Succulents do grow in Florida!

Why grow succulents?

Heat loving succulents are drought-tolerant, maintenance free, easy to grow and so unique. Growing them in dish gardens add year round interest.

This I held as a topic for the Avalon Park Garden Club, but I am offering succulent dish gardening periodically as a workshop for Avalon Park residents here in Myrtle Glen. Follow my blog for updates and schedule.

 

Succulent Dish Gardens

What I used:

• Clay pot saucer, fiberglass saucer, shallow hypertufa bowls
• Drill with concrete drill bit for adding drainage holes to pots
• Well draining soil mix, either mix your own or buy cacti soil mix
• Pebbles, rocks, shells, etc.
• Succulents

There are of course many different ways to create your dish garden, let your imagination be your guide.
I like the rock garden style, so here is how I did mine:
I mixed pebbles with the soil mix for added drainage and piled it onto the pot saucer to form a mound. The succulents don't really have a huge root ball, it is easy to plant them. I liked the tall one in the center and added the others around it. A couple of bigger rocks add interest and a layer of pebbles give it a neat finish and holds the soil in place.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Don't plant your succulents too deeply
• They prefer sun to part shade
• In rainy summers, move the dish garden under cover after a couple of days of rain
• Protect from frost
• During the winter months, keep on the dry side

Any of the smaller growing succulents will be a good choice for dish gardens.

 

Some succulents are better suited for hanging baskets, for example:

Donkey's tail
String of Pearls
String of Bananas
Dog-tailed cactus (pictured)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Succulents to plant in your Florida yard

by making an alpine rock garden

Create a raised bed in a sunny location, use large rocks as outline and to hold the soil in place. For soil, mix sand, compost, pebbles for a loose and well draining medium and pile it up in a mound.
Consider adding boulders, river rocks, driftwood pieces.

We do not have a rock garden in Myrtle Glen, simply because I don't have the space at this time. But here is a list of plants I like to suggest based on my experience growing them:

• Agaves, Yucca
• Ponytail Palm (a member of the agave family, not a palm)
• Aloe
• Haworthia
• Madagascar palm
• Crassula (Kalanchoe, Echeveria, Graptopetalum paraguayense, Sedum, Jade plants)
• Adenium - Desert Rose
• Jatrophas
• Euphorbia (Crown of Thorns, Pencil cactus, Medusa's Head)
• Cacti (Opuntia - includes prickly pear, mammillaria)
• Pitaya - dragon fruit
• Stapeliads