Debra Lee Baldwin is an award-winning author, journalist and horticulturist credited with launching worldwide interest in succulents with her three bestselling books on succulents. With nearly 10,000,000 views, Debra's YouTube Channel provides reliable, entertaining info on design and cultivation, plus interviews with renowned succulent experts and tours of world-class gardens.

Debra Lee Baldwin
 

Need a plant ID? Go to TYPES OF SUCCULENTS.
Worried about your succulent? Go to PESTS AND PROBLEMS.
Hope to grow succulents perfectly? Go to SUCCULENT CARE BASICS.
Need garden maintenance? See REFERRALS.
Something else? Use the Search Bar or menus above.

succulents in the ground

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.

succulent being watered

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. 

succulents in pots on a windowsill

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.

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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

Euphorbia lactea crest (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Crested and Monstrose Succulents with Normals

I’m proud to present to you the only YouTube video and Gallery showing both normal and crested succulents side-by-side—nearly 90 different kinds! Succulents are unusual in the plant kingdom in that numerous varieties will grow convoluted, twisted, or puckered forms called crests. These look gathered like a waistband or a drawstring purse, and follow curved…
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Mammillaria plumosa

Tips for Remembering Succulent Names

Ever wish you could understand and remember succulent names? It’s especially challenging when they’ve changed, multiple common ones exist, and Latin binomials (genus + species) are long and unpronounceable. Here I share my own experiences in order to help, offer hope, make you feel better, and entertain you. It kills me when I get a…
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Agave attenuata bloom spike (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Agave attenuata (Foxtail Agave) Care & Cultivation

How do I love foxtail agaves (A. attenuata)? Let me count the ways: They’ve performed well in my garden for over 20 years. In pots too. Rosettes eventually attain a manageable 5′ in diameter. Soft, flexible leaves lack barbs or points. Yes, a harmless agave! They’re trunk-forming unlike other agaves, so they serve as beautiful…
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Garden store horrors (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

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.…
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Succulent container garden designer Marissa Engoy

Marissa’s Living Art Succulent Terrariums

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

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…
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Debra Lee Baldwin with graptoveria (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

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…
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Crassula 'Red Pagoda' (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

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

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
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Aeoniums in my garden (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

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

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

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…
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I don't like (or trust) 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 on this site that it came from.

Mainly, do learn from and enjoy my site. It's my pleasure to share a career's worth of information with you! -- Debra Lee Baldwin

See More on My Succulent YouTube Channel