a glass bowl to use, stores such as Michael's sell them for pretty cheap, and have a lot of selection in terms of shapes/sizes.  Since this is a succulent terrarium you do not want to have a covered dish.





Step 1: put large rocks in base of terrarium.  This allows excess water to get out of the soil and not rot your plants, at least in theory.

Step 2:  put smaller rocks around the large rocks.  Still working on irrigation here.










Step 3: put sand over smaller rocks.  In the end I am going to mix this sand with the dirt I put above it, so you can add it now or mix it with the dirt and then put them in together.  If you have cactus potting soil, you can use that instead of the sand/dirt mix.

Step 4: put dirt over sand, mix together.  Succulents and cacti need sandy soil.  Having sand and soil separate might work (fancy terrariums you can buy often have layers like this) but it's not great for the plants.

Step 5: plant succulents! make sure to space them out a few inches (or more if you have large ones) so they can grow/get sunlight.  

Step 6: put a layer of nice looking gravel/sand/rocks over the dirt

Step 7: accessorize! I added more shiny rocks. 

Taking care of the terrarium: The terrarium will do best in a south window.  Water rarely (once every two weeks is plenty), and make sure not to water so much as to leave standing water at the bottom of the terrarium.  Make sure the terrarium is dried out before the next watering.  You can fertilize the terrarium with half-strength Miracle-Gro or other houseplant fertilizer, but you don't need to do this too often. 

So I waited a few months before posting this to make sure that the terrarium worked.  I did end up losing one plant (apparently it cannot handle any moisture so it died in the ever so slightly moist open-air container), but the rest are doing great! They have all been growing well, and many are shooting off new pups.  The one plant that did die was replaced with another, and that has been doing great!

 The plant in the foreground here is the one that did not make it.

Succulent Garden

Plants make good art.  Bonsai, flower arranging, etc are probably the most common types, but terrariums and small succulent or cactus gardens also can be artistic.  My succulent garden has been growing for about three years or so now.  A succulent or cactus garden is sort of the opposite of a terrarium.  Unlike a terrarium, which is kept fairly moist and is usually at least partially enclosed, a succulent garden is kept mostly dry and open.  This makes them pretty easy to care for (just add water...rarely).  I use succulents instead of cacti because they are, for the most part, less pointy and sharp.  As a disclaimer, I don't know a ton about plants, but I'll list here what has worked for me.  For someone who DOES know a ton about plants, check out: http://theatrumbotanicum.wordpress.com/

Pot:

Ideally you want the pot to have a small profile because the plants most likely will not get too big.  The pot I use is about two inches tall, and maybe eight inches wide.  This gives me plenty of space for half a dozen plants.   

Soil:

Succulents (and cacti) need really well draining soil.  They cannot sit in water at all.  I actually used pure sand from our sandbox.  You can also use mixes of dirt and sand.  Using larger rocks at the bottom of the dish also can help.

Plants:  Most greenhouses or other stores that sell plants will have all their small succulents and cacti in a bunch, usually labeled something like '2 inch succulents.'  These are what I use for my garden.  Try a variety of plants, and don't be worried if some die right away.  The plants are all grouped togetherin the store, but different ones are easier or harder to keep alive (if you're at a greenhouse, the sales people should be able to help).  I will try to make a list sometime of the ones i have been able to grow and the ones that have died immediately.   

Decorating:

Once all the plants are in, I added a layer of red and white-ish rocks.  Originally (and unfortunately I have not kept it up) I made a series of red paths through the garden.  I also accented the green of the succulents with some purple amethyst.  As a final touch, i threw a rubber snake and a rubber horned lizard.

Beyond this example:  You can get much fancier than this garden example.  To add more depth, you can use larger rocks to create levels in your garden.  In that case, you need a way to add soil to the second layer.  This may mean a second dish hidden under the sand, or a hole drilled into the rock (make sure it can drain!).  You can also add additional plants that have different growing conditions by leaving them in their plastic pots and simply burying the pots (this is where the decoration layer of rocks comes in handy).  This way you can water just that plant more or less than the other ones depending on its needs.