Placing Plants: Pots vs. Ground

  The placement of plants is a decision that must take into consideration many factors. Before owning a house, I only had potted plants, and to recap, only one (an aeonium) ever survived! One of the most immediate things you can do to perk up a sad-looking plant is put it in the dirt, the real dirt. Of course, one still has to determine what area of ground will be the best for the plant.

My succulent cutting garden. The furniture is 1:12 dollhouse furniture from the 1980s.

  The first decision to be made is whether the plant should live indoors or out. In Southern California the fairly mild to warm climate supports quite a large variety of succulent plants, and worrying about plants getting frostbitten is something very rarely worried about. The one thing that can and does happen to some of my succulents is that they are too delicate for full sun. This applies to different types of succulents, but its good to know that young plants are easily burned in hot sun and must be given some sort of shelter until they reach adult size.
  

Grew "under" another adult plant.

  The mesembryanthemums in the indoor window box I grow cuttings in were on clearance at Home Depot. They could probably be planted outside, but I'm not comfortable putting these rock-shaped plants in the ground. I KNOW they'd get stepped on!

The cuttings garden is a safe indoor area for baby plants. 

The un-ID'd baby succulent loves its safe home.

  You can see in the photos where I have set baby plants from leaf cuttings atop the potting soil to grow safely indoors. Yes, I have used seed beads, crystals and rocks to cover the soil and make it purty. Well, "fairy gardens" are in now, aren't they?

  

 

  These three pots contain some of the smaller or more delicate plants. For instance, in our lovely lady on the far right is a small piece of that wacky jade plant they're calling "Gollum Fingers" these days, but in front of that is a haworthia that I had originally planted out of doors. The plant was just too delicate for direct sunshine, so I brought it indoors. Haworthias are popular indoor plants, especially in Asia, where cultivators have bred some frankly weird and wacky plants.

"String of Pearls" is NOT an easy grow!

  A plant that I potted but kept outdoors is this still-tiny string of pearls plant. It finally has grow some new leaves (those bulbous "pearls"), but is not thriving at all in its location of direct sunlight. I only potted it because its a trailing succulent, but  since it's in a pot I already have the flexibility to place the pot itself in a shadier location.

A "crown of thorns" euphorbia and a "bunny ear" grafted cactus

  The biggest problem I have with potted plants is keeping them watered! The above photo has a euphorbia with lovely orange-pink flowers. After planting it in that pot, I neglected it. When I finally started regular watering again, the new flower growth was pale yellow and white! At least it stayed alive, and it appears that the color is changing back to the terra cotta pink seen above.

A week after being in the ground.

   Back to the ground; if you want a plant to really grow, you've gotta give it room. This piece of floribunda would never had survived had it been in a pot. By sticking it in the wet earth near the hose spout, I've got a revitalized plant. I've never experienced this sort of regeneration with potted plants. Every plant I've left in this condition dried up and died in its pot.

Six weeks being in the ground.

  Controlling plant growth is something that a pot can assist with, but just because you've got a plant in a certain sized pot does not mean it will stop growing to fit the container! Plants should be repotted at least every two to three years. What putting a plant in a pot does do is prevent the plant from sending out underground shooters that pop up as pups. Of course, if I did have my agaves in a pot, they'd probably just skip the long rhizomes and make the babies right against the mother plant.

Agave pups broke ground about three feet away from mom.

  To wrap it up, then, most plants thrive in the ground, but succulents do grow quite well in pots. Succulent growers in cold climates will want to pot their plants so that the plants can be moved to warmer areas during winter. Pots might slightly inhibit your plant from reproducing, but not to a noticeable degree. In fact, I keep all of my cuttings in the kitchen, and here's the latest batch of will-be-plants:

All echeveria leaves, I believe.

The Elegant Aeonium

  Aeoniums are easily recognized as succulents, their fleshy leaves growing in rosettes. Originally distributed by sailors as souvenirs from the Canary Islands, they're readily available at nurseries and home stores; my first aeonium was a Target purchase of aeonium cyclops, a purple aeonium with green at the center of the rosettes. Aeoniums propagate frequently by offshoots or pups, and produce seeds once in their lifetime, dying after blooming.

Baby Aeonium right after being put in the ground.

The same plant a few weeks later.

  

  Wait, aeoniums die after blooming? Yes, aeoniums are like agaves in that they live for years, then bloom once and expire. This isn't necessarily a problem, however. As long as the gardener knows this is going to happen, then it can be planned for and pruned correctly. Aeoniums reproduce just like agaves, though like most other succulents, aeoniums reproduce pups that are actually grown in between the leaves of mature rosettes, or along the stems of arboreal plants. Aeoniums also have shorter life cycles, which means you can enjoy aeonium blooms much more frequently than those of the century plant.

A few weeks after that the largest leaves have been completely blocked from the sun by new leaves.

 When growing aeoniums it is important to let the plant expand through new rosettes and offshoots. One rosette may bloom then die, but you'll already have a larger body of plant that will continue to thrive. A dead aeonium must be removed from the living plants around/attached to it. With arboreal (tree-like) aeoniums, the dead bloom is removed and the stem trimmed of the now elongated rosette. DO NOT remove the entire stem! It is very likely that your aeonium will grow new offshoots from the bare stem.

Miniscule rosettes are blooming from "eyes" where the stem formerly had a leaf in this aeonium cyclops.

The aeonium cyclops before blooming.

An aeonium cyclops in bloom.


Aeonium blooms are cone-shaped structures made of tiny yellow flowers. I must admit, I was rather dismayed to find my aeonium blooming, and the stages in between preparing to flower and the actual bloom leave the plant looking like a phallic symbol from a Cronenberg film! In fact, I have no photos of that stage, as I avoided looking at my plant for awhile. I'm not a prude, but it was... gross. Now that I'm prepared for the weirdness, I'm waiting for the remaining largest rosette to bloom.

An adult aeonium of the same species as the plant in the first two photos.

Close-up of the center of the adult aeonium.

A new rosette growing between leaves near the base of the parent plant.

Two pups growing at the base of the larger adult plant.

  I cut two pups off of this aeonium, though they wouldn't root for weeks! They're both still alive, and finally rooted after what might be a month. Both severed pups withered a bit, closed up, and turned yellow-green. As can be seen in the below photo, the leaves are going green again, indicating the plant has finally set out some roots and reached water. I don't plan on removed the two remaining pups; I'm curious to see how the plant will change as they expand and reproduce themselves.

One of four pups finally rooted and growing again.

  Aeoniums look more plant-like to me than some other succulents. They are also more susceptible to damage. Scratches on leaves can scab over, and snails adore these plants! This damage is apparent in these variegated baby aeoniums. Water sitting on the plant can burn it, and create patterns of dots as you can see in the below image.

  These particular plants were much less pink and yellow and very green when removed from their packaging. I kept them in the shade before planting them, and it's been fascinating watching their colors grow in! These are looking like they might be aeonium "Kiwi" plants, as they are remaining fairly low to the grow and are already reproducing. The tenacious plants are growing despite damage. Pink and green are my favorite colors, and like several other succulents, this aeonium bursts with the colors!

  I'm growing one more aeonium, though I have no idea what type it is. It forms a small shrub and the long, green rosette leaves are slightly hairy and sticky. It came without a proper label, and I still haven't found an adequate description of it in any of my books or on the internet. Its growth has been rather explosive, and I'm curious to see if it grows taller or just spreads out.

                                 

Some lovely pictures of aeonium cyclops:

Morning dew rests inside this rosette. Smaller plants do not tolerate dew as well as this larger plant can.

Close up of the little yellow flowers

A canopy of brilliant yellow.