Hi everybody this is Noelle from Petitti Garden Centers and I'm here at Casa
Verde and I'm standing amongst the succulents they have been such a popular
plant family for us and it's that huge umbrella that includes your cactus your
Jade plants your aloe everything in between so there's lots to talk about
the succulents but to be particular about their care and again succulents
are a really good plant to start out if you're a beginner gardener and you want
to get started with something I think succulents are great only one thing that
you have to consider is you really need a bright light source so let's start out
with a lighting most of your succulents would prefer bright indirect lighting so
pretty sunny window coming in the house a little bit away from the window six to
eight feet away from the window or right up against those windows right so again
they like bright direct light too so anything from full Sun requirements
bright direct sunlight coming into the windows or a bright indirect lighting
area okay with succulents it's kind of interesting their temperatures can
really be variable you can keep them at a very cool temperature like 50 55
degrees and they will go dormant over the winter and then you don't have to
really do anything you really don't have to water do any kind of care so that's
kind of interesting but normally they'll grow very well in household temperatures
even a little bit warmer so the 60-degree mark up to the 85 degree mark
again Wow a hot house but they will love that so it just depends on what you like
to keep your household temperatures at over the winter time as far as watering
cactus it is key to let them dry out almost completely and I should say in
most cases I do let them dry out completely to where the soil is actually
kind of pulling away from the edges of the pot and then you can go ahead and
thoroughly moisten the soil again because most cactus soil has a mixture
of sand there it's going to drain really really
quickly and that's okay that's the nature of the
beast we don't want to have heavy rich soils holding a lot of moisture around
the root system and their root systems are very very shallow too very small so
again cactus soil makes sense works very
very well for the entire succulent family for the most part so watering
again thorough watering and then put back in
place some of these smaller cacti may be something like a small echeverria
rosette this isn't a 3-inch diameter 3 inch diameter pot maybe watering this
once to maybe two times a month over the winter time of course in the summer if
you've you know temperatures are increasing light is increasing it may
have to be more often and especially if you take any of your cacti or succulents
outside then you probably will be watering a little bit more regularly
more often as well outdoors in the summer time one other thing that I want
to mention fertilizer so cactus do love they can tolerate fertilizer I have a
Espoma organics cactus fertilizer here so this is a concentrated fertilizer you
mix this in water and the directions as marked is really applying once every 2
to 4 weeks again during the growing season so April through September so
it's really when these plants are gonna be actively growing and again not
growing quickly by any means but that's when they're gonna utilize the
fertilizer and it's not just gonna sit there and not do anything for the plant
last thing that I wanted to mention is many many of the succulents you can
propagate just from a leaf taking a leaf off that succulent so you
can do that with things like the echeverria each one of these leaflets on
this rosette can be pulled off can be placed in a moist well draining potting
soil or cactus soil and if it's kept a little bit more moist
it will work the key is and a lot of people forget this and I was just about
to forget it is that if you can let that leaflet kind of cure if you will kind of
sit there for about a week or so and then plant it in that soil that
succulent is going to be much more active and productive for you as far as
propagation is concerned so just remember that
let those leaflets cure first and then go ahead and put them in that moist soil
and keep them on the moisture side when you're trying to produce new routes for
them okay I have plenty of different succulents here I love this kalanchoe or
kalanchoe II I've heard people call it this is called flapjack these big kind
of burgundy blue leaves absolutely gorgeous I have Aloes different types
Aloes this is Hedgehog aloe a little bit more thorny if you will so
watch out with those I showed you the echeverria which are a great indoor
succulent they're pet friendly they're people friendly they're really nice to
have around very easy to care for and then also I wanted to show you this one
this is one of my favorite succulents this is blue chalk fingers this is in
the Senecio family lots of moisture but beautiful beautiful succulent plant and
these can take a little bit more moisture in the soil as well so if you
tend to be an overwater you might want to try one of these guys I have barrel
cactus behind me and just so you know a cactus is differentiated from they have
aerials it's kind of a raised cushion around where their thorns come out so
that's how you identify one of the members of the cactus family among all
the different succulents so just keep in mind they are really easy care they do a
really nice job as long as you have good lighting inside enjoy