Pretty As A Picture Succulent Planter
5 Materials
$10
30 Minutes
Easy
Colourful succulents, with their beautiful, complex shapes look like mini works of art. Here we show you how to plant a succulent pot to make your own piece of garden art, inspired by the still life paintings of the Old Masters.
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This succulent planter is for the garden, so we are using the Sempervivum varieties of succulents (also known as Houseleeks and Hen and Chicks). They are super easy to grow, propagate really quickly and come in a vast range of shapes and colours. The only thing these pretty, colourful succulents really dislike is being waterlogged. We have grown them successfully in all manner of quirky plantings including our succulent hedgehog and our chicken wire, moss and succulent toadstool which you can find on our blog.
- Shallow Terracotta Pot to hold your display
- Small Terracotta pot or ceramic jug
- Selection of Outdoor Succulent Plants
- Succulent Compost
- Gravel or similar to top dress the pot - we used Coloured Aquarium Gravel
Start by filling your pot with a decent layer or gravel or stones to aid drainage. Succulents are drought-resistant plants, storing water in their fleshy leaves. They thrive in dry, rocky conditions in their natural habitats, and although easy to care for, can rot if kept in too moist conditions.
Fill the pot with compost. I used succulent compost which has lots of grit ready blended in to aid drainage, but you could make your own up using garden compost and adding some grit or sand.
Because I want my succulent planter to look like a painting, I centred my arrangement leaving a border to provide contrast. Sempervivums quickly propagate so my bouquet will soon expand with new, baby succulent plants.
I chose a combination of different sized and coloured succulents to be the ‘blooms’ of the bouquet. Once they were positioned, I added a couple of cuttings from a Sedum to complete my succulent art.
To complete my succulent picture, I top dressed my pot with some coloured aquarium gravel to provide a contrast. This step isn’t essential, but I do think it makes the plant colours pop and finishes the arrangement off.
I think a garden art planter made with colourful succulents makes a lovely gift. This arrangement already has pride of place at my mother in laws house.
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Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
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2 of 410 comments
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This is the cutest thing I’ve seen in awhile. I’m going to try it. Thank you for sharing.
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Creative and Beautiful!❤️
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Can these plants be put in the outside sun? I live in Savannah, GA and it's very very hot and humid. I tried having succulents inside but either they didn't get enough light or too much water. Please help. Thanks, Olivia
P.S. How deep is the big planter on the bottom?
how do you keep soil from falling out
Can you use a clay saucer instead? Or do you need the depth of a full pot?