TagDIY SUCCULENTS

Sempervivum Heaven #❤

Finally had the time to plant up some Semps I had all over the garden in pots.

Sempervivum Facts

  • The majority of sempervivum are frost hardy so dont panic when frosts arrive, these plants will thrive.
  • Sempervivums are monocarpic, which means that once a rosette flowers, it dies, they will produce lots of little semps for you to enjoy around the base of the flowering stem.

10 Mixed Succulents 5.5cm – Sempervivum Houseleek Hen & Chicks

Some photos to share with you of the lovely colours and texture semps have 🙂

 

I Hope it inspires you to get out in the garden 😉

 

Creative DIY Succulent Planters Made from Upcycled Finds

Upcycling is a way of giving new purpose to waste. Here are some creative and inspiring ideas to upcycle at home.

 

Plastic / Polystyrene Food Trays.

These are perfect to fill with a little succulent/cacti mix and get those leaf babies going. I have also started to experiment with water propagation and these have been very useful.

 

How To Propagate Succulent Leaves In Water – Fast Results

Food Tins

I use cans all the time as planters, both indoors and outdoors. Huge dog food cans all the way down to little sweetcorn tins #cute. They need to have drainage holes drilled out the bottoms but they are lovely once planted up.  I have started to varnish my outdoor tins now as they do degrade after a year or two if left in the garden.

 

 

Paper / Plastic Cups.

Once the party is over and you are left with a garden full of disposable cups, fill a bucket with soapy water give the cups a quick rinse.  Drainage holes are easy to punch in the bottom of paper cups plastic cups need a snip to create the drainage. Now you have lots of planters ready to start cuttings or seedlings these are handy to re-pot any 5.5cm succulent.

Coffee Cups

You can also apply this to your takeaway coffee cups, They are easy to put a hole in the bottom and when you have more plants than pots anything goes.  Add plenty of grit as these are deep pots or plant up some sedum cuttings, they will enjoy the root space and grow into lovely healthy plants.

Perfect for starting tomato plants and sweetcorn too 😉

 

 

How To Propagate the Same Succulent Leaf Again and Again.

Yes! it is possible! I only found this out by pure chance and thought I would share It with you all, in the hope you have the same joy 🙂

Granted I have only tested this on ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense ) and they are prolific little rooters anyway.  I was still shocked to find that gently removing the baby from the mother leaf left a good clean break, so I placed mum back in the dish and waited to see if anything would happen and it did 🙂 new babies growing just as well as the first set.

Removing the baby plant from the mother leaf can be quite a delicate operation, you cold gently cut away the baby but this never feels right to me so I hold the baby between my fingers and gently rock the mother leaf back and forth as you would taking a leaf cutting, slowly and gently it will come away from the baby and you should have a nice clean break.

I should point out that I have only done so with leaves that are still plump and reasonably healthy looking, ones that have been sapped of all life creating babies would not work.

Within a week new life has started to emerge from the mother leaf again!

Please give this a try, you have nothing to lose and a new plant to gain, let me know how you get on 🙂

 

Planting a Sedum Fairy Garden

I have been looking at fairy gardens and the creative little accessories people make to add to the enchantment and was inspired to create my own.  Being a total Sedum addict, I have around seventy types in my personal collection that I wanted to show them off and group them together in a lovely big shallow planter. The only problem was finding one. After a good few weeks of looking my lovely hubby came home with one for me and I was over the moon, it’s strange the things that make me happy 🙂

I was in the garden in a heartbeat, selecting the plants I wanted to use, not having much in the way of “fairy garden” accessories it’s a fairy garden minus the fairy but including a solar power hula dancer. I know a little strange but still cute she also has some multi-coloured fairy lights that come on at dusk, again solar and it just gives it some life in the evening.

To give the mini garden some hight I used a lovely mosaic pot I had dropped and broken in half and yet still couldn’t throw away.

So here it is so far, I hope to be creating some little fairy garden accessories soon and I will keep you posted 🙂

Divide and Conquer Snake Plant ( sansevieria trifasciata )

Sansevieria trifasciata is a fab little plant, I’ve been looking out for one for a while now.

I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for one at markets and boot sales, then today, I found this little fella for a bargain price, he is a little damaged and pot bound but I love to rescue plants in distress.

I grabbed this little fella and got him home to work on dividing him up and potting on the new little plants.

Four and a bit plants! Super happy! now I can have a plant in a few rooms at home now.

Once taken out of the pot, the plants were easy to divide, a little snap of the Rhizome and one plant became two and the third was a single Rhizome happy to be separated, the fourth plant also has a new plant starting to emerge, rather than separate this I kept them together just in case I killed it being too greedy trying to get as many plants out of one bargain buy.

I changed the compost it was in, as always I used Cactus Focus Repotting Compost.

 

PLANT FACTS:

These plants can be neglected for weeks at a time, with their strong leaves and architectural shape, they still look fresh. Additionally, they can survive low light levels, drought and have few insect problems.

NASA research has even shown that snake plants are able to help keep the air inside your home clean, removing toxins. Pollutants removed: formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and benzene, In short, they are the perfect houseplants.

Planted up in Recycled Cans, will be blogging more on how to recycle waste products to use in the garden in one way or another shortly.

Plant Care:

Water:
Be careful not to overdo it because your plant will rot. Always make sure the soil is almost completely dry before thoroughly watering again. Water your Snake Plants every few weeks. So, if you travel or tend to ignore plants, this is the plant for you.

Light:
Sansevierias prefer medium light they will also tolerate low light just be sure to keep them out of the direct sun because they’ll burn very quickly.

Temperature:
Sansevierias will tolerate a wide range of temperatures. They can also be placed in pots outdoors, they quite winter hardy down to -6

Pests:
Snake Plants are highly pest-resistant.

Mini Succulent Gardens – Root Cuttings With Style

For the last few weeks, I have been popping in all my local charity shops to find planters in white/cream for my living room. I thought it would take forever to find planters I liked on such a tight budget but I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it all came together.

With so many cuttings and baby succulents all over the place, I needed a way to save some space and display them so they are pleasing to the eye.

This was also a way for me to protect a few prized plants from the snow and intense cold weather we had in Feb/March, having a few of each plant in different locations around the home/garden for me gives peace of mind.

Once the small plants and cuttings have become more established plants they will be potted up or added to a larger display.

 

My charity shop planter finds totalled £5.60 #bargain 🙂 all the plants were ones I already had so this was a very cheap way to give the living room some life and soul.

Will update over the coming weeks with new plants and planters 🙂