Taking care of your indoor succulents

Care for a succulent garden

Light: In general, succulents need about 6 hours of light. Though, that said, 6 hours of direct sunlight can scorch or burn the plants. Placing your succulent garden in a south facing window is a great location, but again make sure that it's not receiving too much sunlight. According to blogger Succulents and Sunshine, an east facing window is an ideal location for your succulents. Things to consider, the farther they are away from a window the more the plants will begin to stretch towards the light (which some succulents don't look too great all stretched out). 

Water: Over watering your succulent is one of the fastest ways to kill you succulents. Here's the scoop; the roots like to be soaked with water but then dry up quickly. So if you keep the soil wet every day your succulents will die quickly from over watering. But simply misting them can also kill them as well, due to them not receiving enough water at their roots. So simply put; when watering give your succulents enough water but allow the soil completely dry out before watering again. Your frequency of watering obviously will depend on the container and the light levels. If you are keeping your succulents in direct sun you may find that you need to water more often than if your plants were in less direct light.

Temperature: Succulents can handle very hot climates but their ideal temperatures for summers are between 70 and 80 degrees. Come winter during their more 'dormant' period, succulents like to be between 50 and 60 degrees.

Bugs: There are 2 common bugs that you may run into; fungus gnats and mealy bug. Generally if you see little flies in your containers you most likely have fungus gnats. This is because the soil is being kept too moist and you are providing a nice home for these gnats to lay eggs. The best way to avoid or solve this problem is to let your soil dry out completely between each watering. Also make sure that your soil is a well draining soil that will mot hold in additional moisture. Secondly, the mealy bug, this bug will appear most likely where the leaves meet the stem. They are a white sticky looking bug. If your succulent gets mealy bug there are 2 different solutions. First mix a bit of dish soap with water in a spray bottle and spray on areas affected. The second method is using rubbing alcohol again you can put this in a spray bottle and spray the plant making sure to also lightly spray the soil as to kill any eggs. Or you can soak a Q-tip in the rubbing alcohol and directly target the bug. 

Give the gift of COLOR!!

Not only do we design and deliver monthly flowering plant bowls, we also offer a colorbowl gift program!! 

Let us deliver a 'welcome' or 'thank you' garden gift to your special clients. We offer spectacular orchid and succulent gardens, as well as seasonal colorbowls.

To inquire please contact Alyce at ac@hardingbotanicals.com
Let's create something beautiful!

Faux Succulent Garden Construction

Just recently we installed this stunning faux succulent garden in a lobby in Boston. I figured I'd take pictures along the way during the 'construction.'

See how we made it:

Step 1 : First I had to know the dimensions of the planter bed. Lined up the green foam and cut to size. 

Step 2 : Using a sharpie I drew out the line that I wanted the succulents to follow; making sure to number them so that during installation we know what order each sheet of foam goes in.

Step 3 : The largest succulents we used were sedums. I wanted to make sure that they were spaced out appropriately so those were the first that I placed. (make sure to remove all tags from the items! You definitely don't want to see those ) Also! Make sure to leave enough space under each plant for the rocks (topdressing).

Step 4 : After placing the sedums, Started at the very beginning and created the "look" that I wanted for the whole display.

Step 5 : From there I created little groupings of the pops of bright green (I have a lot of the red succulents for filler!)

Step 6 : Then I added the red succulents and followed the line that I drew to get a beautiful wave. 

Step 7 : To make sure that everything would look right I tested out the look with rocks. 

Step 8 : Knowing that this display needs to be permanent I hot glued each succulent in place.

Viola! 

Pantone Color of 2017: Greenery

The 2017 Pantone color of the year is... Greenery!!! And we couldn't be more excited about this year's choice. What are most passionate about is greenery!! Our purpose is to bring the beauty of outside nature into people's offices and homes. Our designs are aimed to provide a feeling of freshness and life. We all have a sense of calm when we are around plants, and plants bring so many benefits to our living spaces. Greenery reminds us that we can start new and fresh each day!

From Pantone: A refreshing and revitalizing shade, Greenery is symbolic of new beginnings.

Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew. Illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors, the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.

Greenery is nature’s neutral. The more submerged people are in modern life, the greater their innate craving to immerse themselves in the physical beauty and inherent unity of the natural world. This shift is reflected by the proliferation of all things expressive of Greenery in daily lives through urban planning, architecture, lifestyle and design choices globally. A constant on the periphery, Greenery is now being pulled to the forefront - it is an omnipresent hue around the world.

A life-affirming shade, Greenery is also emblematic of the pursuit of personal passions and vitality.