Succulent Garden Maintenance: Tasks
To keep your succulent garden healthy and beautiful, you or your succulent garden maintenance professional* need to do these tasks seasonally:
Trim damaged or excessive growth
Prune succulents to show the beauty of the plants and keep them tidy. Use cuttings to fill gaps. Remove frost-damaged leaves on jade and other tender succulents. Cut damaged tips of aloes and agaves to a point that follows the natural shape of the leaf. Deadhead spent flowers.
Repot overgrown containers
Indicators that succulents have outgrown their containers include roots emerging from drain holes, a plant that looks overly large for its pot, and stems that are tangled and rangy. See my book Designing with Succulents for how big a particular plant will get. If it has potential to get large, and the climate is suitable, plant it in the garden. On my YouTube channel see: How to Refresh an Overgrown Succulent Container Garden (4:31).
Fertilize
Above: These are just six of over 100 helpful videos on my YouTube channel.
Evaluate plant placement
Notice which succulents suffer from winter cold, and move them to a better, more sheltered location. A few feet can make a big difference. Plants closest to hardscape, boulders and structures benefit from radiated warmth. Those beneath overhanging branches or eaves are safer than those out in the open. Your home's south side is warmer than its north. And because cold air is heavier than warm, succulents at the top of a slope are less vulnerable than those below. Plan for the other extreme, too: Succulents (especially young or newly planted ones) can be scorched by sun.
Sunburned kalanchoe leaf
How's the light?
Control Pests
Start cuttings
Get rid of weeds
Get Help!
Succulent Garden Professionals: Referrals
Where to find or recommend a succulent garden designer or maintenance professional. Do you know or need someone skilled in this? Tell us!
Summer Care for Succulents: Heat and Sun Concerns
Don’t let summer sun and heat harm your succulents! Heat generally isn’t a concern. Although some succulents (like sempervivums) tend not to thrive in temps above 80 or 90 degrees F, the majority are fine. It’s heat plus sun that’s the concern.
So glad to have found your website. I have numerous succulents and and, am happy to learn more about how to make them thrive.
Ka Y
What a love comment, Kay. Makes me feel it’s all worthwhile!
Thank you very much for presenting this data about succulent garden maintenance tasks, it’s known how to get approved but what are the next steps after getting the approval… Wonderful information, thanks a lot for sharing kind of content with us… great post!
I’ve been a hobbyist succulent aficionado for 50+ years in the San Diego region. I’ve exhibited at the Coronado Flower Show and was a co-chairman and later chairman of the Cactus and Succulent Division in the 1970’s. I was the librarian for the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society in the past. I currently grow about 300 species of succulents and am propagating lesser known or seldom seen varieties. I do the weekly grounds maintenance at two small cottage complexes in North Park and Golden Hills. I may take on a few select garden maintenance projects on a monthly or weekly basis.
I never use weed whips, as they spread weed seeds throughout a garden. I pull weeds by the roots and they don’t come back. I emphasize pulling weeds before they go to seed, especially for spurges and most unwanted grasses. I collect pulled weeds in a bucket and never leave pieces behind that can drop seeds. By maintaining gardens in that manner, weeding drops dramatically over time.
(If it’s appropriate to include here, my name is Jack and my email is photojack53@yahoo.com and my phone is (619) 695-4383)