Donkey's Tail - Succulents

It is not impossible to have a rich cascading effect using succulents.
The challenge is taking up the risk in doing the impossible to get it done.

Whenever I buy a succulent - I considered it loss.
That is to say - that they are already dead
(That gives a sense of reality that if in case they do indeed get to survive,
I consider it the next half of the battle won)

In most cases - succulents are so unpredictable.
Sometimes they do so well, sometimes the go dormant
And sometimes, dead.

To avoid such a pain.
I found few matters necessary to change the course of their fate.
That is: I always change the soil medium that suit my lowland climate.
(the ones that come to my place are often planted using cocopeat, not the type of fast draining type of medium you would expect to find for these type of plants)

In due course of changing them.
That's where the stress begins.
Sometimes these plants just don't make it.
But when they do - they do it greatly.

The other thing I find is watering.
These seemed to need more than weekly watering.
Perhaps like 3-4 days once.
Organic fertiliser works best - at least once a month would make a difference.
Not using fertiliser would mean slow growth.
And these ever grow so slowly.

But once they started their growth regime.
They are considered care free plants.
Nothing much is expected from them.

A very small succulent plant came in.
Its known of mother of millions.
Somehow that small plant manage to invade into other pots and choking the rest of the species.
I manage to trim and replant it elsewhere.
This one - somehow manage to outgrow the rest of the succulents.

I do plan to get more different varieties of the donkey's tail.
These sedum species do give me a thrill
especially the cascading effects of  layered levels of leaves,
arranged neatly like beads.

 Do tell me if you have these type of succulents in your garden.
Tell me your story concerning these.
I would like to hear about them.

Creative Gardening with Broken Pottery

I didn't want to throw away this nice vase.
It wasn't expensive nor memorable but something that I bought many years back
and I would consider its a bit rare to find a clay vase these days.

I also found that mother of thousand seemed to be the best candidate
to work on this experiment.
Experiment?
Well - few plants didn't get too well adapted to this shallow surface growing.
This one worked so far.

After few months, these seemed to be thriving.
Let me know what you think about this.

This is the beauty of the plant.
The plant-lets seemed to lightly attached itself at the edge of the matured leaves.
And sometimes, these plant-lets have the orange stripes - like leopard.
Something that I enjoy having this one as it is very hardy and resilient.

Cactus Garden - Part 1

This is Mother of Thousands (Kalanchoe daigremonitana) 

Also known as Devil's spine & Mexican Hat. 

I guess this one is considered more of a "pest" than a plant. 

A lot of gardeners just hate it as they are so invasive just sprouting their plant-let everywhere. Many gardeners wage war with this one & I guess most of them are still fighting the battle.

I still like this one very much - more to do with the reason of lack of care & I mean literally. This one is going in a small sealed pot. I had placed these babies here and they have grown. I guess the heat had given them the stripes and spots - more like a leopard, don't you think?

These are grown in a small milk can tins.
They had aged and rusted but the plant is just doing so fine.

I often see broken pottery used as creative planting medium and I have decided to do so here. This is Mother of Thousand babies fastened in between the soil and clay pieces.

These are in a wooden box.

Succulents

The beautiful thing about succulents are that they are very exotic & unique looking. They just create an extra-ordinary feel in the garden space. 

Together with the uniqueness comes with a hidden agenda that is dangerously awaiting.
These touch me nots are ruthless in their care regiment. 
One mistake can proof fatal as many gardeners can confess that this is not for beginners to start with.

Envious as anyone can be.
I would dare say that I have to keep them out of reach from others less they might tempt to touch it and the leaf breaks crumbling down after. 
I did manage to propagate them using the broken leaves but they really test one patience and I certainly gave up and prefer to propagate them using their hanging stem. (sounds more promising even if it is 50% success rate)

Even slight movement can be another disaster
 (to my eyes perhaps)
Ohh.. those poor little leaves..

Together in this collection:
Donkey's Tail (Sedum morganianum)
Ghost Plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense)

I find this succulent very easy to handle. 
Even the leaf can sprout of babies 
(discount the patience in waiting) 
though it might take glacier speed to get them to size up. 

Unless you have the intention to put them up in the balcony and water them once a week - I would truly recommend this one.

It was truly a challenge to get their name. 
I first thought it was Echeveria species. 
I had few of those type which also eventually died.

Thanks for the garden group friends in FB
 - someone manage to identify them for me.
Finally this Ghost Plant had revealed its name to me.

This is Mother of Millions. (Bryophyllum Daigremontianum)

Another invasive succulent plant which many gardens swears that they are not easy to rid off. 
I would love this one invade my garden as I find they are quite rare. I guess they cannot handle extreme watering which proof to kill them.
(Not many succulents can withstand daily watering - which eventually succumb to root rot)  

Orchid Cactus growing together with my orchid plant.

A friend passed to me a small cutting of this hanging cactus.
It does however do not have any thorns or anything sharp to pierce upon.
I still haven't found its name yet. 

Another type of Mother of Thousands.
Notice the babies hanging on the leaf sections?

Unlike others - this one needs good watering. 
Lack of daily watering seemed to make this plant look sickly.