Meeting succulents is my little stroke of luck; succulents make life better

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Thanks to the author [Wangwang] for theoriginal submissionsharing

Submission date: April 8, 2018

Edited and compiled by: Encyclopedia Jun

Location: Nanning, Guangxi

A commemorative post for truly being two years in the hobby.

Actually, I first got to know succulents in the spring of 2015. At that time I went to the local flower and bird market and bought a Romeo and an Echeveria elegans. Because I was a total beginner, I knew nothing about soil mixes, watering, or care, and I could not even remember their names. Every day I hoped they would grow quickly, so I watered very frequently. As a result, within less than a month or two they all died. Later I bought another batch online, and they were completely wiped out.

In the summer of 2015, I went to the flower and bird market again and bought one. It was a long time before I learned its name was Echeveria 'Long Leaf Red Lotus'. This has been the succulent I have kept the longest, and it is still alive now. At the time, this is how I cared for it: when the sun came out during the day I brought it inside and put it in a shady spot, and at night I put it outside on the balcony. I also watered it very little, and it stayed green all along. It muddled through the summer under my clueless ignorance.

This is the very one. It has never been beautiful, but it also does not make people worry much. It has been almost three years and I have changed its soil only once. It holds a place in my heart; the longer you keep it, the more attached you become. I believe people who grow succulents all have this kind of feeling.

What really got me into the hobby was 2016, with nonstop buying of all kinds: Taobao, Xianyu, group buys, WeChat Moments, same-city pickup. During this period I joined some succulent exchange groups, followed various succulent WeChat public accounts, and also got to know some succulent friends with similar interests such as Guai Shushu, Ting Xiaoting, and Mihu Xia. Usually everyone exchanged ideas and met up, and from that I learned all kinds of succulent-growing knowledge. You have to know that life is not only about the drudgery right in front of you; there are also succulents and eating and drinking. Gradually I could remember succulent names, recognize what they looked like, understand when to water, and learn to mix my own soil, do leaf propagation, stem cuttings, beheading, pinching, and even prevent and kill pests and treat diseases, and so on.

My first two succulents in life, the Romeo, were a hurdle for me. I kept 6 of them one after another, and they all died at the slightest provocation. I have already given up.

Since growing succulents, I have gained many happy times. Whenever I feel gloomy, I take photos of them, pull off dead leaves, loosen the soil, and my worries are swept away. I feel that meeting succulents is my little sure happiness, so I have this sentiment: Why did I not discover earlier that meeting you is the best thing in life? Who has been silently guarding in place through wind and rain? It turns out you are the luck I most want to keep, the decision to fight summer for me, the rain I got drenched in with you; scene after scene is all your spotless figure. Meeting you is so lucky.

The location is Nanning. Summers are muggy and long, and it is a reverse cheat-mode area. The colors I grow cannot compare with those in cheat-mode areas, nor with the succulents of some veterans and masters. But having walked all the way here stepping over corpses, being able to grow them to their current state and get the succulents safely through summer, I feel already very comforted.

Back then a lot of embarrassing things happened, for example: I often pulled out succulents that had just been planted not long ago to see whether they had grown roots. Fussing over them again and again like this, a perfectly good succulent would die. Another example: I often repotted succulents. They had originally been growing perfectly well, but after buying a new pot I felt the pot suited it better, so I dug it out and replanted it, and in the hot summer no less. There was also watering succulents when the weather was muggy, and even pouring it on the leaves. Bad habits like these are probably also commonly done by beginners who have just entered the succulent pit.

Making a living away from home, you have to watch your mouth; growing succulents at home, you have to watch your hands. Growing succulents requires patience and also a calm heart, able to accept their birth, aging, sickness, and death, from ugly to beautiful and then ugly again.

I rather like looking at comparison photos. Comparisons witness the growth of a succulent and also witness one's own hard work. Indeed, growing an ugly succulent into a beautiful one brings a full sense of achievement. As long as we do as much as we should, have a bit more patience, and leave the rest to the succulents themselves, time is the best painter and will sketch out a beautiful picture.

Echeveria 'Peach Blossom', a variety that is very easy to grow and easy to get through summer. I bought it in the summer of 2016 from a same-city flower friend.

It pups far too readily, so I changed it to another pot.

Last summer when it got through the heat it was so green you could have stir-fried a plate of greens with it.

Maybe because there were too many heads, the leaves on the main stem were used up quite a lot,

Now it is becoming beautiful, and it is about to need a bigger pot again?

The changes of one Echeveria glauca. I bought it in August 2016 from the same-city succulent friend Ting Xiaoting. Echeveria glauca and Echeveria 'Ivory' were childhood sweethearts, innocent playmates. In early 2017 I repotted them, wanting to grow them separately, but unexpectedly they said in one voice, solemn and forceful: We do not ask to be born on the same year, same month, and same day, but we ask to die on the same year, same month, and same day! We would rather die than be separated. Seeing their heroic readiness to die for righteousness, I had no choice but to plant them together, while thinking to myself: look at you two so smug, in a TV drama you would not survive two episodes. They probably guessed my thoughts, and unexpectedly they lived more and more comfortably. The last photo was taken in February 2018.

It changed environment, got into a bad mood, and turned gray and dull. Come here? I really want to hit you, but I controlled my branches.

Repotted and being grown outdoors

I casually planted a few blades of grass and let them fall into a love triangle.

After not seeing it for a few days, I suddenly found it had changed appearance. Damn, who did this? Or did Echeveria glauca want to put on makeup itself and go join the filming of "Fighter of the Destiny 2"?

The Echeveria 'Guanghan Gong' so ugly that even Chang'e moved house. I got it from a group buy in the summer of 2016, the one left after others had picked.

Because it was too ugly, I casually planted it in a red clay pot, and conveniently planted a few Sedum hispanicum that someone had given me.

It started to look a bit different. Seeing that the soil dried quickly, I watered often.

The countryside surrounding the city?

Amazing, in just a few months the grass had grown wildly and the Echeveria 'Guanghan Gong' had also become beautiful, with a bit of a green wild fairy palace feel, and even Chang'e turned back and stopped wandering outside.

Is it because there is too much grass that the leaves of the Echeveria 'Guanghan Gong' have become smaller and smaller? But planting a bit of pot-covering grass beside succulents may save a succulent's life, because the grass can take up excess water in the soil and make the soil dry quickly. Of the Echeveria 'Guanghan Gong' from the same group buy, theirs have all passed away, and only this one is still alive. This grass grows longer the more you cut it, and I often take it to share with succulent friends. Many people's balconies have also grown a big patch.

Echeveria 'Sugar', bought in May 2016, skinny and scraggly.

After being grown outdoors for a period, it pupped, became loved by everyone and bloomed wherever it went.

Echeveria 'Sugar' may be a variety afraid of heat. Once it goes above 33 degrees it needs to be kept on the balcony. In the summer of 2017, because there were too many heads, several heads were stifled and damaged, so I quickly pulled it out, beheaded it, and dried the roots for treatment. Why do carrots rot in the ground? Why do women get pregnant? It is all because it was pulled too late.

After replanting, it slowly recovered, and the Sedum hispanicum also grew into a patch. Here I should mention that when planting this grass you must put in plenty of small white medicine and small purple medicine to prevent insects.

Avocado, in these one or two years, how did you become like this? Could it be that you sneaked some of my lard in the middle of the night?

Is the mantis stalking the cicada, or peeping at a sleazy old man?

This Echeveria 'Shaoxiu' once had a problem last year with its stem shrinking. After applying Daknin cream to the affected area, it now grows very well.

From a small single head to a silly big fellow, repotted several times, and the more it was repotted the more vigorous it became.

The one the succulent friends in the group disliked, planted in the summer of 2016

Now she should regret it, right? Whenever I show photos in the group, she often says with a smile: I send you a song "Liang Liang". Actually she is quite a magnanimous person; everyone is just teasing and having fun.

Same-city transaction. There were three that were about the same, and I only bought one. Now I quite regret not buying the whole lot.

When the weather is cold and it rains, the middle is as white as snow,

Echeveria 'Orange Monroe' is a variety that gets through summer relatively easily and can handle Nanning's hot weather. I have never lost a single one. I suggest growing more of them; the more you grow them, the more beautiful they become.

This is how I get through summer: for those grown outdoors, I build a shade shed with rain cloth on top. When it rains I promptly go blow the water droplets off the leaves. I do not control water; about every ten days, if the weather is cool and windy, I will give them a watering. For those grown on the balcony, when the weather is hot I move them into the room and use a fan. In the first year of getting through summer I was full of anxiety and always asked the fan: will these succulents die? But I found the fan kept shaking its head. The above only represents my own experience of getting through summer. Please, many succulent friends, make a method that suits you better according to your own environment.

To quote a famous local saying: When it comes to growing succulents, leaving the pit is impossible, in this lifetime it is impossible to leave the pit.

Here I hope the succulents of the broad community of succulent friends are grown better and better, older and older, and that life also gets better and better.

Many succulent friends ask me why my succulents grow so plump. I think that besides outdoor growing, the soil mix is very important. I usually like to tinker, burning rice husks myself, finding sawdust, buying crushed walnut shell granules, going to beg for coal cinders, buying coarse sand at the sand yard, and mixing them together with various granules. The ratio is more granules and coarse sand, and the soil also needs carbendazim and small purple medicine to prevent fungus and insects.

Here I especially thank Liang Meiren in the group. She was the one who drove me to the sand yard to buy sand.

Take a look, this is one I just repotted for the Aeonium. The roots are very strong. Only loose, breathable soil is good for root growth, and only then are succulents healthy and strong.

Even leaf-propagation seedlings have thick roots

Some of my Aeoniums, some of which came through last summer, did not drop leaves. When I have time I will share my care experience again. I am tired and want to wash up and sleep.

The Bourne Identity? The world of succulents is a mystery, worth you and me exploring further.

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This article has beenexclusively authorizedby the author to the WeChat public account: Succulent Plant Encyclopedia (ID: duoroubaike). The content of the article does not represent the views and stance of the public account.

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