Success With Succulents

Discover succulents with Debra Lee Baldwin, bestselling author of
Designing with Succulents, Succulent Container Gardens and Succulents Simplified

Welcome!

Tired of succulent sites stuffed with ads, and that tell nothing about the people providing content? I'm proud that my site has 100+ ad-free pages on every aspect of succulents. Need a plant ID? Go to TYPES OF SUCCULENTS. Worried? Go to PESTS AND PROBLEMS. Want to grow succulents perfectly? Go to SUCCULENT CARE BASICS. Need garden maintenance? See REFERRALS. Do use the MENU and SEARCH BAR above. Overwhelmed? Browse until you're better, or CONTACT me.

Looking foR Videos?

Then you'll love my YouTube Channel. With nearly 8,000,000 views, it provides entertaining, expert info on succulent design, cultivation, plants, tips, garden tours, and much more.

HOW-TO'S, TIPS & IDEAS

SUCCULENT DESIGN

Discover how to plan and design lovely, carefree succulent gardens in containers and in the ground. Also under Design you'll find firewise landscaping info, DIY gifts and projects, and holiday decorating ideas - all beautifully showcasing succulents.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

SUCCULENT CARE

Get expert advice on growing, caring for and propagating succulents. Find out how to water, fertilize, control pests and diseases, overwinter succulents, grow them indoors, and by season and region. Under Varieties, view hundreds of labeled photos of easy-care kinds.

LOCAL & NATIONAL

SUCCULENT RESOURCES

Wondering where to find and purchase top-quality succulents? Which tools, books and supplies you need? It's all here under Resources, along with nurseries, public gardens and destinations in America's finest succulent city (San Diego) and beyond.

Subscribe to My Newsletter and Receive

Debra's 7 best succulents

In this free PDF exclusively for subscribers to my "Celebrating the Joy of Succulents" newsletter, you'll learn the 7 best easy-care succulents that thrive in pots and landscapes. Whether you're new to growing succulents or an experienced succulent "parent", you'll love these 7 beautiful plants.

Succulent Updates and Articles

Agave attenuata bloom spike (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Sep 17 2023

Agave attenuata (Foxtail Agave) Care & Cultivation

How do I love foxtail agaves (A. attenuata)? Let me count the ways: This highly popular succulent looks equally good in pots or in the garden. Rosettes attain a manageable 5′ in diameter over time. Soft, flexible leaves lacking barbs or points make foxtails totally harmless. As the only trunk-forming agave, it lends height to…

Garden store horrors (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Sep 8 2023

Silly Succulents and Garden Store Horrors

Succulents that make me want to scream are proliferating at my local garden center…which I’m now calling The Big Box of Horrors. I suspect these appeal to kids and newbies who are unaware that fake-and-flashy succulents are doomed to fail, and also to anyone who assumes if a plant’s for sale, it must be OK.…

Succulent container garden designer Marissa Engoy

Sep 2 2023

Marissa’s Living Art Terrariums & More

I’m delighted to recommend to you a SoCal container garden designer and her workshops. Coming soon: terrariums. You’ll also find intriguing how Marissa Engoy, owner of Good Morning Cactus, created a business model that anyone with similar skills might emulate. Marissa calls her designs “living art.” The former third-grade teacher and mother of three uses…

Echeveria 'Love's Fire' (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Aug 15 2023

Echeveria Bonanza at Oasis

The selection of large (dinner-plate-sized) echeverias at Oasis Water Efficient Gardens right now is astonishing. Great timing, too. Autumn is nearly upon us, and an important end-summer task is refreshing our echeveria gardens. My own occupies several large pots. Annually in late August, I remove dry lower leaves, deadhead, and enhance the assortment—hence my trip…

Debra Lee Baldwin with graptoveria (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Aug 4 2023

Propagation: What Your Succulents Want You to Know

In my new video I show and explain how your succulents want to propagate, if you help them or not…and whether you like it or not! When propagation happens, you may be delighted or dismayed. Delighted, because you get free plants; dismayed because you get too many. It all comes down to observation. Succulents are…

Sempervivum offsets (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Jul 20 2023

I’m in Architectural Digest! Sadly…

I’m in Architectural Digest! Sadly, they didn’t interview me about design…which is a little disappointing because I wrote Designing with Succulents and was a regular contributor to Better Homes & Gardens and Sunset. That said, being in AD is a huge honor. Plus they used my photos (example above). The topic: How to propagate succulents…

Crassula 'Red Pagoda' (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Jul 8 2023

Discover Stacked Crassulas

My love affair with stacked crassulas began three decades ago. On a garden tour I saw a succulent with leaves stacked like pancakes along pendant stems. I took photos and finally tracked down the plant (Crassula perforata) several years later. Today stacked crassulas are much easier to come by, and desirable varieties number in the…

Hannah Eubanks Del Mar Fair Succulent display garden (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Jun 6 2023

See Hannah’s Award-Winning County Fair Garden

Hannah Eubanks, 25, of Design for Serenity (she's Laura Eubanks’ daughter and protégé), completed a herculean task: Creating a 1,750-square-foot succulent display for the Del Mar Fair Flower Show

Aeoniums in my garden (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Jun 3 2023

Should You Water Aeoniums in Summer?

Conventional seasonal care advice for aeoniums is to "withhold summer water," info I've routinely passed along. But it's always bothered me. My own experience and observations indicated otherwise.

Plant-pot pairing at Oasis (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

May 24 2023

How to Pick Succulents for Special Pots

You know you’ve created an effective plant-pot pairing if every time you look at it, it delights you. Ideally, it exceeds the sum of its parts. But how to make that happen? You’re about to find out: Succulent plant-pot pairing—an art form in itself—is the topic of my latest video. In it you’ll learn…

Debra Lee Baldwin in her garden (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

May 5 2023

To Tree or Not to Tree? Ask Your Succulents

Do consider the need for shade when installing a succulent garden, especially if you—like me—live in a hot, dry region of the Southwest where winter frost is also a concern. Tree canopies moderate temperature extremes and create the dappled sunshine succulents love. Of course, not all succulents are the same. Twenty or more miles inland…

Debra Lee Baldwin with Echeveria imbricata and climbing roses (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Apr 28 2023

Create a “Flower” Bed with Rosette Succulents

Easy-care rosette succulents resemble flowers and bloom beautifully too! Use them to create the look of a flowerbed without all the care and maintenance flowerbeds require. In the Idea Gallery below, see many marvelous images of garden beds, pots and planters full of rosette succulents. All photos have main succulents ID’d. May they spark your creativity…

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I don't like websites stuffed with ads, and I figure you don't either. It's ungracious to make visitors hunt for info buried amid commercials.

If you'd like to support me (thank you!), obtain my books, watch my videos, and follow links to the few vendors I'm affiliated with. Want to use my text or photos? All I ask is attribution: Imbed the excerpt with a link to the page it came from.

Mainly, do learn from and enjoy my site. It's my pleasure to share its wealth with you. -- Debra Lee Baldwin

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