Succulent plants paired with stone landscaping: creative inspiration to make potted plants more striking

Preface

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Thanks to the author [xionghua] for theoriginal submissionsharing

Submission date: 2018-06-20

Edited and compiled by: Baike Jun

Location: Jingmen City, Hubei Province

I placed several pots of succulents on the south-facing windowsill of the office. The feng shui here is excellent; the succulents can get shade or sun, and within a few days they had grown remarkably beautiful. A colleague admired them for a long time and said she had several empty pots at home and wanted to plant succulents again. She asked me if there were any tricks to growing succulents. I scratched my head and asked her in return, do you have any stones at home? If so, before planting succulents, you can put a stone in the flower pot. It does not matter whether the stone is pretty or ugly, as long as it stands out. Then spread soil into the pot along the gaps around the stone, and plant. After a few days, the succulents will take root and settle into the pot. Each time you water, water along the stone first, and I guarantee your succulents will become more and more beautiful. She already loved flowers and had grown succulents before, but unfortunately the succulents always withered away. After my little hint, she felt suddenly enlightened, and a moment later she happily called me over to look at the Taihu stones she had picked out on her phone. I said, girl, you are way too impatient. Around here, you can pick them up anywhere along the mountain paths and roadsides!

From ancient times to the present, "stone" has been closely linked with human development. The history of human civilization began with the Stone Age. Moving stories such as the stone that patched the sky all have countless ties to stones. As the saying goes, "If flowers could understand speech, they would still cause much trouble; stones that cannot speak are the most endearing."

The stubborn stone left over from Nüwa patching the sky became the Spirit Stone, the magical jade on Baoyu's neck. "Pages full of absurd words, a handful of bitter tears. All say the author is foolish; who understands the flavor within?" The "Spirit Stone" (Baoyu) begins by speaking his own meaning. The Twelve Beauties are intelligent and lovely, each with a different personality, but worldly affairs are unpredictable, and in the end they cannot escape the tragic fate of "a thousand reds weeping together," "ten thousand beauties mourning together," and "vast whiteness, truly clean."

A Dream of Red Mansions is one dream; all are passing travelers in the mortal world. Baoyu and Daiyu felt like old friends at first sight; by day they walked and sat together, by night they rested and stopped together. Jia Baoyu dreams his way through the Grand Illusion, and happens to hear immortal songs. Among them, the first two lines of "Lifelong Mistake" are: Everyone says it is a fine match of gold and jade, but I only remember the former vow of wood and stone. Wood refers to Daiyu's previous life as the Crimson Pearl Immortal Grass, and stone refers to Baoyu's previous life as the stubborn stone. The Spirit Stone and the Crimson Pearl Immortal Grass had a former vow of wood and stone. The Divine Attendant of the Stone watered the Crimson Pearl Grass with sweet dew, enabling it to take human form and cultivate into the Crimson Pearl Fairy. To repay the kindness of that watering, the Crimson Pearl Fairy was willing to follow the Divine Attendant of the Stone down to the mortal world to undergo tribulation and repay him with all the tears of her life. The stones come alive vividly under the pen: proud, unruly, mad, and they have flesh and blood, becoming some experience and a bit of a lesson.

My succulents are common varieties, such as Purple Delight, White Peony, Rainbow's Jade, Huang Li, Jilian Moon, and so on. They easily grow leggy, easily rot black, and sneakily grow mealybugs, but they can be propagated by cuttings, by leaf cuttings, and by producing offsets. As winter goes and spring comes, the succulent babies have still grown into several large pots.

Exquisite stones such as dripping-water rock, Taihu stone, Yuhua stone, and so on are many in variety and all are masterpieces of nature. There are also some ordinary stones. Some occasionally reveal a striking corner deep in the high mountains at the roots of trees; some are polished round by rushing water and gather scattered along a bank. Whether noisy and passionate or quiet and indifferent, all this vicissitude seems to have nothing to do with them.

At home I have stored quite a few fist-sized stones, picked up from far and wide, formerly used to hold down the root whiskers of narcissus bulbs. Now that I like succulents, I no longer grow narcissus, and the stones were tossed in the corner. Letting the succulent girls lean on the stone brothers came from a flash of inspiration. One succulent girl was lazy and sprawled out, and after a rain she grew lopsided. Then the other succulent girls followed suit and lost their shape. So I found a few Xiangxi stones from the pile in the corner to serve as backrests for them, and at once they became much more delicate and colorful. All the faults of being lazy and sprawled out turned into highlights.

Two Peach Egg sisters, one with long pointed leaves and one with short round leaves.

A small mixed arrangement of Brilliant Sunset, Rainbow's Jade, and Winter Beauty

Sirius and its little offset. I think that in a few years, the little offset will surpass the mother plant.

Without the stone brothers holding the fort, it is hard to imagine how leggy these little wild girls would become!

The Old Boat's side shoot pokes its head out mischievously like a little monkey baby, and stones are needed to lend a hand and keep it in line.

Blue Chalksticks has a stone as a backing, so it is full of dominance!

The Haworthia and the stone are both tiny.

Fairy, when will you also split off a head and surprise me?

These are all varieties that are difficult to get through summer

One black stone, two little sheep, three succulents: there is a small world in the trough pot.

The three-headed Apple Leaf I picked up from a livestream is the most expensive succulent I have bought.

Assembled from leaf-cutting seedlings

Another pot of leaf-cutting seedlings.

The red Brilliant Sunset.

Leaf-cutting seedlings and Round-leaf Stonecrop.

Leaf-cutting seedlings and a small stone mountain. The leaf-cutting seedlings are too weak to withstand wind and rain, and the small stone mountain can just shield them a little.

Succulents in the sunlight.

The stones once cast aside are all put to use now. Because they are paired with succulents, ugly stones become beautiful, and beautiful stones become even more brilliant.

Compared with other plants I have grown, succulents are simply too easygoing. They do not need much care; just leave them to time.

Succulent culture needs you and me to promote it! Remember to share good articles more, so more people fall in love with succulents! Use the power of plants to influence and heal the people around us!

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