Crisp autumn air and clear skies: succulents welcome their most beautiful season

Foreword

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Thanks to the author [, Yali] for theoriginal submissionsharing

Edited and compiled by: Encyclopedia Jun

Location: Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province

I started growing succulents in 2016, and it has been almost three years now. Buying succulents, buying soil, and buying pots is the norm for every succulent grower. To make my succulents look good, I also have one more task - moving them. Living in the north, there is no way around moving them. In spring I move them outside for open-air growing, and in late autumn I move them back to the balcony at home. This twice-a-year hassle is unavoidable. Especially this spring, it took four or five rounds of moving several hundred pots of succulents before I found a suitable spot. Fortunately, all the fuss was worth it, and in autumn I met beautifully grown succulents.

Autumn in the mountains

First, a few little cuties, absolutely adorable, real favorites.

A Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' (Taomeiren) grown from leaf cuttings for two years. Last summer, while moving succulents, I stepped on it. It is tough, and now it is living beautifully.

The mother plant of the leaf-propagated Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty'.

An Echeveria 'Chihuahuaensis' (Jiwa wa) leaf-propagated together with the Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty'. Grown in a small pot, it has never gotten bigger, and its red tips are becoming more and more appealing.

Echeveria 'Haibin Grey', grown for over a year and finally coloring up; its shape still needs a bit more time.

An Ebony hybrid, the standout among many small Ebony plants, wearing a red cap all year round.

Echeveria 'Hua Yue Ye', also leaf-propagated. Small pots are a great help for coloring up succulents and controlling their shape.

A leaf-propagated Echeveria 'Ruby'. After three years it has only grown to this size. With looks like this, I would not mistreat it, but it just will not grow.

Sedum 'Marcus'. Bought when I first started growing succulents, so it counts as a veteran. This spring, worried about having no space for open-air growing, I almost sold it. Now it is doing me proud and even has some jelly-like coloring. I had to take a few extra photos.

Echeveria 'Sasa Queen'. I really did not expect that I could grow this color myself. In the morning light, it is like a fairy descended to earth.

A large cluster of Echeveria 'Sasa Queen'. I guess it has not been grown long enough; by next autumn it should show its full colors.

Echeveria 'Robin'. I cannot resist the temptation of red succulents. This year it has basically stayed red the whole time.

The common Olivia. A veteran, grown from a bunch of leaf cuttings put together. Golden and shiny, with blood-red spots.

Echeveria 'Violet Queen'. Grown for two years as a single head, and only this spring did it slowly start pupping. It must have built up a lot of strength over those two years, because once it pupped, it made a whole ring.

A clustered Echeveria 'Violet Queen'. Seeing that the single-headed one was not producing pups, I just bought a big cluster in winter. It stayed green all summer, and now it is slowly coloring up. In a while it should look quite beautiful.

Cotyledon tomentosa (Bear's Paw). It has to do with the climate here. It gets through summer easily, and its claws have always stayed, though it has gotten a lot thinner.

Echeveria 'Chihuahuaensis' (Jiwa wa). A very cost-effective succulent, with good looks year-round, and it has the red tips I like, so I had to grow several more.

A crested Echeveria 'Furong Snow Lotus'. When I bought it, it was four or five cm; after growing it for over a year, it is now over ten cm. I had originally promised to give it to a guy in the succulent group, but I went back on my word and did not give it to him. Hah, women.

A crested Echeveria 'Winter Cloud'.

An unnamed crested plant. When I got it, I bought it purely for its shape; it looks especially like an "L" (my name is Yali). After a summer it got fatter, and getting fat ruins everything.

Echeveria 'Snow Lotus'. A variety I both love and hate. In winter, grown indoors, it does perfectly well and looks ethereal, but as soon as summer comes it rots. This summer, several of them rotted.

A Pachyphytum 'Peach Egg' sunburned in May. Because my dad was hospitalized and needed someone to stay with him, I had no time to check on the succulents, and I was also afraid of rain, so I could only cover them with plastic film. That led to poor ventilation, and they almost got cooked. After recovering, they are still little cuties.

The veteran Lindsay

The adorable Sedum 'Laui'

The lipstick every woman must have

The little bun Echeveria 'Ice Plum'

As summer goes and autumn comes, it is still very necessary to sum up my experience of getting through summer. Three summers have given me one important lesson: after spring begins, buy as few succulents as possible. Although two or three months is enough for them to fully establish, succulents are very poor at getting through summer, and when temperatures are high and it rains, they easily die. Among the succulents I lost in summer, 90 percent were ones I had boarded out in winter, sent home in spring, and potted up, plus in summer I sometimes grow them outdoors and they get rained on. Succulents that have just established cannot take the stress and die. I strongly suggest buying in autumn instead. After autumn, winter, and spring, succulent roots are strong and their ability to adapt to the environment is enhanced, making it easier for them to get through summer.

I am not in a prime growing region. I am in a small mountain town in Jinzhong, Shanxi, in the Taihang Mountains. In summer, the high temperature does not exceed 35°C, and the temperature difference between day and night is fairly large, around ten-plus degrees. Open-air growing has good ventilation and light conditions, so succulents color up easily. After nearly three years of growing succulents, I still only know the tip of the iceberg about their habits. Growing succulents well still takes effort.

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