This is why I love growing succulents

I tend to grow my plants in three setting, (or I did/will when I have a dry bred): planted in a rockery, in pots in the garden, and finally as a collection of more tender/ special plants.  Out in the green house this evening and looking around summed up why I love growing succulents so much.

Normally the greenhouse is so neat and ordered, then at this time of year with everything in flower, it is a mass of stalks and yellows and pinks.  As you look in more detail you get the structure and colour

Astroloba

haworthia limifolia variegata

The combination of having a greenhouse and all the hot weather means there are a lot of first time flowerers. The echeverias are still flowering, just when you think they have finished the next group start.

echeveria setosa

The echeveria subrigida x peacockii flower is covered in the same white bloom as the plants.

Finally with flowers come the possibility of seeds.  I tend to leave the aloes to get on with it, there are so many flower spikes it is impossible to stop nature getting its own way.  The aloe firebird flower seems to have been popular this year.

Surprises are the final joy of succulents; if it's not seed pods, it's offsets.

Of all the offsets, the ones that form on flower spikes are my favourite. Perfect miniature versions of the plant, growing up above the parent. The original vertical garden.