Deadheading: It's Not As Bad As It Sounds

There comes a time in most succulent's lives where you're going to have to cut off their heads. Don't worry, it sounds a lot worse than it really is.

Grew under some portulaca, was reaching for the sun.

Most succulent plants look best without long stems. However, most succulents will grow extremely long stems the longer they are alive, which can look awkward. There are also conditions a plant may grow in which cause it to stretch when it should be dish-shaped, and dead-heading is great for these plants, too.

I used a dead stem to prop up the plant heads so they'll grow straight.

Today, I finally cut off the heads of my pink butterfly kalanchoes. This plant, which originally was one, is now three (I gave one to my mother), and the two remaining had stems nearly two feet long. The stems reached horizontally along the ground so the plants could get into the bright sunshine. Not very attractive, so, I cut them off.

The bottom of the stem is close to, but not touching the soil.

You want to use a very sharp knife, preferably as clean as possible. Once you've beheaded your plant, place it in a pot hovering JUST ABOVE some moist soil. This encourages the plant to grow roots to reach that soil. With this plant, the long "leaves" provide a prop to keep the stem from touching.

It usually takes a few weeks for the plant to grow new roots. Yes, you can just cut some heads off and stick them in the ground, but they won't necessarily root that way, and they may rot. For plants you really love, take it slow.

There's a tiny pink plantlet to the right of the pot!

The "leftovers" aren't necessarily useless, either. The rooted stem, once the head of the plant is removed, might begin growing small plantlets where leaves formerly grew, or even at the top where the "head" was removed. Since I had to cut the stem into more than one piece (it was THAT LONG), I threw them all in a pot together with the rooted bits to give them a chance to make some babies.


I don't know how this will turn out, but I'm hoping that at least the "heads" of the plants will root successfully, as they are some of my favorite. The little pink plantlets are just gorgeous, and unlike other mother-of-thousands plants, cannot grow into plants themselves.

The two rooted stems and the other cut pieces.

The Results!

Creating a Succulent Collection: Keeping Records

  I'm not a naturally-organized person. I really do have difficulty with planning and homemaking, and it's something I'm working on daily. There are a few tips and tricks I've picked up or "discovered" myself, and I use these few tools/methods to keep track of my succulent collection.

  Identifying succulents is probably one of the most difficult aspects of cultivating the plants as a pastime. Since my record-keeping skills are limited, one trick I use is taking photos of newly-acquired plants while still in their plastic pots. Now, the labels are not always accurate, and most are rather generic, but at the very least a name on a label gives you a point of reference to base a search on.

  

  This plant is labelled as a "hybrid," which is, in fact, what many store-bought succulents are. Hybrids are usually created by plant fanciers (people who raise show plants like others raise show dogs). Hybrids are a combination of different parent plants to create a new breed (again, like dogs). My favorite hybrids are all echeverias, like the "Lola" in the first photo. Echeveria hybrids can resemble funky rainbow cabbages, delicate roses, or even monstrous mutants from an H.P. Lovecraft story. 

   

  Groundcover is essential. That's it. You need to cover the exposed dirt in your garden. The simplest reason is weeds. If they can't break through the soil to eat the sunshine, weeds can't grow. Another reason to cover the ground around specific plants (like those tarty agaves) is to prevent pups from growing around the plant base. I have seen agave grown so that they are surrounded by offspring like happy Buddha with children, but this will make the plant much harder to prune and eventually remove after it flowers.

  Your groundcover can be plants. Ice plants, which I always have thought of as "freeway plants," are very fast-growing and can cover the bare earth in a matter of months. There are many types of sedum that make excellent groundcover, in fact, a well-stocked nursery should have several different types of ground covering succulents. The problem with plants, however, is that YOU CAN'T WALK ON THEM! Personally, I like being able to move my feet into the small spaces between some plants to prune them, and I've learned plants as groundcover is asking too much if myself as a gardener!  

The black DOES bring out the color, though in these sunny pics are rather washed out. I don't really want sand, so I'm really hoping this stuff will be okay. I'll probably have to invest in decomposed granite someday. Then, no more weeds, ever!

It looks sophisticated, though I think the black color will leech out of the wood like it's leeching under my nails. Maybe I could use a variety of bark colors? Make a pattern like those bottles filled with layers of colored sand made by kids and housewives on Pinterest! To make sure I can get matching cover in the future, I cut out and save the label from the bag the bark came in. The strong plastic folds easily and can be filed in a folder.