Hi Everyone!
To celebrate this winter season and upcoming New Year I wanted to share a bit about my favorite part of my business, making adorable succulent arrangements with vintage planters and retro glassware!
Succulents are such a beautiful part of the California landscape and everywhere you turn in the city lies a garden overgrown with these hearty little wonders. They make great housepets, requiring only occasional watering and a sunny spot. Terrariums have become quite popular lately, but if you’re not that into suspending glass futuristic balls from the ceiling, retro planters and tableware make a great alternative!
While stocking inventory for next year’s upcoming Sunshine Factory Pop-up Shop during this dismal rainy SF winter, I found myself stumbling across cute vintage objects left and right, rendered useless by the changing times. Those lonely 70′s ceramic drip mugs, egg cups, and gravy boats had such potential but no purpose. Separated from their past sets or just in low demand, these gems lay useless in basements and dusty thrift store shelves. I knew I could make them beautiful again and started pairing them with gorgeous local succulents, colored stones, and moss- each one unique in color and style. Now I sell my arrangements locally at fairs and events throughout the city. I love seeing people get excited about the vintage twist on colorful succulents!
Succulents make a great addition to your workspace or home and I offer free
plant-counseling and care instructions to make their maintenance less mystical.
One of my favorite up-cycled planters is a thrifted sundae dish or milkshake cup, the older and heavier the better. Making a Succulent Sundae is easy with the right supplies and a few good records.
Let’s get started..!
Supplies:
-Glass sundae cup
-Cactus soil
-Perlite
-Small natural or colored rocks
-2″ Succulent
-Reindeer Moss (if desired)
-Small spoon or scooper
my little sunny work-spot
First, select a 2 inch succulent from your local nursery. If you like the look of a Succulent Sundae with colorful reindeer moss, you may want to chose an Aeonium or taller variety of succulent and keep your soil level lower so your moss will sit in the lip nicely. Sempervivums grow closer to the ground and don’t leave much room for moss, instead a contrasting color of rock will make them really stand out.
Your spoon or scooper will come in handy for your dirt and rocks, and a paintbrush to dust off the dirt from the leaves when you’re finished helps as well.
Because there are no holes in the bottom of our sundae cups, we must make sure our soil can drain by putting a layer of rocks at the bottom.
Next, mix cactus soil with a bit of perlite for extra good drainage. I’ve found that most cactus soil isn’t porous enough and I like to mix it in to keep the roots from becoming too moist in my damp San Francisco house.
Pour a small layer of dirt and position your succulent in the cup, then with your small scooper, fill up to the base of the succulent with soil mixture.
Next pat your soil down a bit and situate your succulent. Use a spoon or small scooper to shovel your rocks along the top and position your reindeer moss in a good spot. Dust the dirt off your leaves, give your succulent a spoonful of water and you’re all set!
I hope you enjoyed this mini-tutorial on succulent sundae making! Here’s another example I did as well with taller succulent who had outgrown his previous home..
Hope everyone has an awesome new year! For more succulent updates be sure to follow me on Instagram @stillwife
Xo!
