Succulents lose their color while I get tanned - a muddle-headed yet happy succulent grower

Foreword

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Thanks to the author [Mei Yu] for theoriginal submissionand sharing

Edited and compiled by: Encyclopedia Jun

Location: Quanzhou City, Fujian Province

Days fly by while growing succulents. Counting from the first pot of Sedum pachyphyllum I got in October 2015, I have already muddled through nearly three years in the succulent pit. I have carried my succulents through three summers. From the beginning when I bought succulents pot and all, to now mixing soil, trimming roots, and potting them up all by myself; from a balcony grower to a rooftop grower; watching my succulents go from ugly to beautiful, then from beautiful to ugly in cycles, and even wither away.

At first I treasured my ugly, vegetable-like succulents as if they were gems. After seeing the beautiful succulents of the experts in the Succulent Plant Encyclopedia, I once doubted and disliked my own succulents. Slowly, I began to calmly witness my succulents transform bit by bit. To this day, some succulent friends still ask me about my soil mix and my care experience. Thinking about it carefully, I am actually speechless - who told me to be such a muddle-headed succulent grower!

However, a succulent grower who never summarizes experience and lessons is ultimately unqualified. I have always wanted to calm down and sort out the bits and pieces of my succulent growing, so this idea was delayed from February 5, 2018 to now (why is the time so precise? Because there is a draft in Meipian as proof?) Compared with everyone's various experiences, I am truly ashamed. To sum it up, it is nothing more than the word "muddle-headed"!

Oh dear, without realizing it, I have talked a bit too much! First, let's show the succulents! Below are the succulents spending the summer in July and August.

Ice Jade

The Muddle-Headed Soil Mixing Chapter: For a long time I didn't buy soil, so I just asked the greenhouse for the soil they had removed (doesn't it feel so casual!). Later I bought soil, but felt the gritty components were too expensive and couldn't bear to use them, so I added coal cinders instead. After reading various people's opinions, I slowly also used various gritty components. I have bought maifan stone, volcanic rock, green zeolite, diatomite, and akadama, and also bought rice husk charcoal, vermiculite, and plant ash. But when mixing soil, I am extremely casual - whatever I have on hand, I just throw it all in. Ratios and such are basically clouds. With some soil mixes, after potting the succulents, I find when watering that the water doesn't flow out of the drainage hole for a long time, and I get anxious worrying that the mix isn't breathable. But it stops at just thinking about it - I don't take action! (The succulents would vomit blood hearing this, right?) In short, the soil mixes for my succulents are all over the place!

Orca

The Muddle-Headed Pot Chapter: At first it was because I didn't understand, and later it was because I had too many succulents to be particular. The pots I use are also all over the place - double-glazed, single-glazed, coarse ceramic, purple clay...

Lawrence

The Muddle-Headed Watering Chapter: When I didn't have many succulents and they were on the balcony, I always liked to hold a dripping pot and water them a little from time to time. After the succulents moved to the rooftop, water basically had to be carried up, so unless I pinch the leaves and find them soft, and there's no rain forecast for the coming days, they basically rely on heaven for food.

Ebony Hybrid

The Diligent Summer Survival Chapter: The style changes abruptly, right? I was muddle-headed for quite a while, but when this season that succulent growers pale at the mention of arrives, I am extremely diligent. The first year I left them outdoors for the summer, I prepared rain covers and shade nets early. Fortunately, that summer wasn't too hot, and the rain was fairly restrained! Every morning and evening, I was on the rooftop pinching off dead leaves, catching bugs (scale insects, caterpillars, snails, slugs), pulling nets and removing nets. Without realizing it, the succulents lost their color, and I got colored!

Rophy

Although I am muddle-headed, I am diligent! I look at them three times a day - and more than three times, actually! Here comes the key point: the reason succulents can become beautiful, my biggest feeling is "favorable timing, favorable terrain, and harmonious people." By favorable timing, I especially want to say it's the accumulation and settling of time! So if your succulents haven't become beautiful yet, don't worry. Do what you should do, and leave the rest to time to polish!

Red Ghost City

Crane of Flowers

Xiuyan

Yangjin

Lipstick

Snow Lotus

Thin Makeup

Christmas Echeveria

Polyanna

Alan

Onslow

Pansy

Prism

Xuehe

Champagne

Aeonium 1

Aeonium 2

Vanilla

Orostachys

Orange Monroe 1

Orange Monroe 2

Orange Monroe 3

Pink Bluebird

Group Photo 1

Group Photo 2

The Succulent Garden in the Evening

Of course, a muddle-headed succulent grower inevitably loses a batch of succulents. I took care of them with all my heart, but there are always those that have lived long enough, so let them go...

Collected a pile of empty pots?

Choosing some of their former beauty, to mourn them!

Bloody Luo

Laguna

Graptopetalum paraguayense (I lost N of them, N>8) Sigh, I really am a Graptopetalum killer

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