Find your Way with Succulents
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A succulent address sign is a fun, unusual and very pretty focal point for decorating your house or garden. Using the same kind of techniques as for a succulent mosaic, adjust the size of the frame to fit your numbers.
For a four number address, a box about 30cm (one foot) high and 90cm (2’6″)long will be adequate. Adjust the size to your requirements.
Once you have a box of 1×4″ lumber with a plywood backing made, use deer fencing, sometimes available as pea netting (the kind with 2cm x 4cm (1″ x 2-3″) holes) stretched and stapled over the front (or the top as it’s lying down until the cuttings are rooted), and filled with sterilized potting soil.
If you want to omit the netting, the piece will have to lay flat for much longer to root the succulents in place.
I use my usual Sunshine Mix #4, but you can use any well drained mix, as long as it won’t be too heavy in the finished product.
Make sure to fill the corners as sometimes this part settles and leaves the succulent plants stranded.
Lay the address sign down on its back for the next part.
Using cuttings of any rosette forming succulent such as Echeveria pulidonis, Echeveria elegans, or any other smaller plants, make up the numbers, using the rosettes.
Outline and fill in the rest of the frame with small textured succulents such as Sedum calvifolia, some of the small Crassula such as Crassula perforata and Crassula ‘Green Pagoda’ or any other Sedum. For these types of crafts, the plants can be any kind of Sedum or succulents, preferably those with small scale growth habit.
Gently push the unrooted cuttings into the soil, and leave them to root.
Can you see the number 4655 on this?
No need to water until they have calloused, in a couple of days.
Within a week or two, they should be showing signs of rooting.
After a month or so, gently tug on them to see if they are rooted, then carefully tilt the address sign to a more vertical position. If all is well, hang your sign where you can see it from the road, or in a sheltered place on the house.
For winter care, these will need a cool, dry, bright place where they can go into a slow time of dormancy until the spring.
Don’t water the address sign until close to the time you can put it back outside once the weather warms up.
Water a couple of times a month in the summer, and one or two times a season water it with compost tea. To do this properly – giving the whole thing a good thorough drenching – you must take it down.
Prune as needed to make more succulent address signs, a succulent mosaic, or succulent topiary. Once you get the bug of making succulent crafts you’ll be hooked.
Keep in mind that you will need a lot of succulent cuttings for this project, and plan ahead. If you behead your succulents regularly when pruning, or for propagation you should have plenty to choose from.
Are you succulently obsessed and love using these interesting and oh, so versatile plants in crafts?
Enroll in the Succulent Crafts E-Course:
This online course is an immersion into all things succulent; whether your focus is on making a mosaic or some other really unique garden crafts, this course will cover it, as well as offer some great products for you to make your garden dream come true.
Start now and get creative!
