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

Jul 4 2017

My Sea-Themed Potting Demo at Roger’s Gardens

For my sea-themed potting demo at Roger’s Gardens, I combined rosy-pink barnacles with cuttings of a pink-tipped, cream-striped crassula, and did a multiplant arrangement in a seashell pot. These were something I decided to do on the spur of the moment. Roger’s Gardens (the largest independently owned garden center on the West Coast) is all about…

May 20 2017

Plants and Pots at the Cactus & Succulent Society Show

To see amazing succulents in elegant art pots, attend a Cactus & Succulent Society Show. The largest in the US is the annual Inter-City Show at the Los Angeles Arboretum mid-August. Judges award ribbons and trophies based on how well a specimen is grown, its rarity, and how well it’s “staged” in its pot. Pots aren’t…

May 5 2017

Make a Bouquet of Succulents

When I need a hostess gift, thank-you present, or an arrangement for a special friend, I make a bouquet of succulents. I start by selecting a coffee mug or glass container (usually a jar, thrift-store vase, or clear bottle), the size of which determines the size of the arrangement. Then I head into the garden with…

Apr 28 2017

Great Ideas from Patrick Anderson’s Garden

Below are a dozen great ideas from Patrick Anderson’s garden in Fallbrook, CA. But first, a bit of backstory… Visiting Patrick Anderson’s garden in 1998 was the first time I had seen a residential garden that featured large aloes and agaves. In my YouTube video, “Patrick Anderson’s Succulent Garden,” I take you on a tour of the residential garden that…

Apr 20 2017

Announcing the Second Edition of Designing with Succulents!

When publisher Timber Press proposed a celebratory 10th anniversary, second edition of Designing with Succulents, I figured all I’d have to do is change a word here and there and add a few photos. So I agreed to what seemed like a reasonable deadline—six months. But as soon as I dove into the project, I realized so…

Mar 23 2017

Circular Succulent Garden

When I first saw fitness coach Amy Van Liew’s circular garden and spherical fountain, I envisioned how it might look replanted with colorful succulents. A great fountain and garden bed deserve to be seen, especially when in the middle of a magnificent home’s entryway. In the spring, when I took this photo of Amy, the flowers in the…

Jan 16 2017

How to Create a Cactus Curio Box

Cacti are succulents with simple shapes, and none illustrate the plants' elegantly elemental geometry as well as spherical varieties. To showcase the beauty of these often-ignored succulents, I went with an open wood box with a dozen partitions, each just right for cacti in 2.5-inch pots. My goal was to elevate textural, glowing orbs to the status of jewelry or artwork.

Oct 13 2016

Are You a Plant Collector, Gardener or Both?

As she researched her book, The Bold Dry Garden, it dawned on Sunset’s garden editor Johanna Silver that plant collectors are not necessarily gardeners, and vice-versa. The subject, Ruth Bancroft, is both gardener and collector—as is Brian Kemble, the curator of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA. Since 1980, Brian has helped Ruth (now age 108)…

Tools for spiny succulents (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Jul 24 2016

My Must-Have Garden Tools for Spiny Succulents

The tools I use when working with spiky, spiny succulents include 12-inch tweezers, kitchen tongs, artist's brush, chopstick, scissors, metal teaspoon, inexpensive garden gloves, and duct tape.

Jul 11 2016

Cactus Cupcakes, Materials and Links

[With Video] The materials and resources listed below go with my Cactus Cupcakes video on YouTube. The cacti are Echinopsis ssp. 'Domino Cactus.' Have fun! Debra

Jul 1 2016

How I Get Rid of Gophers

For over a quarter of a century, I’ve trapped four to six gophers a year in my half-acre garden near San Diego. Top photo: If an agave keels over and there’s a clean, concave depression at its base, a gopher likely got it. But more often the cause of agave collapse is snout weevil. UPDATE: A…

Jun 24 2016

Create a Soothing Succulent Sitting Area

If you enjoy gardening, you’ve no doubt experienced how it can be a form of meditation and a treat for all the senses. But have you considered how simply looking at certain plants induces a feeling of serenity? You can discover this by enhancing a sitting area with succulents that incorporate geometric patterns and spirals. The eye…

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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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