Succulents

Well, if you think about it, all plants are succulents.  That is, plants move and contain water and must have a source for it.  Eventually the toughest cactus will perish without water.  Watercress will survive only a very short while with no water source, so we do not call it succulent (except for eating).  Horticultural succulents have evolved in areas of below average water availability.  All of them store water in their tissues.  We can say “they feel fleshy”.  Like humans they can be fat or dessicated.  These plants often have beautiful colors and striking flowers.

I think this is an aloe, I displayed it in the library with the cult movie title “Revenge of the Succulents”  

Here’s all I have left of the pink leafed one that grew 6” tall 18 months ago.

This one in the basket below is “Little Pickles”, othonna crassifolia.  I grew and loved this plant near the begiining for me in 1973.  I kept seeing it and growing it until 1980 when it disappeared from view and commerce.  To my joy and my customers’ good fortune I got it back five years ago.  Othonna crassifolia is its real name.

A lot of succulents send up phallic looking spikes from the center of their rosette.  In Houston I saw an agave spike 25’ high and correspondingly thick and strong.  That likely doesn’t impress people from Mexico.  Here’s an ascending flower structure from a beauty.

These haworthias have a pebbly skin and exquisite coral colored flowers.

Jade Necklace (crassula), aeonium, blue tiger jaws (faucaria) and tree aeonium.

Even though succulent plants can survive long periods without water they actually love water and are very good at scarfing it up when it is available.  so if you have one in good light that is in its growth season it will respond to frequent watering and feedings with fast growth and great beauty.