We know that the definition of succulents is plants that withstand periods of drought by
storing moisture in their fleshy leaves and stems. But just how juicy ARE succulents? I'm going
to show you some very common garden succulents from my own garden. I'm going to sacrifice them.
We're going to slice them open and we're going to rank them on the juice scale from 1 to 10.
I'm succulent expert Debra Lee Baldwin author of three books about succulents and how to grow them
in gardens containers and landscapes. Sunset jade let's just break off a leaf
and snap it open check out the interior, squeeze a little bit of juice.
A six. Here's aloe brevifolia and this leaf down here I think we could sacrifice.
Oh yeah look at the gelatinous interior of that,
then you squeeze it and you get a gooey drip. I'm gonna give that
a nine because i'm reserving ten for the juiciest and drippiest succulent in my garden.
I have two main types of paddle cactus. Both are minimally spined. This is this is turtle food.
Let's take a look. It's interesting how that skin peeled away. I'd give that a three.
You know i would have expected a little bit more juiciness there, but it is juicier than the turtle
food. I'm going to give it a 5. Here's a dudleya with some leaves that were damaged in the hail,
so i think we could probably sacrifice one of those and not miss it.
Dudleyas go really dry during the summer, but this time of the year, this is late winter,
they are just turgid with juiciness. Look at that and they're using that
to fuel their blooms. Nine and a half on the juiciness scale, still reserving number ten.
And we should see it dripping yes. All right here's an agave pup that is just kicking around in
my nursery area. It's not going to break my heart if i damage it. Let's see, let's slice into it.
Well you can hear the crunch right?
It doesn't really, it's not really yielding much. And look how fibrous that is, you see those
fibers? And that's typical of agaves that they have fibrous tissues. Well I'm only going to give
that a four. All right this is a cotyledon, this big one here, yeah pretty good uh five. You're
gonna just wince. This is a senecio. The cute little beads on that and I'm just gonna pop one.
Oh did you see that? The whole center part of it came out. Let's do that again.
As one would expect they're little juice balls. This is an ice plant this is carbobrotus
it's pretty darn juicy. Oh yeah a nine and a half. Squeeze so juicy and gelatinous, wow.
So if you've ever had a tour of my garden you know that always end up in my nursery area, and i
show people this plant. It's a kind of ice plant. I look around the plant to find a damaged leaf
like this. Okay and i break it off and I say to them, you know succulents are juicy,
but this is probably the juiciest one you'll ever see. And then i tell them to stand back
And i squeeze it
Yes like that, i just wring it out. Glotyphyllum linguiform, number 10.
I need to go wash my hands. Now that I've shown you what makes succulents succulent,
do visit my website to discover the fascinating science behind it all. You'll learn how and
why these dry climate, sun-loving plants have fat leaves, waxy skin shallow roots, and more
as well as how to successfully grow and use numerous varieties large and small.