Discover the exciting world of succulents. Choose kinds to make your summer garden more colorful.
They vary in appearance from the boldly sculptured to the whimsical, but all are plants ideally suited to giving the garden a late-in-the-season face-lifting.
As a group, succulents are plants with watery leaves and stems. If you garden in the North, chances are you have some of the hardy kinds already—Sedum spectabile (live-forever) and various hen-and-chickens or houseleeks (Sempervintin species).
In mild winter climates, many succulents are commonly used, but more should be.
Succulents from a pot collection can make real conversation pieces if they are tucked into the rock garden, featured amid a perennial or shrub border, or appealingly set in the foreground of the annual bed.
Just pop them out of their pots into the garden—and they’ll thank you for it next fall when you move them back inside, healthier and larger for the experience.
In gardens where winters are mild, plant them to stay—and take advantage of their bold lines for mass plantings, adding strong lines and contrasting textures and foliage hues to your landscape.
Or, in any zone, take succulents into the garden, pots and all, and make attractive pot arrangements on the patio, porch, terrace, steps, or lawn.
A Century Plant To Give Striking Accent
The century plant (Agave americana) is one of the largest succulents. Though there are smaller species, like Agave victoriae-reginae, A. attenuata, and A. grandidentata, most will need plenty of room to stretch—and if you live in the North, they will require a good-sized tub for wintering.
All have to spread rosettes of thorn-tipped leaves. A. Americana marginata has a ribbon of variegation along its leaf margins. Most agaves are Mexican in origin.
Aloes
Next, the aloes. These South Africans send flower spikes from the midst of fleshy-leaf rosettes. Blossoms are orange, yellow, or pink, sometimes with contrasting trim in green or in second color.
Though there are tree and shrub-sized aloes, excellent for mass planting or specimen use, you’ll probably prefer some smaller species.
Happy and in scale both in the garden and window sill will be Barbados aloe (A. vera) with yellow flowers, hedgehog aloe (A. humilis) with dainty red flowers, and A. variegate, with marbled leaves and reddish flowers.
Like most succulents, the aloes want fertile but well-drained soil (equal parts leaf mold, sand, and loam, with a bit of lime if the soil is acid—a condition common in Eastern gardens)—most aloes like at least half a day of sun.
Sansevierias Give Strong Vertical Lines
Sansevierias, the familiar mother-in-law’s tongue or snake plants, are delighted to spend the summer outdoors—or further South, to stay there. But give them a spot out of the burning sun. Otherwise, their leaves will turn pale yellow.
These often flower out-of-doors, and though the bloom spikes of pale white flowers are undramatic, they are pleasantly fragrant. S. trifasciata is a commonly grown striped species.
S. trifasciata laurentii is the yellow-bordered kind. The hybrid dwarf S. hahni and its varieties make good border plants.
Carrion-fly Plants
Try the carrion-fly plants (Stapelia species) from Africa. First, an explanation of the repulsive name—perhaps in no way making the plants any more socially acceptable. The name comes from the odor of the star-like blooms.
It tricks flies onto the flower with the mistaken impression that it is a dead animal. But the flowers, despite their smell, are truly magnificent.
S. variegate, the most often grown, sports three-inch, yellow-ochre, purple-marbled stars. However, S. grandiflora outdoes even that with six-inch, hair-fringed purple stars.
And S. gigantea offers red-lined, yellow blooms that sometimes reach 16 inches in diameter!
Adding a bit of well-rotted manure to the soil mixture will increase the number and frequency of stapelia flowers. Unfortunately, the plants themselves are unimpressive four-sided fingers of sage green.
Kalanchoes Far Beautiful Foliage And Flowers
Kalanchoes form a versatile group of succulents. Mostly from Madagascar, they prefer a bright spot in the garden, though the elegant furry-leaved panda plant (K. tomentosa) will thank you for a shaded location.
Most familiar is the sprouting leaf (K. verticillata), with almost cylindrical leaves tipped, in adult plants, with young plantlets. K. blossfeldiana is a Christmas-blooming plant with umbels of fiery scarlet flowers.
The tall stature, thick leaves, and reddish blooms of the life plant (K. pinnate) make a handsome addition to the sunny border.
Interesting Echeverias
Echeverias, mostly from Mexico, offer a wide variety, interesting both for leaf and flower. An effective border plant is E. elegans, with blue-gray rosettes of leaves and pinkish blooms with yellow tips.
This and the large, blue-leaved E. secunda glauca resemble hen-and-chicken plants but have more colorful flowers and leaves. Burro’s-ear (E. gibbiflora) has giant leaves and tall, to two feet, sprays of red flowers.
Like most succulents, these will be more likely to flower in summer if kept on the dry side in winter (water just often enough so they don’t wither).
Beautiful Echeveria Relatives
Pachyphytums, a Mexican group closely related to the echeverias, have left so fleshy as to be oval. The leaves of P. oviferum are white and covered with a white to pinkish bloom. Its spray of dainty flowers adds great beauty to a showy plant.
The hardy garden sedums or stonecrops are only a small part of that large and varied genus, with the most impressive probably those that will need to winter indoors.
Coral beads (Sedum stahlii) look like what the name suggests. The flowers are yellow.
From Guatemala, Christmas cheer (S. rubrotinctum) is a more upright version of coral beads, with deep green, red-tipped ovals for leaves. Still taller and with white leaves is S. treleasei.
A trailer, handsome tumbling over multi-level rock garden stones or in a hanging basket is burro’s-tail (S. morganianum).
Phantom-Gray Foliage
Ghost Plant (Graptopetalum weinberg), sometimes classed as a sedum, is so named for the phantom gray of its blossom-like, loose rosettes of leaves.
New plants, with roots usually popping out first, develop from the point on fallen leaves where they are attached to the stems. Leave them on the soil, and the little plantlets will soon be growing robustly on their own.
Crassulas
Crassulas, beginning with the African jade plant (C. argentea), all benefit from a summer out-of-doors, and the garden is richer for having had their visit. For curiosity, try the necklace plant (C. perforata) with its shish-kebab leaves speared by the stem.
Both of these will prefer not to be roasted in the afternoon sun—give them a spot with morning sun only or in sunlight filtered by a loose branching tree.
Other Succulents for Outdoors
Other handsome succulent additions for the summer border (they need protection from frost in winter) include the blue chalk plant
- (Senecio repens) with spears of indigo foliage, the tongue plant
- (Glottiphyllum linguiforme) with a summer-long succession of dandelion-like blooms on a rosette of fat, succulent leaves,
- Aeonium decorum with leaf rosettes like giant green roses and eye-stopping masses of yellow blooms;
- The old-familiar succulents crown-of-thorns (Euphorbia splendens)
- Cow’s-horn euphorbia (E. grandicornis)
- Haworthia
- Gasteria
44659 by Phil Clark