Vårlökar

Another weekend with dull weather – another succulent arrangement. This time I used a pretty bonsai pot at the local garden center. I chose succulents that go well with the color of the pot – concrete grey with touches of red.

Succulents need good drainage. That means letting water rinse quickly. Here’s how you keep them happy:

1. Use a container with drainage whole. My container didn’t have holes so used a regular drill to make two – one on each side of the pot.
2. Use succulent or cacti potting soil. It’s basically potting soil with sand and grit that allows quick drainage.
3. Water moderately, especially during the winter months. Every 10-14 days is usually enough.

We’ve had another rainy day. The wet weather makes it difficult to be in the garden so I’ve kept busy inside. My indoor plants (finally) got some attention and I put together a miniature succulent garden.

I often use a small Kalanchoe in my arrangements. They bring a pop of colors that’s hard to get with succulents alone.

The Kalanchoe is back-planted with a Croton, which isn’t a succulent. Since it’s an ordinary house plant it needs more water. To make sure it gets the right amount and at the same time keep the low water succulents happy, I planted it in a separate pot. Before watering, I pop the small pot up, water it separately and that put it back in place.

A tip for adding house plants into low water succulent arrangements is to plant them in a separate pot.

I got my hands on a bunch of succulents for half price. I’ve been making arrangements and touring them up because they just didn’t look right.

After quite a few failed attempts I realized what the problem was: most of the succulents were dark green – there wasn’t enough contrast and the arrangements looked dull.

I needed whites, reds and yellows. The colors that just happen to be fall colors. Luckily I keep a box full of fall decorations for fall wreaths. They came quite handy!

The garden center had a 50% off promotion on succulents. So there might be a few succulent arrangements coming up in the near future.

Here’s the first one out!