Experimenting with Succulents

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved succulents. I love their odd shapes, interesting textures, and often bulbous forms. And lately, I’ve been seeing succulent arrangements everywhere—so I took it as a sign that it was about time that I try my luck at putting together a succulent arrangement. Of course, I know nothing about succulents—much like every other plant. So when I went to my favorite local nursery to pick up plants, I just grabbed what appealed to me. I’d love to tell you exactly what I picked up, but I unfortunately cannot—because the majority of the succulents were just generically labeled “succulent” without any further descriptors. So if you know what I got, feel free to educate me!

I decided to plant the arrangement in a old metal container I found in my mother’s garage. I took the container with me to the nurseryso that I could get an idea of how many plants I needed. Otherwise I tend to buy way too much, and have to sheepishly bring back the extra plants to return. But, I do have to admit that I like to pack my arrangements and containers really full—thus I grabbed a few extra plants that I knew would fill in the gaps once I got everything planted in the new container.

Before I start planting anything, I like to lay everything out and tweak the final arrangement (sometime for way too long) until I am absolutely happy with the result. Above, is the arrangement that I settled on. And here is the final result.

I absolutely love it! I planted everything in standard potting soil, because I was told that was what they use for all their succulent arrangements at the nursery.

I didn’t drill in drainage holes in my container. But I think I may need to do some after-thought drilling, as I left the arrangement out in a heavy storm the other day and it doesn’t seem all that happy now. Or at least the pink flowering plant doesn’t seem as happy, as it has not opened its blooms since it got drenched in the rain.

Anyone know anything about succulents? Should I just drill drainage holes and hope for the best? Or do you think I should go pick up some cactus soil and replant the whole thing?

**UPDATE: You can see how my little succulent experiment is doing by checking out this more recent post.***