How to Create Height in a Succulent Arrangement! 🌱🥰💚// Garden Answer

hey guys how's it going so today I'm gonna be working with some succulents it's been quite a long time since I've done this I'm so I'm really looking forward to it in fact this was the very last arrangement that I put together with succulents it's been about four months ago I thought you guys might like to see an update on how it's doing and it's kind of a testament to how succulents do when you pack them in really close and I get asked that question a lot like how are those succulents going to grow or they're gonna outgrow their container so fast that you're going to be pulling plants out right and left if you plant them close like this they just tend to not put on as much growth as fast and you can just see that they've all done really really well this one has been outside since I planted it and it went through a hail storm so there's a little tiny bit of hail damage and it's been in quite a lot of Sun to it just recently turned hot so I do need to find a spot that gets a little bit more protection in the afternoon but because it was in that Sun in the springtime which isn't as intense as it is now the aloe colored up beautifully the conchos blooming for the second time but I am noticing a tiny bit of burn on the end of the culantro leaves so I will move this to a more protected spot but everything's doing great I'm super happy with it today though I want to specifically show you how I create height in a succulent arrangement because I get asked that question quite a lot when I use a low bowl like this sometimes I'll have a plant in the center that's a pretty short plant like this one but it'll appear way higher than the edge of the rim of the bowl so I just thought I would show you how I build something like that and how I water it and take care of it so first off I have this low bowl right here that's from MGP planters they actually contacted me a while ago and I told them that they need to make more low bowls for succulents because I have a hard time finding them so like a year and a half later they sent me this bowl this is actually a set of three this is the smallest of the three so I was really excited about this it has a very traditional look to it which I like and I can't remember what the name of it is but we will link it down below now the one thing about this is it does not have a drainage hole so I'm gonna create one because that's very important especially if you're a beginner with succulents you must have a drainage hole because they like to not have water around their roots for very long so what I'm going to do you can see on the bottom it already kind of has a spot started that's where I'm gonna put my hole I've got a drill with a diamond tile drill bit you can probably use a regular drill bit since this is pretty porous and I don't think it's like a very hard material but to be on the safe side diamond tile does a really good job so I'm just gonna put a hole in this real quick oh my word got it done so for this size a container one drainage hole is plenty if you have a really big one like for the biggest size bowl that comes in this set I would probably put three drainage holes in it just to be safe and now I'm gonna grab my soil here let me set the drill down and I'm using a spawn macaque tiss mix for this arrangement which I use with all of my cactus and succulent arrangements that's what I use in this one thank you so I like to start off with quite a bit of soil because we are gonna create a mound in the end anyway we can add or subtract soil as we go as well I think why it seems hard to create height in your succulent arrangement is because when you take a succulent out of its container like this one right here the roots are pointed down so most of us especially those of you who are maybe you know dabbling in succulents for the first time it makes you think that that's how you need to plant it with the roots facing down like that but that's not necessarily the case succulents are so incredibly forgiving as long as they have a little bit of soil or a little bit of sphagnum moss around their roots they are just great so what we're gonna do is we're gonna remove some of this soil from around this is a simpler vitam called stem provide them Cal koream we're gonna remove some of the soil and then this is a term that I when I was very first starting to learn about how to put succulents together I was watching one of Deborah Lee Baldwin's videos and she works with succulents a lot but she was creating an arrangement kind of like this and she said that she likes to tip her succulents and rest their chins on the side of the container and that's how she kind of builds up her arrangement so the next chin of the next succulent will be resting on the other one and that kind of stuck with me so that's kind of what we're gonna do and we're gonna start building from the the lower level all the way up to the top of the mound I really like how this one's setting though this one has a whole bunch of babies around the outside I'm going to remove some of these real quick I think it'll make it rest better on the side and a lot I think of succulent arranging is just kind of trying it maybe tearing it apart a couple of times trying it again until you get it to look the way you want it to look and there's nothing wrong doing that sometimes I'll have put together an arrangement and like a week later I'll tear the whole thing apart because I don't really love how it turned out but see how I'm resting this succulent right on this side and I'm pointing it outward that's what gives you the really pretty interest and like if you had this in like a table centerpiece sort of setting whoever sitting you know on either side of this will have a lot of beautiful things to look at as opposed to if it was like this way not as interesting because you can't really see the detail okay so this one right here is a crassula and I think I'm just gonna place a couple more succulents so you can kind of see them go together and then we'll time-lapse the rest because it kind of you know you build the same way all the way around so see how you can kind of squeeze them together like this that's how I created this one right here you can create a very close-knit relationship between your succulents and they will just do great like that really like that color on that one okay then I think we'll do this as an etch of area neon breakers and I always like to go through as well and pick off any damaged or dead looking leaves because how a succulents grow is usually from the center and then the lower leaves or the older leaves will start to dry up and you can pull those off it's totally normal of succulents there we go so I'm gonna do my whole first ring and then when I get ready to place my next set of succulents will stop and I'll show you [Music] okay so I've got pretty much my first ring of succulents in and you could already see the mound kind of start to take shape and the way I think you can do that really easily is when you get succulents oh I have it right here like this right here that have a lot of babies you can take the babies off and tuck them around in little cracks and little openings that you may have and it makes them very easy to maneuver so now I'm going to start kind of my second ring and I've got a nice big kind of gap right here that I'm gonna use this edge of area to fill so I'm gonna take the babies off first and then I'll clean it up and remove some of the soil then we'll place it all right so now since I have removed most of the soil and I'm not left with anything really firm I'm gonna go ahead and grab a little bit more of my potting mix here my cactus mix and build up just a little bit more of a mound I think that's perfect right there and then I just packed soil in around the roots until I liked the placement and see how they just rest on one another like that it's perfect now so for my next one here I have a sedum with a nice little root ball so I'll create a little hole and this one's got a little height too so it kind of helps me out a bit and this type of succulent really fills in gaps nicely and then I'll take a little more potting soil let me turn it around so you can see the root ball so see the root ball kind of sitting up like that I'm going to take a little bit more potting soil and just pack it in around that root ball so we're not left with much air so that's what I'm gonna continue doing basically until I'm done with the arrangement I imagine I will get one small ring of succulents here and then I'll be left with one hole in the center that I'll pop you know something with maybe a little height and coloring so I think it may actually be helpful to see a succulent go in from this angle right here you find one that I like for this area yeah put this little agave in there so this one has some really nice height so I'm actually creating a little bit of a well for its roots here see how it fits and then we back fill that hole a little bit and let me turn it around and show ya look how perfect that is fits that section beautifully so I think that this is a Sun sparkler sedum right here it's got some beautiful color so I'm trying to decide if I add two more small agave or if I add a little bit of color into the center I think I'm gonna do this and I might be able to fit one more agave in there oh yeah that's pretty let me turn it around so you can see what it's shaping up to look like up there isn't that so pretty the colors of all of these are just beautiful and I think I can fit in agave right in back here turn it back around this is where it gets a little dicey got to take it a little slower so that I don't get all the rest of the succulents dirty and now clearly none of these succulents are meant to stay this small forever but when you plant it in close quarters like I said it just slows their growth rate down so dramatically that I can tend to usually get about a year out of an arrangement like this before I need to take it apart and do a little bit of repotting I might have to do some normal grooming routine maintenance grooming and maybe pop a seed amout here or there but nothing major for about a year which is pretty amazing okay we got room for one more I think another sedum a little bit more purple I think I'm just gonna use a bunch of these little babies that I popped off earlier to fill in this last little gap which means I'll use a little bit of soil to raise it up so that the roots make contact and that's the most important part you just want to make sure that all their root balls have as much soil around them as possible and that they are making contact with soil that way they have something to root into like these little babies right here will definitely root as long as that stem is put into soil okay I think it's done so let me clean off the table and then I'm gonna run and grab my syringe so I can show you how to water this okay so now that it's done I did want to show you how to water it really quick like how I find the best success and the easiest way to water especially with a mounted arrangement like this you wouldn't want to come at it with a hose with high pressure or watering can with high pressure because you know nothing's rooted in yet and so there is loose soil inside this arrangement and it will want to run out until those plants have a to root in so I find having just a large syringe these are really inexpensive to buy and so handy to have for succulents especially things like this it's just nice because you can direct the water right where you want it to go and you can control the flow so basically what I do is I just kind of shoot the water in toward the root balls of the plant slowly and I just go all the way around the arrangement and do that of course you know once they root in it gets a lot easier to water and if you've got it outside you can just water it overhead at that point but for the first little bit you want to treat them kind of ginger so that you don't have a mess on your hands see how easy that is and they need so little water that it's just a really easy arrangement to keep happy so anyway that's how you create a succulent arrangement with a little bit of height in the center and of course you could plant traditionally and plant them all flat with the roots going straight down and just use some higher succulents in the center but I think this creates a really unique look and I love that the succulents are tipped and they're looking at you especially for like a dinner kind of table centerpiece situation you don't want anything too tall to where you can't see everybody at the table but you still want something that's got interest all the way around so anyway I thought you guys might enjoy seeing this and I hope that you're ready to see some more succulent arrangements because I just went and kind of loaded up the car and went to town buying succulents because I was just in the mood for it so anyway we will see you in the next video bye [Music] you

Channel: Garden Answer

Views: 513,504

Rating: 4.9596453 out of 5

Keywords: Garden, Answer, Laura, Flower, gardening, gardener, beautiful, succulents, diy, grow, green, Proven, Winners, Fall, Winter, summer, spring, plant, planting, growing, plants, succulent, shrubs, shrub, bush, soil, dirt, earth

Id: ObfpakaQVvQ

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 17 2019