
November 11, 2016
The Most Common Mistakes People Make With Succulents
Cacti & succulents are the plants of the moment, featured in just about every interiors magazine in the country, but many people are unsure of how to care for them.
I often get shown photos of sad little plants and asked what the problem is. So here are my top tips for avoiding the more common mistakes.
So please don’t:
- overwater your succulents – you REALLY don’t need to water them every week
- put them in the bathroom – why would you? These plants don’t like water…..
- give them too little light – you may well have a sunny room but on a table or by the back wall is just not good enough (this photograph shows plants that have been grown too far away from a light source. They have pale spindly stems through stitching towards the light). Put them as close to a window as possible
- grow them in ‘ordinary’ compost – they need free-draining soil. Peat based compost sticks to the roots and suffocates them – use a proprietary cactus mix or make your own using a loam-based compost and lots of grit
- refer to succulents as “cacti” – wrong! Cacti are actually a type of succulent – in fact cacti are stem succulents (can you tell this one touches a nerve…?)
- not grow them! You are missing out – immediately get out there and acquire one (or two) now!
Here endeth the lesson.
In winter, the rule of thumb is the colder the environment the plants are in - the drier you should keep them.