Succulents are not just ornamental plants; they are a work of art.

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The article begins:

Thanks to the author [Tangxin Dan Xiaogui] for the original submission and sharing

Submission date: 2018-03-10

Edited and compiled by: Encyclopedia Jun

Location: Nanning City, Guangxi

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Dreaming by the Railing

 The Meaning Lingers On

Xiaoyi Senior; Lengshan 

00:00/05:40

Succulents are not only fun to grow, they are also fun to photograph. I love planting, love taking photos, love cooking. There is a saying in "A Bite of China": all beautiful things are connected. Since succulents are so beautiful, why not photograph them.

I live in Nanning, Guangxi, and my balcony does not get sufficient sunlight. In order to have a child, I do not plan to use grow lights. Perhaps this is what makes me a "Buddhist-style" succulent grower, relying as much as possible on the sun's ultraviolet rays for coloring and on the soil ratio to prevent etiolation and control shape. If they cannot turn red, then let them stay green.

I am a serious person; with anything, either I do not do it, or I do it with all my effort. In order to grow them well, I overcame many difficulties. Holding back the disgust and fear in my heart, I picked off mealybugs with my hands. In winter I mixed soil with my bare hands, and my hands cracked. In summer I got up at five or six every day before dawn to blow the water out of the leaf centers. I have never thought that succulents are plants for lazy people; to learn anything, you must be serious about everything you do.

I like some niche succulents, or ones with nice-sounding names. Many of the ones I grow are varieties with very little information on Baidu.

Summer came much earlier than I expected, so I can only take advantage of this period to leave as many of their beautiful appearances as possible, and settle my mood to get through the summer.

A simple backdrop I built myself

Photos taken with a phone are very badly distorted, and the colors are far from what the eye sees. I hope to restore the succulents' own colors as much as possible. To this end I also made some efforts. In order to keep the original colors, I did not use lighting, because lighting makes the flower pots reflect light and makes the succulents look blue. That is not what I wanted. I relied only on diffused sunlight, using the position, color, angle and material of the reflector board and background to adjust the highlights and dark tones, restoring the original colors as much as possible. By making use of different shooting times and different weather, I achieved different artistic styles. Bringing aesthetic enjoyment to myself and everyone else.

First I must show my bowl of Salmon, which was an anniversary gift I gave to my husband. Before I knew it, so many years have passed; thank you for always being by my side. Salmon is his favorite food, and also his favorite succulent variety. My husband even wrote a poem especially for this bowl of Salmon.

Three lifetimes of reincarnation at the Three Lives Bridge, by the bridge the fish remembers, do you remember, brush in hand I write of the road of three lives, not letting tender feelings wither the years

The plump and adorable Ice Age, I never thought Ice Age could be so beautiful.

Devil's Feather, I like its unique dark pattern, as beautiful as a feather

Siberia, just like a big tree. The green, yellow and red of the leaves make the overall color layers richer.

Ramlet, Lawrence sp

Opal, on a whim I used a sparkling background, and the multi-directional light refraction unexpectedly produced a dreamy feeling

From top to bottom, unnamed hybrid, Crystal Rose, Qinxin x Halina

I have never quite liked this set of photos; the background was chosen wrong, causing the overall color to lean blue-green.

Blood-spotted roma, I love both of them

Xiajiao, a member of the Rosima family, another niche variety. This is the hardest succulent to photograph I have encountered so far, because it is too red. It took a full two hours to restore its original color.

Peach Green, Halo. I especially like the pairing of the pots and the plants in these two.

Xiuyan

Large-leaf Xiuyan

Moonstone and Bravery

Bonfire and Shenxiu. One rich, one elegant.

As a member of the thin-leaf group, Shenxiu is Echeveria cuspidata x Echeveria cante. It has not been included among the Three Thin-Leaf Fairies, and has always been a niche variety. The first time I learned of this variety was because of its strange name. I do not know who was clever enough to give it this name. Shenxiu was not overshadowed by the splendor of Bonfire; instead, it brought out a light, delicate beauty.

Shenxiu is one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, the last of the seven mansions of the White Tiger of the West, namely the seven bright stars of Orion.

Puff Pastry Duck, my husband always loves to call it Peking Duck

Fasciated Pansy, my one and only fasciated plant

Beluga, a niche variety, very small overall, and also very cute. The black dot at the leaf tip is its special feature.

St. Louis, I could not resist lowering the saturation for this photo.

Unnamed succulent, seems to be called Anna Xavier

Two unnamed succulents, so adorable

Crystal Rose, Black Rose sp

Dahongpao, original Haworthia... no, Echeveria pulidonis

Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, the colors are so vivid they look fake

Lady's Finger and Orion, both are good-quality, inexpensive varieties

Blue Heron and City of Angels are both varieties with beautiful names.

The City of Angels that can be found all look different; I have collected four forms.

For the heavy-flavored succulents, I specifically waited to photograph them on a cloudy early morning, so that they would have character.

Nebula, a variety I especially like. Dark pattern, black series, heavy flavor. Once an expensive luxury, now dirt cheap.

Pink Beauty and Jinmingxue. Both turn pale pink when colored up, very beautiful.

Unnamed hybrid and Jingye

Wax Peony and Absinthe. Orange series

Firefly

Da Vinci and Andamelo

Moji Lian and AK Maria. Both are miniature plants

Dutch Dongyun

The Orion bouquet my husband gave me

Ulakla

Maccadimia, Melige, Alalei

First Love

Swan Lake

Beauty sp

Inada-hime, Candy Beauty, New Perfume

Cherry Blossom, Mexican Giant

Green Youth

Dolphin Princess, a niche variety with a beautiful name and very bizarre growth

Yuanluo

Mirror Lion. I do not know whether it counts as an Aeonium. A hard-to-color, unpopular succulent. A couple of days ago the weather in Nanning was abnormal; just after the Lantern Festival it was already over 30 degrees, and this one, which had not colored up in ten thousand years, actually turned red in a single day. I hurried to photograph it as a keepsake.

Small-head mixed tray

I especially like the Moon Shadow series; there are too many in the Moon Shadow series, so I put them together specially

Moon Shadow sp, the beauty representative

What is this x White Moon Shadow

Onmyoji, a mutation of Alba Beauty

Pink Moon Shadow, my husband always teases me that this flower pot looks like a rice bowl

Eros and Pahonell

Snow Jade, or Ice and Snow?

Bloody Mary

Sasa Queen

Bai Meisheng and f048? But 048 seems to be inwardly hooked

Water Lotus, I do not know whether this belongs to Moon Shadow; it looks quite similar

A bowl of Ice Plum my husband gave me

Josephine

The plump Snow Rabbit, one look and you know it would be delicious

Strawberry Ice, original Berry

Gemini Berry, Cream Berry, cannot tell them apart

Halina

Athena Xiangfei

Pirate Ship, it looks like a bun, so cute

New Snowball, it had not colored up yet when photographed

White Moon Shadow

Simpson

Blue Surprise, Blue Surprise x Blue Velvet (Blue Blue)

Xina sp, Moon Shadow sp

Tiny Hamburger

Qinxin, very translucent

Ascension

Seaside Grey, Onslow

Seaside Grey x Moji Lian

Halina x Jinmingmie

Ebony is my favorite, so it must be shown on its own; the little Ebonies are very cute

Growing Ebony in a bird's nest

This is a basket of odd Ebonies, and the leaves all have distinctive features

Ebony x Golden Maria?

Ebony Sword

Next are all the beautiful claw hybrid series

This one is very distinctive, named Jade

Various hybrids

Hybrid collective dormitory

The little cart is very practical

A corner of the balcony

By the time I have written this far, it is almost dark. It is Awakening of Insects, spring rain is falling, and the balcony is all wet. Taking advantage of the fact that it is not completely dark yet, I will take a few photos and post them.

Finally, some photos taken while traveling

The Populus euphratica forest of Ejina Banner and the sunrise at Juyan Lake

Pudacuo National Park in Shangri-La

Dali and Lijiang, so beautiful even in casual snapshots

This article is exclusively authorized by the author to the WeChat public account: Succulent Plants Encyclopedia (ID: duoroubaike). The content of the article does not represent the views or stance of the public account

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