Succulent Wreaths

This weekend, Erin and I built succulent wreaths. So how did it go?...

We started by clipping bits off of every succulent we could get our hands on. No fat-leaved plant was safe. Having never made a wreath of any kind before, we had no concept of how many cuttings we would need. In the end, we had waaay too many. No matter, this just meant more selection to choose from in our palette.

We left these cuttings out for a couple days to let the cuts scab over. When it came time to make the wreath, we also used an extra dilute mix of rooting hormone to dip the cuttings. We probably didn't need to since succulents root so easily, but I had a bottle of Dip'N Grow lying around, so we went ahead and dipped.

In the topmost picture, you can see the all our materials gathered at our workstation for the actual wreath-making. Erin got our wreath forms, floral pins, floral wire, and ribbons at Michaels. The sphagnum moss in the picture was ultimately not the one we used because it was poor quality and full of sticks. The moss we did end up using was organic stuff I had around for my orchids that is clean and homogenous. I think it was from a nicer hardware store's nursery section. I don't know where Erin got the Reese's Fast Break bars from. Maybe a drugstore? They were a tasty and necessary snack, halfway through the wreath building. Other tools that were helpful included a tub to soak the moss in, hydrogen peroxide to sterilize plant clippers, needlenose pliers and clippers for working the wire, and a spray bottle with water. 

We probably should also have had gloves for handling the rooting hormone. I think you're not supposed to touch the rooting hormone. I actually had nitrile gloves, but they were all the way in the other room in a drawer. I couldn't be bothered to go all the way over there. So we worked with our bare hands. If roots start sprouting from my fingertips, I will rue myself.

The actual building went pretty quickly. We wet the moss and arranged it around the form. Then we wrapped floral wire around the form to hold the moss in place. (The photo above shows the form at that point.) We then used a pencil to poke a hole in the moss, dipped a cutting in hormone, and stuck the cutting into the hole in the moss. Most of the cuttings stayed put on their own. But for the larger, or awkward shaped cuttings, we used either floral pins or more floral wire to help hold them in place.

We were quite pleased with the results. Everything seemed to stay put. I didn't end up using a ribbon, but Erin did. You can see our final products below.

If all goes according to plan, in a couple weeks with some diligent watering, the succulents will have rooted, and our fingers will not have rooted.

Oh, and just as a quick follow up, you'll recall in October I built a pumpkin planter also filled with succulent cuttings. I promised I'd let you know how that turned out. Well, the pumpkin did just fine for a few days until Halloween. Afterward, I moved the pumpkin planter to the backyard and set it on a bale of hay. It got freaky gross really fast. The pumpkin got all mushy gnarly so it went quickly into the compost bin. Alas, I was not able to salvage any of those cuttings. There's a reason vegetables aren't generally used for planters. But I think these wreaths have a much better chance of rooting. And they look so cute!

-J