Succulent Planter
Hello! This is Erin from Rosehip Flora, with another installment of In Bloom. Today we’re making a succulent planter with the addition of fresh cut flowers. Materials needed include: a planter container, rocks for drainage, soil, a vase that fits inside the planter, floral wire, snips and the desired succulents and fresh flowers. That’s it! Read on for the step-by-step tutorial…
When choosing succulents, look for a variety of plants while keeping the size and shape of your container in mind. I’d recommend taking your container to the nursery to get a visual of how certain plants will work. Hold them up to the planter, put them in, and see what fits. The goal is to make the plants mesh together – as if they had grown in right there.
- First, place your vase in the container to hold the space for your flowers. Then line the bottom of your container with rocks to help with drainage. Next, fill the container with soil about an inch from the edge.
- Now you can start placing your plants in the container, keeping the roots in tact. You may need to play around with the placement a little to get it where you want it.
- In some cases you may need a little extra help to keep your plants where you want them until the roots take hold in their new environment. By hair pinning a long piece of heavy gauge floral wire, you can pin down the wayward plant, sinking the wire deep into the container and taming your little plant. Make sure to fill in with more soil as needed to keep all plants bolstered up and happy.
- Once the plants are in place you can use a variety of materials to top dress the planter. Here I used coconut fiber or ‘coir’ as well as angel hair moss, which not only hides the soil from view but also helps it retain moisture. Hair pin the pieces into place with floral wire.
- Next, fill your vase with water and prepare your flowers. Remove leaves so that nothing but stem is in the water of the vase. This will help keep bacteria from growing as quickly in your water.
- I started with the low, heavy fuchsia colored stock to fill in the mouth of the vase and followed with the deep purple lisianthus and its sweet little buds. Big juicy coral charm peonies we placed next, just above the stock and cozied up against the lisianthus. I completed the look with a few green textural elements (poppy pods and leucadendron) to tie in with the succulents.
- Finally, I used a paint brush to gently sweep the succulent leaves clean of any soil remains.
And the arrangement is complete! Although flowers don’t appreciate sunlight, the plants like it indirectly, as well as a healthy watering every week. You may chose to change out the flowers and add fresh water when yours are no longer, or you may remove the vase and fill in with another plant – or just give yours more room to sprawl. Have fun and enjoy!
Tutorial by Erin Knipp of Rosehip Flora, photos by Julie Cope Photography for Perpetually Chic