Summer to Fall Succulents

Today I’m making my case for why you should invest in succulents. Because unlike your typical summer flowers and greenery, succulents easily transition from summer to fall. And you know what that means? Less money spent, less time shopping, less waste, and less time digging in dirt.

Exhibit A: Here’s three of my succulent planters in June. They’re vibrant shades of green, light purply-pink, and light gray. Perfect for summer.

Fast forward to September when most summer flowers are calling it quits.

See how the colors have deepened now that we’re in fall territory? Deeper shades of green, blue, and purple. Reds and oranges. Brownish reds.

Even the succulents in my hanging baskets have darkened. These Perle von Nurnbergs are one of my favorites.

If you plan on growing succulents, I recommend potting them in baskets like these black ones with coco liners. Since they’re a neutral color, they will transition well from summer to fall. You know, versus using a pink hanging basket.

And I suggest terra cotta or white planters because those colors also work well in any season.

Hens and chicks FTW.

The orange tone of the terra cotta pots works perfectly with pumpkins.

One caveat about terra cotta pots is that they can shatter when the temps dip really low in wintertime, so I bring them inside. I put mine in the basement with my grow light last year. But I want to say my mom brings her strawberry pots of hens and chicks into the screened in area of her pool house, which is technically outside, and they do fine in the frigid northern Indiana temps.

In general, I like using white planters with texture because they allow the contents to shine. See how all the succulents pop against the white? It’s like a white plate with food on it.

The painters we hired to paint the roof of the pergola got white primer overspray all over my succulents. You can see the tiny specks of white. This was my lesson to just bring everything into the garage should we or anyone else ever user a sprayer to paint in the future.

I’ve gotten all of my white planters from Home Goods. It’s my go-to place for planters of all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Please, please, please don’t be nervous to grow succulents. If they intimidate you, I suggest starting out with hens and chicks. That’s what I grew for years before fully taking the plunge this summer. What I love about them is their hardiness and that they self-propagate– give them space and they’ll make babies. You can read all about growing hens and chicks here and re-planting them here.

But don’t let succulents scare you. They love sun and they’re drought tolerant so it’s over watering that you have to worry about. I wait until the soil looks and feels dry before I give them a good watering. This summer when it was really hot (the the deck gets full sun), I’d water them once a week, or if it rained I’d count that as a watering.