Time flows like a song, and the days spent with succulents should be cherished as we go

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Thanks to the author [Jing] for theoriginal submissionsharing

Submission date: 2018-04-21

Edited and compiled by: Baike Jun

Location: Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province

The photos were taken in late spring. As early summer was approaching, I thought I would keep a memento so as not to let the spring light go to waste.

In the blink of an eye, it has been many years since I fell into the succulent pit. Succulents went from sky-high prices to cabbage prices, and I myself went from a rookie to half an expert. Actually, I cannot really call myself an expert; it is just that I have grown quite a few varieties and have come to understand more about the classifications and habits of succulents.

The weather here in Taiyuan actually does not require much care. The succulents can grow very well on their own, with plenty of sunlight, little rain, and a consistently large temperature difference between day and night. Because they have to be kept indoors in winter, I have always insisted on a soil mix of 80% grit. Although they grow slowly, the good thing is that they color up very well. I think this soil mix gives relatively developed roots. I like to add some large grit to the mix, such as 6-8mm grit. I discovered this by accident. Succulents grown in a mix with large grit have much thicker and stronger roots than those grown with small grit. I do not know whether this is a universal truth, but anyway, this is what I do, and the results are very good.

Because the high grit content makes them grow slowly, I can water a bit more in spring and autumn. Speaking of watering, I am rather casual about it and basically do not count the days. I bring over a large basin of water, see which pot has dry, wrinkled leaves, dunk it into the basin, and water directly at the roots. The advantage of doing this is that it saves effort and is clean. Of course, the downside is that diseases can easily spread from one plant to another, but this situation is still very, very rare. If you see a succulent infected with a virus, it must be isolated and treated.

Enough talk. Let the succulents come out one by one to greet everyone. I want to say that ordinary varieties are actually very beautiful too!

Red Crane, Daheung (Echeveria 'Daeheung'), Giwa, Red Apple, the gift set combination is also very beautiful~

Tp, I once saw a lotus-shaped arrangement in a greenhouse. I had always wanted an arrangement of rosette-type flowers, and finally achieved it, all grown from my own leaf propagation, which gives a great sense of accomplishment.

This should be Echeveria 'Pollux'? Forgive me, I often misremember names~

Red Finger, I have always been hoping it would grow up, but it just dawdles along.

Nana's Little Hook

Opalina is still a very classic variety, and it also colors up very well. I have grown many of them, big and small~

Jade Cup Dongyun (Echeveria 'Tolimanensis'), a variety I really like.

Little Echeveria 'Liro'

Pansy, not long after I started growing it, it has not colored up yet, but the fresh green is still very cute.

Cat's Eye Stone or Little Daeheung? I forgot~

Cream Yellow Peach

Ice Cream

Moon Rabbit Ear (Kalanchoe tomentosa)

A random mixed pot~

The seller said it was Bloody Pudding, but I could not find this variety on Baidu. I have always thought it was just Little Echeveria 'Moon'

Lawrence hybrid Snow Lotus

Yuhe Zhang

Pink Moon Shadow, a large stem, I gave it away on impulse, sigh......

Rainbow, a small seedling given by a succulent friend, after beheading it turned into a cluster~

I have discovered a rule about beheading: behead while it is still small. If you wait until it is big and then behead it, it is ruined. But you just have to be ruthless enough, succeed or die trying......

White Phoenix, also a large stem. I have grown it for several years, and it has never colored up more than twice. We are just not compatible, alas~

Casual shots

Tazhixi Variegated

Millet Star

I do not know whether it is Hibiscus or Monroe, as I grew them and they got mixed up~

Creamy Echeveria 'Derlu', I still like it when it is small. Once this variety gets big, it is no longer delicate.

Augustus, super capable of producing offsets. Because the pot is small and I am too lazy to repot, I pinched off all the offsets for propagation.

Lucina, this variety usually looks quite plain, but when the season changes, it suddenly gives you a stunning surprise!

This seems to be Mexican Snowball, but I forgot again......

Trailing Echeveria, I no longer remember whether this is the name, I just feel it lives up to such a clear and elegant name.

A pot of randomly stuck-in succulents~

The Vanilla I bought for 160 the year before last. I did not take good care of it, and it passed away. So sad. Fortunately, two small seedlings survived from leaf propagation. I, who love to tinker, could not resist and beheaded it. Unexpectedly, after beheading it did not disappoint, and produced 5 heads, with another small head hidden underneath. Awesome!

Another Vanilla leaf propagation seedling. Now I have beheaded it again, and I somewhat regret it. It was originally quite a nice cluster, and the new seedlings have not grown out yet......

Qingming in 2018, snow falling heavily~

The succulents in the snow. Because I had already moved too many outside, I did not bring them all back in...... Fortunately, it was scary but not dangerous, with some damage but no deaths.

A whole balcony in messy disorder

These are all from casual leaf propagation~

Ordinary varieties, casually leaf-propagated. After planting them, I barely took care of them. One year later, they have grown a bit slowly, but the colors are very vivid. See the picture below......

White Ji Lotus, I accidentally dug out the photo from when I first got it. It was so ugly. It is hard to imagine what kind of mood I was in when I bought it back then~

White Ji two years later, it is really not easy to raise it to this size......

Pink Blue Bird, a variety I just cannot grow well no matter what. Clearly other people find it easy to grow, yet I have killed several~

It took great effort to raise it to this size, growing on countless corpses~

Echeveria 'Creamy'

Echeveria 'Creamy' is a variety I have grown for two years. Apart from the stem looking a bit nicer, it really has never amazed me......

Lily Lily when I first got it

Now it is also at cabbage price

I forgot the name of the succulent in the upper left corner. The succulent on the right is Virgo.

Virgo after growing up

The grown-up appearance of the succulent in the upper left corner of the previous picture. Because it was taken at night, the lighting is a bit poor. I forgot the name, asking for identification. It grows very fast~ At first it was crested, and as it grew, it stopped being crested~

Moran Cixi, when I got it in 2016 it was a single head~

Two years, and a girl changes greatly as she grows up~

Elijah, it was only a little big when I first bought it, and in two years it filled the pot~

A pot with a diameter of 15 cm is almost too small to hold it now. I am not considering repotting. This thing is too good at growing sideways. I wonder if keeping it controlled like this will make it develop vertically and grow many stems~

Xiuyan, acquired in 2016~

Two years later it grew taller. Because I had always used a control pot, the side buds did not look good, so I broke them all off for propagation. As a result, it grew taller and taller, so I simply switched to a tall pot, and now it matches......

Moon Goddess, I do not know whether it is because of the control pot, though I did not specifically control it, I was just a bit lazy, so it grew somewhat slowly......

Moon Goddess comparison photo

Marcus crest

I really do not know how to grow crests. In two years I tinkered with it until it became the picture below...... The crest is almost gone, collapsing in all directions......

Still Marcus crest, an extra product from the one above, a beheaded seedling.

Drunken Beauty crest, also a rather easy-on-the-eyes variety. This variety is very easy to grow, and with care it becomes a big patch. The large one has already been given away, and two small ones remain. I was originally going to give them away too, and they were already at hand, but I still could not bear to part with them, so I kept them.

Drunken Beauty crest, I did not expect late spring to bring out different colors, extremely beautiful~

Allen, Christmas Eve, Blue Surprise, Christmas Dongyun, the next few pictures are all grown-up appearances~

Allen after growing up. I have never taken proper photos of it; in reality it is prettier than in the pictures.

Christmas Eve after growing up

Blue Surprise

Christmas Dongyun

Static Night, now already a full pot.

The two bird-dropping seedlings from back then, grown from seed, are now handsome young fellows too!

This should be Romeo, right? I forgot~ Growing from seed really requires enormous patience. After two years it has only grown this little bit. It is probably because I do not know how to care for them, and I dare not transplant the seedlings multiple times. I hope from now on they can grow faster.

I do not know what this is, asking for identification. It is probably one of Enchanting Night, Black Sandalwood Juice, and Mafida. I have only sown these few similar ones.

Sown Guanghan Palace, it really has not grown very well~

A few days ago it was covered by heavy snow and got somewhat damaged. Now it has basically made a full recovery, although it is still a bit ugly~

The flower stalk of Guanghan Palace

Snow Lotus and Ebony hybrid from back then

Snow Lotus - the little fairy after growing up

Ebony hybrid in last autumn

Ebony hybrid in spring 2018, repotted into a larger pot. I have always felt that among the grown-up succulents, only terracotta pots can match their domineering presence without stealing the spotlight~

Peach Egg acquired in 2016

When moving it, the center got knocked off, and then it grew deformed

The children and grandchildren of the one above......

Yudie, I can no longer find the photo from when it was smallest......

After growing up, Yudie is full of children and grandchildren.

The new favorites of 2018~

White Rose

Carola Mama

Sword Snow White

Caesar

Mafida

Frank

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This article has beenexclusively authorizedby the author to 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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