Succulent Landscaping Trends

As the author of two editions of Designing with Succulents ten years apart, I'm sort of obsessed with the evolution of succulent landscaping. Here's what designers and homeowners are discovering that works and (perhaps more importantly) what doesn't. These top six trends---call them preferences, if you like---may surprise you.

Yucca gloriosa 'Bright Star'. Design by Gardefacts, Santa Barbara.

1. About as many rocks as plants. Designers bring in boulders, create cobbled riverbeds, fill gaps with gravel, and pave pathways with granite sand.

See my video Why You Really Need Rocks and my article of the same name. 

Pauma Valley, CA, garden by Deeter-Buckner design.

2. Statement succulents. The most memorable succulent gardens include specimen plants. These might be a tree aloe, a yucca, a cluster of silver swords (Cleistocactus strausii) or maybe an extraterrestrial-looking alluaudia. Designers set such look-at-me's atop planted mounds where they're backlit and prominent.

Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire'

3. Firesticks are falling out of favor. With its upright, pencil-thin and leafless orange stems, Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' makes a dramatic backdrop succulent. But in frost-free climates, with regular water and good soil, it eventually gets huge and needs whacking back. Horrifically, people are ending up in hospital emergency rooms after accidentally getting the plant's milky, sticky sap in their eyes. Exercise extreme caution when trimming any succulent euphorbia, and never plant one where children, pets or passersby may come in contact with it.

Dainty succulents that look like flowers include blue echeverias. Make this succulent color wheel and more in Stunning Succulent Arrangements, my online, 7-session class.

4. Fewer fiddly plants. Echeverias and other rosette succulents tend to get lost in landscapes. You'll enjoy such pretties more in pots, flowerbeds and window boxes. "I'm shifting toward specimen gardens," says celebrity designer Laura Eubanks. "I still love doing succulent tapestries, but they're becoming more of a side dish."

Watch for an upcoming newsletter in which Laura Eubanks shares advice for aspiring succulent designers. 

Want a big blue succulent? A better choice than Agave americana is Agave ovatifolia (hardy to 5 degrees F).

5. Smarter plant choices. As landscape professionals and DIYers discover the drawbacks of common, giveaway succulents like century plants (Agave americana), they're opting for alternatives with comparable visual appeal but far fewer problems.

View my videos: What You MUST Know about Century Plants and Six Great Agaves for Your Garden.

Phoenix Home & Garden beautifully showcases sleek, colorful Arizona gardens.

6. Desert-inspired designs.  Arizona gardens are IT. No longer stereotyped as sparse, parched and prickly, they're now being lauded, photographed and admired for their dynamic silhouettes and bold simplicity. Such streamlined style, when modified according to climate, works anywhere that succulents and cacti thrive year-round. See Arizona elegance in Garden Design's interview with Phoenix landscape architect Steve Martino, and luscious desert gardens on Houzz and in Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine.