Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Rooting Succulents in a design
- 27 August 2012
- click to send Christine a smile
Usually succulents will stay turgid in a design and no water source is required. In fact succulents deteriorate fast when over watered. But I wanted these succulents to propagate. Rooting succulents in Rainbow Oasis pebbles creates not only a long lasting design but also an ever changing design as you remove rooted plants to grow in pots and add those leaves or long shoots that you want to propagate back into the design.
See below for the Tutorial on how to carve your own pebbles
Cut the rosette (chick) from the main Sempervivum plant (hen).
Try to reach deep into the plant to make sure you get a long stem.
Remove any damaged or dry leaves or spend flower stems.
If you want to re-shape the rosette and pick any leaves that are still plump and pretty you can propagate those in the same way as the rosettes.
Make sure you do not touch the rosette though. The silvery powdery bloom protects the succulents and makes it water resistant.
Set aside the plant to give the stem time to heal. The wound will start to look dry. This takes about four days.
Some growers recommend that you dip the plants in a root producing hormone powder (available from nurseries) but I have found that the succulents rarely need any help to root.
Make a small hole in the Oasis Rainbow foam pebble with a wooden skewer.
The pebble will not be lying flat in the design so it will need a tiny drop of glue to secure the succulent to the pebble.
For long trailing shoots you will need to add a hairpin wire to keep the heavy plant in place.
Fold a section of wire in half and press over the stem into the foam.
Water the pebble. It should be moist but never soaked.
Stack the pebbles into the driftwood cavity in such a way that most of the water naturally drains out.
Only water the pebbles when completely dry and allow it to dry out before watering again.
After about two weeks you will notice small fibrous roots on the plants
Remove the plants from the pebbles and plant in a mixture of potting soil and coarse sand and a bit of gravel.
More designs using Succulents:
Succulent Wrist Corsage
Elongated heart shape Echeveria Waist Corsage
Echeveria ring
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My second design in my demonstration at the BC Floral Art Society meeting