Grow a Succulent Garden

This is a striking readymade succulent hanging garden which I quickly snapped from the local nursery in the summer of 2011. You can see why I could not pass this up. I usually flinch at the sight of thorny cacti, but these succulents were predominantly rosettes with only one centrally located plant lined with sharp yellow teeth. It found its home in a sunny location in the backyard trellis which can be viewed from the breakfast nook.

Winter came and went and my plan to protect this warm weather specimen by stationing it in a drier and warmer location did not pan out. To my amazement, the succulents tolerated the low 40s winter weather and rain and have sprouted little rosettes and stalks of attractive flowers.

It was a nice and warm Sunday morning, and I went out to the backyard with my trusted camera for chance meetings with interesting subjects-- like hummingbirds, wild turkeys, crows, and perhaps, parasailers. Kidding aside, I was lucky enough to take pictures of all mentioned. However, I was distracted by three stalks of clustered bell-shaped flowers standing proud and tall over the succulent hanging basket. The dense colony of rosettes have matured and grown with baby offshoots in displays of green, yellow, mauve, and tinges of pinks. Strands of trailing succulents hang down on both sides of the hanging basket. It was then that I decided to take photos of each type of succulent and introduce them to the readers in a lens.

The layers of silver-gray and pink longish leaves forming the rosettes of the Graptoveria acualis are one of nature's wonders. It is an evergreen perennial with succulent leaves. Tiny cream colored flowers sprout in Spring. Propagation is by leaf cuttings, offsets, and seeds.

How to Propagate from Offsets

The Aeonium rosettes are the size of saucers, some up to 9" wide. The arrangement of the leaves look like a pinwheel, hence its name pinwheel plant. It is a native of the Canary Islands and Morocco, and thrives in dry, sunny locations.

The starter succulent basket had two Aeonium rosettes last Summer and now has two additional shiny and eye-catching pinwheels.

Echeveria coccinea has velvety leaves covered in a fine silvery fuzz giving the leaves a blue-green color. Echeveria is named after the 18th century Spanish botanist Atanasio Echeverria Codoy.The species name "coccinea" comes from "coccineus" = "red" refering to the petals that are yellowish-white at the base and red (coccineus) at the tips.

The flowers of the Echeveria coccinea grow in stalks of bell-shaped clusters. The picture below captured the striking crimson-colored flowers which have not completelely opened up into "bells."