Marissa’s Living Art Terrariums & More

Succulent container garden designer Marissa Engoy

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…

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How to Pick Succulents for Special Pots

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

  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…

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My 70-Succulent Deck Collection

Debra Lee Baldwin

See how I display treasured succulents in pots that contain and frame them. Discover how to pick pots for your own collection, group them on your deck or patio, utilize sight lines and focal points, and delight your guests.

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Create a $2,500 Succulent Planter for $250

Succulents in Willy Guhl pot (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

When I saw succulents planted in grid patterns in shallow, circular pots, I simply had to show them to you. Here and in my video, you’ll see and discover how to make similar planters for your own garden.

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Succulent Windowsill Pots DIY

Windowsill succulents with glass topdressing (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

In my Succulent Windowsill Pots DIY here and on YouTube, you’ll find out how to make a simple, colorful succulent windowsill garden. Whenever you glance out your window at work or home, you’ll see and enjoy your living gems.

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Annie and Me at The Succulent Cafe

Succulent Cafe (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

During succulent celebrity Annie Schreck’s week-long visit to Southern CA, of course we went to The Succulent Cafe in Carlsbad near San Diego. As we sit amid walls of succulents and chat over lavender mocha coffee, Annie tells how she has “the coolest job in the world” despite its location

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Potted Succulent Tips and Hacks

Succulents in hedgehog pot (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Garden Gate shows ten of my tips and hacks for potted succulents. However, the magazine didn’t have room for all the ideas I sent. So, for your enjoyment and edification, here are the rest.

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Refresh Your Echeveria Garden

Echeveria garden in pots (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Eighteen months after I planted it, my multipot echeveria garden was looking ratty. Over time, as new leaves formed from the centers of echeverias, lower leaves dried and clung to ever-lengthening stems. Bloom spikes I’d left intact for hummingbirds were several feet long and untidy. Watch me rejuvenate it in my new video: Refresh Your Echeveria Garden (6:31).

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Make a Mounded Succulent Arrangement

Add soil to fill gaps (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Many eye-catching succulent arrangements are mounded, meaning plants are massed atop the container. Mounded arrangements look established right away and are quick and easy to assemble.

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How to Group Potted Succulents

Art pot collection (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Soon you’re tucking containers wherever you can. Nurturing plant parents tend to be more concerned about where succulents will thrive than where they’ll look good. But it IS possible to achieve both. Here and in the video, I offer three concepts that will help.

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How to Repot a Stuck Spiny Succulent

Roots growing out bottom of pot (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

In a new YouTube video, I’d planned to show you how to repot a spiny succulent. For my overgrown corn-cob euphorbia, I picked an art pot in the perfect size, color and pattern. But (yikes!) the spiky succulent was firmly stuck in its old pot.

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Plant an Echeveria Garden in Pots

Potted echeveria garden (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Echeverias do great in containers, so why not plant an echeveria garden all in pots? Because echeverias have great color, symmetry and resemble fleshy flowers, my own potted collection suggests an exotic flower garden.

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