I did it folks, I was led into temptation. I knew well in advance, as my legs took on a life of their own and carried me towards the alluring gates, that I should not enter the garden of Eden, because I would partake of the fruit. For a few moments I put on a convincing act of ‘just looking’.
These were my finds:
Graptoveria Amethorum
Bear’s Paws
I couldn’t resist. They were $1.98 at Home Depot. I could say that it was out of the goodness of my heart – because though they look great on their abundant flats of succulents, they are not in the proper soil. Large stores like HD are all about the easy and express, so they just put these little guys in potting soil which is not prime for a succulent.
These two succulents are the juicy type, so they will not survive frost ( I learned that with last seasons juicy succulents, may they rest in peace. Juicy= high water content=freezes like water in an ice cube tray). These are definitely indoor guys.
As exciting as these acquisitions were, the most exciting were the freebies:
I did not unscrupulously take them off a plant, I happened to find them at the bottom of the flat between the potted plants where they had naturally fallen on their own. This is a fantastic development as I now have the subjects for my experiments with this method of propagation:
1. Take leaves from succulent and lay them on a bed of perlite or gritty soil
2. Leave in area of filtered light indoors or out. Do not water
3.Wait for new growth to form at base along with tiny roots
4.Place in gritty soil and water lightly
Now I’m at step 3: the waiting. I will let you know how things develop.
In the meantime, here are a few shots of me transplanting my lovely succulents to a good-sized pot full of 1:1:1 potting soil/ Perlite / Gritty soil ( lava rock is apparently best but hard to find. Sand is too fine)
You must not be afraid to manhandle the succulent to open up the root ball – often they’ve been confined to a pot for too long and they are quite dense. Remember you are showing them tough love and they will appreciate it in the end.
Lightly spritz them with water and place in the sun.
Cheers!
S
sharolyntownsend 
Loved this post! I’m a sucker for the temptations of my garden centre too – I can’t seem to manage to leave my credit card at home, ever….
Ahh. A kindred spirit! Thanks for reading my post 🙂
I couldn’t believe when I stumbled upon your story. I just bought the exact same 2 plants plus one more from Home Depot on 1/23/14. Another suprised was how exactly I sympathize with the “little guys” that are not in the proper soil or pots. Some times I feel like I need to rescue them…that is how you end up with way more succulents than you intented to have. Thanks for putting a smile on my face 🙂
Glad you stumbled on my post! Good luck with the succulents. I’m rather failing at keeping some of them alive now that I have a new baby…some things take priority. But I still have a bunch trucking along!
S