Succulents
Succulents are a large group of plants that are able to retain water in in the leaves or stems, many species grow well in the UK garden. Succulents have a wide range of applications in landscaping and are popular in many roof gardens. We provide information on succulents for the UK and access to Mail Order Succulent and Cacti Nurseries with plants for sale by mail order.
Succulents have been popular with plant collectors in the UK for many years, today they are increasingly popular with landscapers and as house plants, both for the easy care nature and the increasingly beautiful and fascinating forms available through hybridization.
Succulents have adapted to dry conditions due to their ability to store and retain water. This water retention tends to give plants a swollen appearance and this is often referred to as 'succulence' hence the name.
Combined with a waxy or prickly surface to leaves and a metabolism that is adapted to dry conditions, they are ideal as a low maintenance, low water requiring plant.
Succulents use different parts of their system to store water:
- Stem Succulents such as Euphorbia and Cacti store water in their stems.
- Leaf Succulents such as Aloes, Sedums and Sempervivums store moisture in their fleshy leaves.
- Root Succulents as the name suggests use underground storage.
Is it a cacti or a succulent, well all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti. All Cacti come from North and South America. Succulents come from all over the world.
Growing Notes for Cacti and Succulents.
All Cacti and the majority of Succulents come from arid or semi arid areas. Good drainage and light are the major needs, warmth is important for some but not all species.
It is essential to buy named species and obtain some specific growing notes, any nursery that can't provide a name or some growing notes is probably best avoided.
Succulent Varieties
- Aeonium
- Agave
- Aloe
- Beschorneria
- Calibanus
- Cereus
- Cotyledon
- Crassula
- Cussonia
- Echeveria
- Euphorbia
- Furcraea
- Gasteria
- Haworthia
- Lithops
- Mammillaria
- Sempervivum
- Sedum
- Stapelia
- Yucca
Propagation of Succulents
Although it is common for gardeners to grow a wide range of plants from seed, propagating succulents from cuttings is perhaps one of the easiest ways to increase your plant collection.
Many rarer species may be difficult to find, and some succulents are indeed more difficult to propagate than others, however to many including aeoniums it is fairly easy.
With many succulents such as echeverias, you will find that they get a little 'leggy' after a while, some gardens will remove the lower foliage and plant the whole plant deeper, with this you will also get leaf cuttings to strike, so why waste them, they can be left for a few days and then gently push them into some potting mix, a little water and some warm shade and they should strike.
- You will need some containers that have good drainage, a succulent potting mix and thats about it, except for the cuttings.
- Many gardeners are happy to give cuttings, often its just a matter of asking. A sharp knife that will allow you to take a piece with a stem around 8 cm long and with a small amount of foliage is a good start.
- Cuttings need to 'healed' before planting, this simply means letting them dry a little so the cut firms up, a cool dry spot for 3 days should see a callus form.
- With the container filled with potting mix simply make a hole in the mix, place the cutting in the hole and form the mix around it.'
- Water well and leave in a warm part shaded position until new
