I'm a succa for you, brilliant succulents!

These are mostly very easy to look after, although I have lost some through over-watering or lack of light or nutrients, so they do need a little more TLC than the air-plants.

So what is a succulent? In botany, succulents are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. They include cacti and infact many plant families have succulents within them, some more than others. In other words, it is quite confusing as there are many types of succulents and they may not be related - perfect time for a bad pun: 'What did one succulent say to the other? Aloe there! Didn't realise you are in the family.'

Ignoring cacti for now, we will look at the non-prickly succulents, like in the picture above. Many are versatile and tough enough to grow outdoors and some are thriving well in our garden rockery, surviving even our winter frosts in the South of England without complaining.

But they are most happy in a conservatory or warm room with plenty of light, brought in from the cold.

So where do we start with these diverse range of plants? Well, the common ones you can get in any garden centre, supermarket, nursery or plant shop is a good place to start and I will concentrate on two today you can keep indoors.

1. Echeveria spp

There are so many varieties of these beautiful rosette succulents. If it looks like a green rose, it is probably an echeveria. Some stay small, happy in a 9cm pot, but many will slowly outgrow their pots (up to a diameter of 31cm) and I have one about 20cm wide. They will product little 'chicks' (baby plants on the sides of the mother 'hen'), and you can pluck these off and grow them separately. They happily grow outdoors typically in rockery displays, preferably in a warm location with lots of sunshine or indoors in unglazed pots - these allow for water to evaporate and prevent over-watering. I lost one in a plastic pot as there was just not enough drainage. They thrive best in sunlight or use a grow light if this is not possible. So a simple rule with watering: less is more, and allow the soil to dry between waterings and never let it get water-logged. As for nutrients, use sparingly - and if you are unsure what to use, the Cactus Focus feed below works for me. Follow the instructions and you cannot go wrong.

2. String of Pearls (Senecio rowleyanus)

And now for something completely different, this plant will draw a lot of attention because it flaunts its beauty and looks so unreal, you have to come up close to check it is not plastic (as these do exist).

I find this does need lots of sunshine to thrive so I hang mine next to the window as you can see below. The same rules of watering with echeveria applies. The magic of this plant is that it is ridiculously easy to propagate. If you snap off a small string of, say just 5-6, pearls and plant the stem in any cactus mix compost (I use Westland below but there are others), it will root. An extra tip: if you dip the end in rooting powder before placing it in the soil (eg. Doff 75g £3.44 Amazon UK), it improves the chance of it rooting. Keep the compost on the dry side to avoid it rotting before it roots.

I try to keep these blogs short so as not to bore you but hope to give you great tips so you can succeed in looking after these amazing plants and watch them thrive.

I leave you with another silly plant cartoon:

Adios Amigos! Till next time,

Miles👦🏻💜🌵