Succulents

futuremrsbalser · January 2015

Hey everyone, my Fiance and I decided to do succulents for a lot of our wedding. We are trying to do a lot by ourselves and know succulents are pretty easy to DIY. I was wondering if any of you have any experience with DIY succulent centerpieces or bouquets

larrygaga · January 2015

Do you mean grow your own succulents? I wanted to have them as well as have all my flowers. I think they look so cool.

They aren't really that expensive to buy in bulk, you might spend the same amount of money on the growing supplies.

futuremrsbalser · January 2015

Yes grow them and arrange them ourselves

larrygaga · January 2015

So what I do when deciding to DIY is figure out how much all the supplies will be, what I will do if I really mess it all up (especially when trying to grow a plant-so much could go wrong) and figure out how time consuming it will be. Then I figure out how much it is to just buy. You can weigh your options and decide what's best for you.

DIY is often just as expensive if not moreso than just buying. Unless you are doing it just because you want to, then rock on!

novella1186 · January 2015

I was gonna use succulents in my wedding. They're really easy to grow and to propagate. All you do is gently tear off leaves at the base. Lay them on a paper towel for a few days in indirect sunlight till the raw end "scabs over." Then set them on top of dry dirt. No need to water them; just mist with a spray bottle once a day or so. They really don't need much water. And if you over-water the leaves they just rot.

After a couple weeks or so you'll see tiny little leaves sprout from the ends and they'll stick tiny roots into the dirt. Just keep them in indirect sunlight and keep watering on a regular basis but don't soak the soil and make sure it drains well (you could use sandy soil or cactus soil to make sure they don't have too much water).

I will warn you though, depending on the conditions and level of sunlight, they grow very very very slow. For a few months they will be quite tiny so you need time to let them grow to the right size.

This is why I abandoned the whole plan and will no longer use succulents in my wedding; I didn't have enough space to grow them all and I didn't have the patience anymore. So good luck!

You might also want to talk to a local greenhouse about just buying in bulk. Don't leave them in direct sunlight unless they've been hardened off. And if they have already been hardened off, they love direct sunlight and will thrive. Otherwise, they will burn and might die.

larrygaga · January 2015

novella1186 My wedding is June 6th. Do you think greenhouses or flower shops will have them that early? I don't know anything about plants, at all. I found a website where you can buy them.

If I only need like 40, tops, do you think I should just grow them myself? I'm pretty okay with gardening. I live in an apartment and my apartment is almost never warmer than 70, so is that too cold for these plants?

We also get almost no sunlight, but I have some lamps I could put on them to warm them and keep them lit up.

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

I bought mine from <this> Etsy seller, who is on hiatus right now. There are a number of others with good prices and reviews though.

Something to keep in mind with succulents - they don't have stems, so they're not as easy to work with as most cut flowers. They usually require wiring onto a fake stem, which can be difficult because they're also very delicate so the wire breaks right through them. They're also sensitive to temperature changes and over-watering. I worked mine into low arrangements in flower bowls, so I was just able to wedge the foil-wrapped root ball into the edge of the vase. (This was also because it was important to me to keep the roots intact because I wanted to keep the live plants afterward... but they got thrown away. Don't ask, it's still painful.) I can DIY a lot of things, but I wouldn't have been able to handle bouquets or taller arrangements. If you plan to keep them potted though, and are in a warm, dry climate, they are "easier" than cut flowers since they potentially won't die as quickly and don't require much care.

futuremrsbalser · January 2015

That sucks that yours got thrown away ! I have heard they are hard because of the wire. I didn't even think about etsy thanks for that information ha-ha i get everything else from there why not succulents too

ahyatt87 · January 2015

larrygaga said:

novella1186 My wedding is June 6th. Do you think greenhouses or flower shops will have them that early? I don't know anything about plants, at all. I found a website where you can buy them.

If I only need like 40, tops, do you think I should just grow them myself? I'm pretty okay with gardening. I live in an apartment and my apartment is almost never warmer than 70, so is that too cold for these plants?

We also get almost no sunlight, but I have some lamps I could put on them to warm them and keep them lit up.

Hey larrygaga, I used succulents in my BM bouquets and my wedding was June 7th of last year. I had No problem at all getting them from my florist, so you should be good there

I don't know about growing them though...sorry!

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

larrygaga said:

novella1186 My wedding is June 6th. Do you think greenhouses or flower shops will have them that early? I don't know anything about plants, at all. I found a website where you can buy them.

If I only need like 40, tops, do you think I should just grow them myself? I'm pretty okay with gardening. I live in an apartment and my apartment is almost never warmer than 70, so is that too cold for these plants?

We also get almost no sunlight, but I have some lamps I could put on them to warm them and keep them lit up.

They grow in the desert, so they don't really have a "season" like other flowers. You should be able to order them whenever.

novella1186 · January 2015

larrygaga said:

novella1186 My wedding is June 6th. Do you think greenhouses or flower shops will have them that early? I don't know anything about plants, at all. I found a website where you can buy them.

If I only need like 40, tops, do you think I should just grow them myself? I'm pretty okay with gardening. I live in an apartment and my apartment is almost never warmer than 70, so is that too cold for these plants?

We also get almost no sunlight, but I have some lamps I could put on them to warm them and keep them lit up.

I live in a cold climate (planting season starts the end of May or early June here) and our local greenhouse had tons of succulents in March just because they kept them over the winter. Call around and see. You should have a good chance of finding some. Like lolo said, they don't really have a season so there shouldn't be a time of year that you can't find any.

I don't think you should grow them yourself. There's probably not enough time now for them to be ready by June (they'd still be super teeny). And unless those lamps have special UV bulbs, they won't help much. Succulents need LOTS of real sunlight, or they get "stretching" where the stem grows out really long and the leaves spread out and it ain't cute. 70s is fine for temperature. Succulents are desert plants so they're fairly hearty and can sustain low temps as well as high temps. (I accidentally left one outside this fall and it survived several frosts and below freezing temps before the poor thing finally died)

If you can't find a greenhouse that has some (which I doubt would even be a problem for June-- by April I think most greenhouses and opened and succulents are pretty common-- then check etsy!

larrygaga · January 2015

I am right now emailing my greenhouse!!! I will check around. Thank you!!!

I have never seen them before pintrest, so I wasn't sure if they were common. It seems like they are and I probably just passed right over them every year!

Blergbot · January 2015

We got ours in bulk from a local grower for the centerpieces and used cuttings from my SIL's large and mature garden full of them for favors (little pails with a succulent cutting and spanish moss). I had the added benefit of getting married in Santa Barbara, CA, where they grow naturally. You can buy cuttings online and grow them from there, if you have time, so maybe those would turn out a little larger by the time your wedding comes around, but I would honestly get them in bulk instead.

As for making the centerpieces, we did ours in wooden planter boxes, so we didn't have to mess with floral wire. That made it pretty easy. My two SILs put them together over two weekends (a couple hours here and there). I've worked with them in making stemmed centerpieces, as well, and my advice is to have a lot of floral wire, floral tape, wooden dowels and patience!

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