Thursday, January 8, 2015

What the succulent?!


I love succulents. They remind me of the women in my family. I inherited a few after my great-grandmother passed and my mom has some of my grandmother's growing in her yard. I love them, but I have to admit, I'm not great at getting them to flourish. One of my great-grandmother's is on its last legs lately and I've been searching for a way (if possible) to resuscitate it.

Does anyone else have this problem? I have a friend who can't keep anything at all alive. Nada. I'm not quite that bad. In fact my amaryllis comes back multiple times a year with beautiful pink and white striped blossoms- and it's due entirely to 90% mindful neglect. She loves it and just keeps coming back around!

With one or two of my succulents though...I kind of just shake my head sometimes. Some grow without issues, but one or two...oi vey. So I've plunged into the web to try to find what I'm doing wrong.

First things first, I think I may have the wrong potting soil, or that the one I've had the most trouble with may have not had good enough drainage when I got it and it got a bit of rot. So, I've brought it inside because we had two weeks of cold rain and that's super bad if the drainage isn't right.

I've also read about a cactus soil mix and Perlite? I'm not sure what that is exactly, but the soil I've had it in is soil + sand, and it has rocks in it to help with drainage. I hope that works. I'm afraid to try to transplant it because it's hanging on by a thread. If I do, I'll need to consult my Farmer's Almanac for the right time to do so (plus its the waning moon and that's no good for transplanting either!).

I have moderately had success in propagating some of the succulents leaves. I hope that helps in keeping this little connection to my grand and great-grandmother's plants alive.

Do you guys have any tried and true succulent care tips? I'd love to know!

Have a truly wonderful day, y'all! Go and get your fingers in some soil, it's good for the soul!

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed all of these links. How do you find them all???

    ReplyDelete