Southern Hemisphere Succulents

[MrsE]

For me, the succulent plants have several kinds of appeal, beginning with drought tolerance and including interesting shapes and an amazing range of colors and sizes.

These plants have developed the capacity to store water in their roots, stems or leaves. Their common characteristic is that they live in areas where drought conditions happen often enough to make water storage essential to survival.
So far I have found succulents easy to cultivate, relative to other traditional garden plants.

I look forward to sharing my succulent adventures with you here!

 

[Beth_B]

I no longer have succulents but I do have a cute cactus story.

Years back when I lived in Colorado, I had friends in Arizona and I would visit a few times a year. We'd do a lot of hiking in the desert. So this one year I came home from a visit and tossed my hiking boots into a closet where they sat in the dark for a few months. When I next pulled them out, a long skinny baby saguaro cactus plant was growing out of one of the eyelets! A cactus fragment must have stuck to my shoe and grew quietly in my dark closet.

I planted it in a pot and it did great; gave it to a friend when I moved and its about 3' tall now, going strong.

 

[MrsE]

Oh wow Beth! That's an amazing story, what an awesome surprise! Thanks for sharing that, I'm smiling just thinking about that shock of green at the bottom of the closet, another reason to love the sweet spikey's!

 

[Daren]

love that story Beth. Boots make great plant pots lol but we normally chose what is going to get the boot those saguaro are clever buggers!
Nice Pic MrsE looks like Echeveria's. Here in England It can be a little testing trying to grow Succulents But I have had a lot of success in the green house. years ago I grow nothing but Cacti. here is a Echinopsis Correct me if I'm Wrong lol. It has been happy sitting in my garden in that pot now for 2 years I just give it some protection in winter by placing a old window up against it.

 

[claudine]

They're beautiful
I like succulents, because they look like little pieces of art, but I've never tried to grow them. Maybe one day I will

 

[Trellum]

For me, the succulent plants have several kinds of appeal, beginning with drought tolerance and including interesting shapes and an amazing range of colors and sizes.

These plants have developed the capacity to store water in their roots, stems or leaves. Their common characteristic is that they live in areas where drought conditions happen often enough to make water storage essential to survival.
So far I have found succulents easy to cultivate, relative to other traditional garden plants.

I look forward to sharing my succulent adventures with you here!
View attachment 10460

Those are so pretty! I've seen those in several plant stores in the Netherlands. Succulents were one of my first choices when I started to really get into gardening They are so easy to take care of, and it seems the less attention you pay to them the better they do

 

[Trellum]

love that story Beth. Boots make great plant pots lol but we normally chose what is going to get the boot those saguaro are clever buggers!
Nice Pic MrsE looks like Echeveria's. Here in England It can be a little testing trying to grow Succulents But I have had a lot of success in the green house. years ago I grow nothing but Cacti. here is a Echinopsis Correct me if I'm Wrong lol. It has been happy sitting in my garden in that pot now for 2 years I just give it some protection in winter by placing a old window up against it. View attachment 10475

Soooooooo pretty! I had forgotten what a beautiful flowers cacti like these produce! They can compete with the flowers produced with other non succulent plants I actually want a tiny cacti garden So I can keep several ones... all flaunting flowers of different colors.

 

[Beth_B]

Many years ago (early 1980s, lol I am getting old) I lived in Scott's Valley California. There was a woman who called her business the Cactus Lady, it was on Scotts Valley drive, she had all these greenhouses filled with succulents for sale. Don't know how she did it pre-internet, newspaper I guess, but she'd check the growing conditions daily for the plants she had in their native environments and would replicate that. She was quite well known in the region for having a lot of cool and unusual cactii for sale.

 

[amelia88]

I adore succulents! I think they just look so charming - I really need to find somewhere here that sells them and get a little succulent garden going. When I've had them in the past and living in different countries I've found them to be quite hardy and easy to keep alive! I'm always a fan of things like that - easy, friendly gardening!

 

[Daren]

They are great plants & many are vary easy to propagate. Many can be grown from the succulent leaves just lay the leaves of, say Echeveria's, on some sand, in a pot and forget about it, till you see roots. Then a little light misting ever week & hay presto you have succulents. Alternately you can cut off the rossets and place in a pot of sand grit & a little loam & again they will root The key is to almost keep them dry & never leave them wet, Just the odd drop of the wet stuff & a feed once every now and then I just been reading the thread on here titled .... Wonderful decoration ideas using succulents! there are loads of great ideas on how to display them fantastic pics! posted by Claudine & Trellum. Its a great thread & will fill ones mind with ideas!

 

[MrsE]

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on this thread guys, I'm super excited to share more with you and see all of your amazing succulent discoveries.
I hope to soon set up a little propagation table, a place to put leaves or succulent pups (and even to try some from seed) to see how they grow.. will definitely share those adventures with you!