Do you adore succulents? They are the most darling little plants and super easy to care for. They actually thrive on neglect. Delicate little plants that are extremely hardy and almost impossible to kill. It’s no wonder their popularity has soared in recent years.
I spent the day with my dear friend Veronica and she showed me just how easy it is to clean up my succulents and not only double, but quadruple them. I thought it was going to be a difficult laborious process but instead we spent a relaxing afternoon together enjoying each others company creating new planters. It was so much fun and I came home with a beautiful bounty of new plants!
We spent a couple of hours outside in the sunshine cleaning up, trimming down and planting up additional succulents. For some reason I thought it would be difficult and complicated but is was anything but!
Succulents are pretty delicate. If you are too rough when handling them their leaves can easily break off the plant. Those broken off leaves will grow into new plants. So no worries when a leaf breaks off; they are the plants that just keep on giving.
Today I want to walk you through the process of turning a handful of succulents into more plants than you know what to do with.
You will need just a few supplies for propagating succulents. A trowel or a tool like this one for digging up succulents. A sturdy knife, like an old butter knife would work just as well and a pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands.
You will also need a well draining potting soil like this one. You can find a cactus soil like this one at any good nursery. Don’t use regular potting soil. It retains too much moisture and your baby succulents won’t thrive if their feet are constantly sitting in wet soil.
You will also need a variety of containers. Use what you already have on hand. Basic terra cotta pots work great but you can get really creative and use all sorts of items as containers. A trip to the Dollar store, local garage sales, or a fun afternoon poking around your favorite thrift store will yield dozens of inexpensive containers that you can use for planting succulents. You can easily find all sorts of unique items to use as containers for just pennies.
Think outside the box; small bowls, coffee mugs, tea cups sitting on a pretty saucer, a soap dish, a silver sugar bowl.
TIP: Lay down a large garbage bag to protect your work surface and make cleanup a breeze.
Supplies needed:
- Cactus soil mix
- Trowel or other item for digging up plants
- A variety of containers or pots
- Sharp knife for cutting plants apart
- Gardening gloves
- Plastic garbage bag to protect your work surface
- A variety of overgrown, leggy succulents
Now that you have gathered together the supplies you will need it’s time for the fun part!
One of the characteristics of many succulents is that they can grow very lanky and leggy. They are so adorable when they are small and growing close to the surface of the soil, but not so cute when their leaves are mostly at the ends of leggy, bare stems.
The beauty of propagating succulents is that when you clean up and trim a leggy one, you end up with dozens and dozens more plants. Lets take a closer look at just how to do it.
TIP: Use a sharp knife to cut stems instead of using scissors. Scissors will crush the stems where as a knife will give you a nice clean cut and ensure the cutting grows.
The first thing you want to do is dig up the plants and remove them from their existing pot. Gently brush off the majority of soil from their roots and spread them out a bit. Set aside the plants, the pups, any leaves that have fallen off the main plant and the tops and stems that you remove from the plants.
It looks like this succulent has at least three plants that can be separated to create new plants.
Even though succulents are pretty delicate, don’t be afraid to get in there and pull them apart. Cutting through the roots to separate the plants won’t hurt them. If any leaves come off, set them aside. They can also be planted to create more plants.
Succulents will grow from a root ball, a cutting, a tiny pup, a leaf pulled off a stem or even from a piece of stem from a plant.
Place pups directly in the soil and a new plant will grow. It will send roots down into the soil and in a few weeks you will have another plant.
Place leaves that have fallen off the plants on the soil and they will also grow into new plants.
Trimming off the pretty heads from long lanky plants and placing those cut ends directly into the soil will also result in another plant. The beauty of these cuttings is that they will give you instant results. You will have the compact close to the soil plants that you see at nurseries for purchase. But it will cost you just pennies instead of paying a small fortune for them.
Cleaning up a couple planters not only made my planters look so much better but it resulted in so many more new plants.
Before 
After
I was I able to refresh the existing planter above and I had enough cuttings to create the entirely new red planter below with all the extra cuttings.
I think the red planter is my favorite! I had this red tool box tray insert left over from another gardening DIY project and I wasn’t sure how I would end up using it. I love how this turned out!!! Free plants…love it!
If you are interested in seeing how I used the toolbox and turned a trash to treasure thrift store find into another adorable planter you can read the easy DIY post about how I did it here.
It’s currently sitting in my front entry greeting visitors that come over.
Newly planted a year ago 
After 1 year, overgrown 
Replanted
I found both the bundt and the spring form pans at my favorite thrift store. I have them on the patio tables in the backyard. The openings in the center are just big enough for the umbrella pole to fit through the centers. They make the perfect centerpieces on the tables. Because succulents are so small it’s the perfect spot to enjoy them up close and personal, and enjoy their unique details and lovely intricacies.
Before 
After
If you place cuttings in soil…they will grow.
There are an endless variety of succulents to choose from. One more beautiful than the next; different colors, different shapes, different sizes; some are smooth, some are prickly, some are fuzzy and some are bumpy. You won’t have any trouble finding succulents you love; the hard part is picking just a few from the endless varieties that are available.
Instead of buying more and more, invite other succulent loving friends over and have a succulent sharing party. Have friends bring a few of their own overgrown succulent plants. Provide a big bag of soil and share some of your unique containers or have them bring their own. There will be plenty of cuttings for everyone to share and create new plants to take home with them.
Thank you Veronica for teaching me all about succulents. I learned so much and I had a fabulous time with you!
What a fun afternoon and great way to celebrate spring and share the bounty of Mother Nature.
So now it’s your turn. Go on, it’s time to get some dirt under your fingernails. As they say at my favorite nursery, Green Acres…Do you dig?!?!
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