Designing with SucculentsHow to incorporate succulents and cacti into your garden design
Although Todd Holloway of British Columbia and Peter Loyola of Southern California are about 1,400 international nautical mile apart and have vastly unlike styles , both designers use succulents as living adornments to make their distinctive container garden .
Todd Holloway drilled four large drainage holes in a guest ’s cast - concrete birdbath , and then transformed it into a garden focal decimal point with lily-white - webbedSempervivum arachnoideum(cobweb houseleek ) , severalSempervivumcultivars , and featherySedum‘Angelina ’ . exposure by : Todd Holloway .
Holloway ’s sleek , modern-day esthetical is consistent with the sleek alloy pot his company , Pot Incorporated , designs and fabricates . Loyola , who favors a more rustic looking at , apply repurposed object at the Succulent Café — a quaint coffee shop where you’re able to purchase succulent arrangements . In Oceanside , near San Diego , the sunlight is bright but not sear and temperature are balmy class - round . Vancouver is colder and wetter , but Holloway ’s exuberance for teetotal - climate , freeze - tender plants has yet to be moisten . He praises succulents as “ modern and architectural , with bold parting that offer up needlelike contrast and brazen textures . ”
Both say succulents are leisurely to care for , low-toned - pee using , tough , diverse , and intriguing . But what is it about the plants that they like best ? It seems succulents are a intriguer ’s dream ; like fashion example , they lean to “ look full in anything . ”
GROWING SUCCULENTS IN CONTAINERS:
Succulents are a great way to dress up a patio or porch . See how to replant and clean up existing lush container display .
exposure by : Todd Holloway .
Rule of Three
It ’s an investment to prevail several of the same or interchangeable container , but resound shapes and colors invariably enhances out-of-door living areas . And when grouped , such pots create a focal head . The simple melodic phrase and neutral , gunmetal - white-haired colour of this trio by Holloway display the succulent they carry without upstage them . In two are hen and wench , which will overwinter outdoors in Vancouver . The center pot is replant annually ; it showcases gullible and variegatedAeoniumcultivars , blueSenecio mandraliscae , Crassula , andSedum . succulent benefit from heat shine from the hardscape , and do n’t drop much leafage bedding material — a near matter , because these are poolside pots .
Urban Urn
Although another intriguer might have snapped off the head of this leggyAeonium‘Zwartkop ’ ( syn . Aeonium‘Schwarzkopf ’ ) and replant them as cutting , Holloway used it to lend height to a composition in a guest ’s lusterlessness black , concrete , Frank Lloyd Wright - design urn . Filler plants include : strappy - leavedYucca aloifolia‘Purpurea’,Sedum morganianum , regal - variegatedEcheveria nodulosa , blueSenecio serpens , bright - yellowSedum makinoi‘Ogon’,Echeveria‘Powder Blue ’ , andEuphorbia tirucalli‘Sticks on Fire ’ . When design with blackAeonium , think of them as silhouette and position them against a clean wall . If the backdrop is too busybodied , their dark color makes them disappear .
Photo by : Kole Montross .
Succulent Cascade
When Peter Loyola acquired his outdoor café ’s alley - like place , he saw it not as a characterless rectangle below a looming two - news report rampart , but rather a canvas expect three - dimensional works of living nontextual matter . He decided to subdue the wall ’s “ call cherry-red brick ” with trailingSenecio radicans(fish hooks ) planted in a windowpane box along withAeoniumrosettes . The green of the succulent contrasts with the bricks , and the multiple strands of theSeneciosuggest a waterfall . apparently it loves this location : “ In 10 months , I had to cut down it four times , ” Loyola says . “ If you ’re looking for duration , Pisces hooks is the stark pick . ”
Closet Door Redux
Loyola enjoys the challenge ofplanting succulentsin architectural salvage . To create containers for plants in the hollowed - out plaza segment of an old room access , he cut plastic pelting gutters to accommodate . After exercise drainage holes , he paint the gutters butter chickenhearted , which disguises their original function while giving them prominence and pull in them built-in to the composition . Small rose window succulents gather into the troughs includeAeonium , Sedum , andEcheveria . Growing in 2 to 3 inches of soil is adequate , he say , and “ helps them stay small . ” He gently spray - painted the shutter moss light-green and then sandpaper to lend a finishing touch .
Driftwood Design
For this 34 - by-62 - column inch vertical garden , Loyola painted a wooden frame pale putting surface , then sanded it to reveal its imperfections . He line it with a 2 - column inch - thick sandwich of potting dirt and gunny , held in position ( front and back ) with 18 - gauge wimp wire . Driftwood both enhances the excogitation and help keep the soil from slumping . Using a pointed chopstick to make holes in the burlap , Loyola engraft the organisation ( laid flat ) with cuttings ofEcheveria , Sempervivum , Aeonium , smallCrassula , Graptopetalum , andSedum(notably burro fanny ) . A few weeks later , when origin had drop anchor the plants , he positioned the planted human body upright .
EcheveriaAloft
For a hard - to - water window box seat , Holloway chose grandiloquent , tapered terracotta raft . “ Their height was correct and their rolled flange repeat the atomic number 26 curves , ” he say . He promise the homeowner that succulent would “ spark the interest of passersby ” as much or more than petunias or geraniums , with significantly less trouble . ( Succulents demand infrequent irrigation and rarely demand deadheading . ) Holloway chose those that resemble blossom — rosetteEcheveriain blue , pink , and green — plusSedum rubrotinctum(pork and beans ) for demarcation and as a trailer . When sunlit , striking basswood - greenEcheveria pallidaglows , heighten the view from indoors .
Dish Gardens
Holloway say he designed these “ hover sweetheart planter ” expressly for succulents : “ There are hanging baskets ; why not hang dishes ? ” Succulents , he adds , are shallow - rooted , so shallow container make sense . He planted these with a mix of smallCrassula , Sedum , Sempervivum , andAeonium . Senecio rowleyanus(string - of - pearls ) , fish hook , andSedum‘Angelina ’ cascade from the get - go , and other succulent will become pendant over prison term . In the violent dish , adding top and people of color , areEuphorbia trigonaf.rubraandEuphorbia tirucalli‘Sticks on Fire ’ . Holloway ’s hover dish planters also look good empty , especially in three , and could even service as shuttlecock eater .
DEBRA LEE BALDWIN ’S DESIGN TIPS & SOURCES
DIY : make your own indoor or outdoor succulent arrangement with help from Debra Lee Baldwin . SeeDesert in a Potfor directions .
Books by Debra Lee Baldwin:
design with Succulents
Succulents simplify
Succulent Container Gardens
