JANE: If you're looking for a plant
that will grow happily outdoors in full sun,
thrive in a shady nook
or survive even in low light conditions indoors,
well, it's hard to beat a succulent.
They are tough customers and will grow just about anywhere.
Dylan Hewlett is the manager of Fitzroy Nursery
and he's also a huge fan of succulents.
What's your passion for cacti and succulents?
It's the vast array of form and shape
that you can get within these plants.
They're like stamps, aren't they?
If you start collecting stamps, it's never ending.
Exactly.
That diversity within the family
means that there's kind of something for everybody in there.
I also think too, like,
they fit so many different niches in your garden, you know,
they don't need to be in the hottest spot.
There's a succulent to go in every situation.
That is interesting because people think of cacti and succulents
as just straight desert plants,
you know, practically growing on nothing.
But in actual fact, they're a bit broader than that, aren't they?
Absolutely they are.
Especially, you know, families like the Haworthia, for example,
you would actually find these plants growing in shady positions,
not full sun,
so these are a perfect indoor plant.
Indoors, nice bright spot.
They don't want to be in a dark corner,
even though they are a shade plant.
But they will grow very happily on a windowsill.
Well, some of them are just extraordinary.
This one here, for instance.
So this is Haworthia truncata. Mm.
The truncata types are some of the more collectible.
Why is that? They're very slow growing.
So that always adds to the collectability of a plant.
Something like this, you're probably looking at eight, nine years.
This one, I remember that from my grandma's garden.
And it's really quite textured, isn't it?
Yes, lovely beading on the leaves of this plant.
And this is amazing.
Yeah, this is a cooperii hybrid called OB1.
Um, so...I like it for two reasons, obviously.
Star Wars reference - big tick -
and, you know, the translucent windows
on this particular plant is...
It sort of looks like a jelly bean.
Why do they have that function?
So, the translucent part of the window
actually is an adaption to diffuse the light
so that by the time the light hits the tissue that photosynthesises,
it's been diffused,
the sting's been taken out of the sun.
How would you look after these?
They can rot quite easily, like all succulents can.
But the main thing with haworthias
is they can rot their roots very easily.
So that's why we grow them in a very open mix,
lots of gravel, very open,
so it drains freely and dries quickly.
These, I love them, I love the way they look like hair drooping down.
It's a rhipsalis, isn't it? It is, yes.
They these are a...actually a type of cacti
that managed to escape the deserts
and moved up into the higher canopies of the trees
and the lower rainforests.
So although they're cacti, they do grow in a wetter environment
than other cacti would.
And they do perfectly well in a hanging basket.
Also great inside if you wanted to have them on a shelf,
spilling down the side of a shelf.
And where would you grow them? What kind of conditions?
If you grew these indoors,
you'd want to have a nice bright spot for them,
even an aspect that got a little bit of morning sun.
Not too much hot sun - that will actually scald them.
If you grow them outside, grow them under your veranda,
you can grow them under your trees,
somewhere where they get that dappled light.
I really like the look of this plant.
This is amazing.
This is a pretty interesting caudex succulent from South Africa
called a Diascorea elephantipes.
It looks like an elephant's foot.
It does, and that is actually its common name.
This is what you call a caudex.
So it actually stores moisture in here for the hot summer months,
so it'll go dormant and it will rely on its caudex
for moisture and sustenance.
Wow! And that's how big they get.
Yes. And they can get much bigger than that as well.
So these plants are 45 years old,
but in diascorea terms, they're adolescents, really.
If Dylan has inspired you to get out and grow some succulents,
you can buy premade succulent potting mix.
If you want to go a step up, though, you can make your own.
Use a bag of potting mix and add some gravel,
which is a great thing to do.
The gravel will really make sure that there's no waterlogging.
And then some perlite, which just is sort of like a fluffy material
that fluffs the whole thing up
and adds a little bit of air space into that potting mix.
Mix that up, bit like making a cake, and there you go -
you've made your very own customised mix.
Some succulents are really easy to give a go at propagating.
Let's start out with the echeverias.
They will grow very easily from a stem
that you've cut from the mother plant,
and just take off the lower leaves very gently.
And with that stem, just leave it to callous over,
in other words, to harden off.
Once you've cut it from the mother plant,
just leave it sitting in the pot or even on the veranda
for a day or two, even a week.
And then what you can do is put it into a pot
and let it grow.
The other way that you can grow them is by using these leaves
and they will grow roots from down here.
And once they've just dried out that little bit,
you can put them into some propagating mix.
In a matter of months, you'll find that they grow into new plants
and there you go.
The next comes the aeoniums.
If you just sit that into a tray
and just cover it up lightly,
you'll find the roots will grow from there very, very easily -
as long as you let that callus over.
Then they can be potted on into their own individual pots
or literally you can do that into the ground.
And finally, I'm going to make a container
using all the things we've talked about,
some of the plants that we've looked at and, of course, the potting mix.
I'm going to use this plant here - have a look at that.
It's called pachypodium. It's from Madagascar.
A little bit of tickling.
And that's going to be the centrepiece.
Around the outside,
I'm going to plant some smaller-growing succulent plants
like this little one.
That's the old haworthia.
This one is called an aloe.
And this one is called a gasteria.
It sounds like you've got something wrong with your stomach,
but it's not, it's a nice little plant.
And for a finishing touch, put some large gravel
as a mulch around the top of the potting mix.
It really shows the plants off well.
There's an easy thing to do over the weekend,
a striking succulent container display.
And it's great on your patio or even on your dining room table.
Succulents are more popular than ever
because gardeners love them, collectors go mad for them
and landscapers are keen to incorporate them
in their designs.
And there's one that's suited to almost every space.