Addicted to growing succulents: in this life, a garden, succulents and bonsai are enough

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Thanks to the author [Changzhou Fulesi] for theoriginal submissionsharing

Edited and compiled by: Encyclopedia Jun

Location: Changzhou, Jiangsu

Growing succulents: either you become an immortal or you become a demon!

In fact, growing succulents in the free-shipping region, you have to endure loneliness and withstand temptation. Otherwise, the Aeonium pit, the fairy pit, the Echelia pit, will flatten your wallet into a lentil pit in no time.

At the same time, you also have to endure the fuss and take the blows. Otherwise, after one summer, you will want to escape the pit in no time.

Marcus

Blue Apple

Tia

So, as time goes on, you become neither startled by favor nor disgrace, and immune to all poisons. This is where the so-called Buddhist-style succulent growing comes from. Actually, it is no use not being Buddhist either. Being anxious or impatient cannot make succulents look good. No matter what, you still have to calm down and grow them slowly.

Although I have been growing succulents for three years now, I do not have many presentable clustered plants or old stems. To grow them into that heaven-defying state seen in the cheat-mode regions is basically unrealistic. Even so, when it comes to succulents, it is still: if you do not leave, I will not abandon you.

First Love

Unknown name

Cute Rose

Pansy

Baby Fingers

Snow Rabbit

Ice Plum

Only people with shared hobbies can have a similar state of mind; outsiders cannot understand it. Others will think you are wasting money and wasting time, but in my view, it can cultivate character and refine sentiment.

Every day I am mired in trivial matters and still have to face all kinds of helplessness in reality. Only when facing these succulents is my heart truly calm. I can think about nothing at all, just like them and quietly admire them.

So, with a garden, succulents and bonsai, if life is like this, what more could one ask for? Setting aside worldly troubles, from another perspective, life is actually very beautiful, is it not?

Yangjin

Cherry

Moon Shadow Elf

Christmas Echeveria

Bear Paws

Tricolor Norma

Crested Echeveria

After growing succulents for a long time, you will go crazy for them. Anyone who has a bit of feeling for succulents wants a terrace or a garden, and this is also the lifelong pursuit of many succulent lovers.

Indeed, an outdoor growing environment can achieve twice the result with half the effort. Many times you can live off the sky, so I quite understand the bitterness of the bay-window and balcony crowd: they put in a lot, yet harvest little. However, being able to grow them into good condition in a closed environment, that is what makes a true master.

Star Shadow

Green Apple

Peach Egg

Pink Princess

Jinhui

Pink Blue Bird

Crested Drunk Beauty

In the past two years, Changzhou's summer temperatures have become more and more abnormal. To care for them in an environment unfavorable to succulent growth, to be honest, sometimes it is indeed a bit tiring and requires a lot of effort.

However, succulent lovers in the free-shipping region are a group of tenacious and optimistic people. As long as succulents can become beautiful, a soft girl immediately transforms into a tough woman, able to carry soil and endure hardship, and can at any time become a weather observer, carpenter, mason, welder, seedling cultivator, succulent disease analyst...

In short, this is how the "all-around succulent superman" is forged!

Xuhe

White Bear

Cute Rose

Raindrop

New succulent lovers like to read experience summaries. Although I have been in the pit for some time, I am still constantly accumulating and practicing.

The following can be regarded as some experience sharing:

1. Summer in the free-shipping region is very unfavorable to succulent growth, so variety is very important. Peach Egg, Quiet Night, Ice Plum, Baby Fingers, Laura, Blood Luo, Bear Paws and the like should be bought as little as possible. Basically, the ones that died last summer were all these.

2. Soil mix must be breathable. Do not use garden soil with heavy stickiness or fine sand with poor breathability. As for granular soil, 80%, 70%, and 60% granules all grow the same. The smaller the seedling, the more the proportion of peat should be increased. For things like Little Bear and Haworthia, more than 80% peat is more conducive to growth.

3. During the plum rain season, rain must be avoided. During long periods of high temperatures above 30 degrees, shade must be provided. Ventilation is crucial. The four key elements for surviving summer at high temperatures: shade, rain avoidance, ventilation, and water control (without cutting off water). However, for those that are bound to die in summer, no element is of any use. Focus on referring to item 1.

4. Frost cannot be ignored, especially in relatively open places. A severe frost last December froze 60% of my succulents, and 14 pots died of freezing. I thought there would be no problem as long as the temperature was above zero. In the winter of 2016, I kept them in the yard, and even at one or two degrees below zero there was no problem, because the house and walls blocked the wind. Last year I kept them at the company, where the terrain is relatively open, and one frost sent me completely back to before liberation. It was not until this spring that they slowly recovered. So, try not to deliberately torture or freeze them.

5. Buying succulents in autumn is better than in spring. Before I got into the pit, I always thought spring was the season when all things grow. Every spring I would repot and change the soil for some bonsai and green plants, because most bonsai can only fail to survive winter, not fail to survive summer, while succulents are exactly the opposite. Therefore, autumn is the best time to plant succulents and repot them.

The above is only for reference for outdoor growing in the free-shipping region. Balcony growers and other regions can ignore it.

Last year a succulent lover asked, what is that fiery red tree beside the swing? It is called: Chinese fringeflower. There are many in the green belts here in Changzhou, generally pruned into a spherical shape. This is what it looks like at full bloom.

Apart from the flowering season every April, it looks like this all year round.

These are the horrifying appearances of some succulents after surviving summer last year, photographed in September last year. However ugly the succulents are, that is how miserable the summer was! But after being tempered by the scorching heat, as long as they do not die, they will bloom with the most beautiful colors in autumn!

Many succulent lovers in the free-shipping region are always wavering between quitting the pit and entering the pit, entering the pit and quitting the pit, swapping between ugly and beautiful, beautiful and ugly until they nearly become "mentally confused." Even so, when facing succulents, at the critical moment they still do not leave or abandon them.

So, on the road of growing succulents, let us walk together as companions. With one more choice, there will be one more expectation, and in time, one more happiness.

Growing succulents is a long-term process. May we all enjoy more and gain more in this process.

Finally, let me show a few beautiful photos of the garden when climbing roses and hydrangeas are in full bloom.

All the above pictures were taken with a Huawei P9, photographed in March to April. My cousin said, when posting a selfie, there is Photoshop and beauty filters, but only succulents look beautiful when casually snapped with a phone. Yes, in my eyes, the truest state is the most beautiful.

Thank you for viewing. The succulents' appearance is ordinary, and the writing is not that graceful or moving either, but I am truly grateful for my friends' recognition and praise. Thank you!

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

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