Succs to be Indoors

SERIES 32 | Episode 27

We’re at a busy nursery in inner-city Melbourne. If there’s one type of plant that’s more popular than ever, it’s succulents. Prized for their weird and wonderful colours and shapes, these plants are as coveted by collectors as they are landscape designers. Jane’s going to show us some sterling examples, and how they might fit into some unpromising spaces at your place. She’ll also show how to propagate and grow these plants so they’re at their very best.

Dylan Hewlett is a nursery manager and succulents are his passion. He has hundreds of succulents at home and is here to show Jane through some of the treasures on offer.

When you think of these plants, you may think of leathery, spiny little survivors baking on a desert plain, and while there’s many that fit into this category, there’s hundreds of species that will grow quite happily in a part shaded spot, or even indoors!

Haworthias

Haworthias are small and deservedly popular succulents from southern Africa. They’re small, cute and easy to grow. Most Haworthia produce smallish rosettes of textured succulent leaves, typically marked with patterned glass-like windows in a rainbow of colours. They look more like a glittering box of costume jewellery than a collection of plants. A favourite is Haworthia truncata, with upright leaves that look like a piece of coral. The clear panes on the leaves are thought to help the plant refract and concentrate light.

The biggest mistake people make with their Haworthias is they put them outside in full sun. They hate it! The ideal spot for your haworthia is indoors, where they’ll be protected from cold weather and too much rain over winter. They prefer partial shade and need to avoid direct sunlight. A bright, south facing window would be perfect, or if it’s on a sunny window make sure there’s a sheer curtain to offer some protection. Water sparingly and only when completely dry, as the lack of wind indoors means they’ll take longer to dry out

Rhipsalis

Rhipsalis, also known as mistletoe cactus, is a family of dangling epyphitic cacti native to Central and Southern America. There are over 35 different species of this plant, so Rhipsalis can come in all different shapes and sizes!

Naturally found in the understory of trees, Rhipsalis prefers bright, indirect light indoors. The best place to put it is at least a step back from a window, but Rhipsalis is an extremely hardy plant. It can subsist on minimal light for extended periods. However, if you go the very low-light route, give your rhispalis a break by moving it to a slightly brighter spot once in a while.

Dioscorea

Dioscorea elephantipes is a plant that looks like nothing else. It’s a slow-growing, long-lived succulent climbing vine with heart-shaped leaves growing from an above-ground tuber (called a “caudex”). The caudex is covered in crackled, tessellated corky bark. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s also slightly deciduous and will shed its leaves at some point during the year, usually summer.

This plant has evolved to grow under the shade of a shrub layer, meaning the characteristic caudex needs to be shaded from direct sun, or it will burn. It will grow happily indoors, and the best position is a bright, north facing window. The higher, overhead position of the sun in summer will miss the caudex, avoiding the danger of burning. They are shallow rooted, so a wide, shallow tray (like a bonsai pot) is a good idea, to accommodate their outward growth while preventing water pooling in a deeper pot.

Provided with the right conditions this plant can live for decades, and indeed the ones here are over 50 years old.

Potting Up a Display

Succulents are often presented as individual specimens, like stamps in an album. But many can be happily grown together like you would any other plant, taking advantage of the contrasts in form and colour for a visual display. Jane’s going to pot an assembly of a few species that would be right at home on your kitchen windowsill or on a veranda.

Choose a wide, low pot as most succulents are shallow rooted and we don’t want water pooling unused at the base. We’re not going to use a regular potting mix here; we’re engineering something specifically for succulents.

Making a Mix

Succulents have adapted to get by on very little water by storing it in their leaves. This means too much water can overwhelm their roots and drown them. When you’re growing succulents, drainage is the biggest priority; a mix that holds water around the roots (like one suitable for vegetables) is a certain death sentence.

You can buy pre-made succulent mixes, and these are a good start. They’re typically made up of larger chunks of bark and a fair bit of sand, both of which will help speed the drainage of water out of your pot.

If you want to take it to the next level, it’s pretty simple to put together your own customised succulent potting mix. Take two parts bagged succulent mix, one part perlite and one-part fine gravel and mix thoroughly. The perlite will ensure the mix stays open and airy over a long period of time, to ensure water can pass through unimpeded. The gravel mimics the sandy, stony outcrops where you’ll find a lot of these plants growing in the wild.

Into her mix, Jane’s taking a few species of Gasteria, a low, aloe-like succulent with coarse, paddle like leaves. These will sit in the foreground and show off their different colours and textures of their leaves. At the rear of the pot, she’s putting in some small Pachypodium. This is an upright tree-like succulent from Madagascar. It can grow large, but it will take years to get to this size, and a few in this pot will provide upright visual interest and “vertical drama”. Both of these plants will gladly tolerate shade, and so this assembly will work to punctuate a brightly lit spot indoors.

Finish off with a thick layer of coarse gravel over the top of the mix. Not only will this make your mix last longer (by protecting it from breaking down under UV), it will radiate absorbed heat back up into the plants at night time; something they will really thank you for over winter.

Propagating Succulents

Part of the reason succulents have boomed in popularity is they’re so easy to propagate and share with friends. Jane’s collected some Aeonium, Senecio and Echeveria. These are typical soft leaved succulents that will thrive in an outdoor position in part shade, like a courtyard. There are two simple methods to propagate these plants:

1. 1.

   Leaves (echeveria): Gently pull leaves away from the clumping rosette and place on top of potting mix. Let them dry for a week or so, and do not water over this time as it it will promote rot. These single leaves will start producing roots from where they were severed. Once struck, these can be then potted up individually.

2. 2.

   Stems (aeonium, senecio): Remove leaves and plant the stripped stem flat, just on top of a shallow tray of potting mix. New roots will form along the stem, and new plants will arise from each node. Once each new plantlet has rooted in the mix, the stem can be severed into each separate plant and re-potted.

Succulents are a beautiful and diverse group of plants. But don’t get stuck in the desert! There’s plenty of species that would be just at home in your loungeroom, or a shady corner of the garden. They’re easy to propagate, grow and great to look at, so it’s time to make some room in your collection.

Filmed on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country | Fitzroy, Vic