If I came to your house and I saw this I'd say okay what can I trade you for
That?
You’d think “I don't want to give it to you” and I wouldn't blame you.
Senecio this is a radians, this is senecio rowleyanus and this is
another radicans.
that although they're different they're called
the same thing, which I don't understand.
I'm trying to figure that one out but nevertheless there are succulents and
these succulents like it dry.
I've had string of pearls a number of times and
I've made a number of mistakes but now that I figured it out I think I can hold
on to them for a long time.
They need lots of indirect sunlight so if you
don't have that you might have an issue with these guys.
but they really want to have about, you know, four to six seven
eight hours of bright indirect sunlight.
So try to provide them with that.
The other thing that they don't like is they don't like wet feet.
They don't like to be over watered so what I do is I
transplant them into terracotta pots or into concrete pots or any pot that is
slightly porous or porous that will never let the roots stay wet.
When it is extremely dry you want to soak it all
the way through and never let it sit in standing water.
The mistake that I made when I had these in the beginning was
that I would put them in front of the window but on top like over the window.
This is a window or this is a square window I would put them here.
So the vegetation the vines would be getting
the sunshine or the bright indirect sunlight, but never the top so that was
the demise of my first few.
Then I realized wait a minute.
The top because it starts balding needs the light, right.
And also the light will help absorb the moisture and
go through the vegetation or whatever it just worked.
so I started doing that and I had more success with that.
They also have a shallow root system so when your
repotting it try not to put it in a very deep pot put it in a much more shallow
pot.
This way the roots won't be the searching for the water.
It'll get the water when it needs it and it won't be
sitting in water if there's any water at the bottom of the pot.
That was a big lesson I learned.
I used to water these in buckets I would fill the bucket up
and submerge the terra cotta pot in the water and have the water wick up from the
bottom but that didn't work.
So as soon as I started putting it in more bright
in direct sunlight and exposing the top to that bright indirect sunlight my
problems seemed to be solved.
You might be tempted to leave them in their
nursery pots when you get them because they look really good, but then but over time,
staying in that plastic pot will promote fungus and bacteria and root decay so we
don't want that at all.
So definitely put them in a terracotta pot or a concrete or any pot that is
porous.
It will really help that plant.
They catch my hair all the time so I'm gonna keep it away from me because it
attacks me, It definitely attacks me.
Fertilize these guys in the growing Season.
I would fertilize them once a month with half strength complete fertilizer.
I use fish emulsion sometimes actually most of
the time and I just put maybe a little cap full into about a four gallon, I
think it's a four gallon, watering can and I water it first.
because these guys they have roots that are very sensitive and can burn easily.
So water first thoroughly and then fertilize it.
it works.
So let's sum this up.
They love bright indirect sunlight, they love to dry out between waterings
because they are succulents, they have shallow root systems so plant them in
shallow pots and when you fertilize in the growing season dilute the fertilizer
and water first so you don't burn the roots.
They love heat in the summer.
They love they really love heat in the summer,
and in the winter they like it actually rather cool.
They need a cooling-off period so you could keep them in
temperatures between 55 and 65 and that will give them that little dormancy
period they need to thrive the next year or the next season.
I forgot to mention that these guys bloom.
They have these small white flowers that smell like
cinnamon and this whole room smelled like cinnamon for days and made me want to
eat breakfast all day long.
It made me really hungry.
it's really not that difficult to keep these guys happy it's almost easier if
you back off and let them do their thing and understand when they need the water
and how much light they need.
If you can do that these guys will grow and you
can use them as wigs or whatever you want to use them as.
I'm sure you just want to decorate with them because really hard to find another
plant that looks like this!