Yesterday I received the following email from a fellow succ-er, and thought I'd share the Q&A.

Q: I'm an avid follower of your blog, and like you, I love succulents. But I need a little help! I have only just been getting into propagating from cuttings and leaf cuttings.  I have managed to grow some Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' leaf cuttings by laying on soil, out of direct sunlight. They have grown new plants and have roots, but I don't know when to pot them? Every time I have done this in the past - they have shriveled up and died. What do I do with the mother leaf as well? [Photo at right.]

A: I am happy to help!  First, the Fred Ives leaves.  My guess is that when you have planted them in the past, you might not have watered them enough. I find that people (myself included) tend to under water young plants. The pictures you showed me seem like they are at a great stage to plant in their own pots. For now, I would continue to keep them out of direct sunlight.  Since you have so many, and since they look so healthy, it might be cool to try a little experiment — having slightly different conditions for each one. Example, you might have one in more light than another, or use a higher perlite-to-soil ratio in one than another.  If you do this, I'd love to know the results!

As far as the mother leaf, I used to pick off the mother leaf as soon as I could get it to come off. I am convinced that this was not the healthiest thing for my plants, though, because sometimes the young plants' growth seemed to wane once the mother leaf was removed. Now I leave the mother leaf on until it is shriveled and brown and breaks off with a light touch. This way, I can be sure that it is done passing its nutrients along to its baby.

I think you are correct that your aunt's mystery plant is a sedum — and good for you, because I think a lot of people would have mistaken it for an echeveria!  Sedum clavatum is my guess.

Finally, you're quite right that the rosettes (the rosettes only, though — be sure not to mistake flower buds for rosette runners, which is something I've done in the past) can be used to start new plants.  Your Perle von Nurnberg looks great!  To start a new plant with a rosette, cut the rosette from the mother plant, leaving about half a centimeter of stem on the rosette.  Allow the rosette to dry in the open for a few days, or you can plant it in (completely dry, not-too-compact) soil, which is what I usually do.  Basically, you treat the rosette much as you'd treat a leaf from which you're hoping to propagate a new plant (as you did with the Fred Ives).  Before long, the rosette will start to sprout roots.  At that point, plant it if you haven't already.  To avoid rot, let it sit in the soil for at least a few days before watering it.

Best of all, you'll see that the mother plant will begin to create new rosettes where you trimmed off the old one!  I usually cut the empty stems back so that they're only an inch or so long, simply because long empty stems can make a plant look kind of scraggly and weak.

Awesome job--let me know if you have any questions, and keep me up on how the propagation goes.  It's quite addictive, isn't it??

As regular readers of Gardening Succs are no doubt aware, I have developed quite an affinity for the stacked crassulas--the chunkier and rarer, the better.  I have also developed an addictio--er--an affinity for propagation.  The natural marriage of these two affinities has resulted, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the following:

From left to right, the rows are: (1) c. deceptor; (2) c. deceptor; (3) c. columella; (4) c. marchandii; (5) half c. barklyi and half c. moonglow; (6) c. emerald; (7) a "catch-all" row that includes c. hirtipes, c. ivory pagoda, c. coralita, and a couple of others; (8) c. deltoides and c. namaquensis.  I used a mix of half organic potting soil and half dry stall (aka pumice), since this simple soil cocktail has done me well in the past.

I would love to propagate larger cuttings, but for many of these (especially c. barklyi, which I love but can't find in the US--can anyone help me?!?), I only have one or two tiny little plants from which to take tiny little cuttings.  In some cases (e.g., c. namaquensis), I've basically decimated my only plant in the hopes of propagating more.

Why, you might ask, am I propagating these stacked crassulas?  Am I hoping to start my own nursery?  Sell online?  Guerilla garden stacked crassulas up and down the California coast in the hopes that they'll overtake our ubiquitous ice plant?  The answer, of course, is that I have no idea.  I am propagating these plants because I really, really like them, and I want to get good at propagation for reasons that elude even me.  Such are the mysteries of the human mind. 

First of all, I wanted to thank all the new readers who are following Gardening Succs!  I really appreciate it.  This blog has gone from zilch, zip, nada to about 200 visitors each day (with a high of 800!), and the Gardening Succs Facebook page has over 1000 "likes."  Thank you!

Next, a confession: I suffer from propag-addiction, one of the most common succulent ailments around (more info on specific ailments soon--I feel another infographic coming on...).  Sooo, following the growers at Lone Pine, I decided to start using flats for the plants I both (1) already have several of and (2) would like to grow more of.  But since I don't have enough of any one type to fill a flat, I used two different kinds to fill a flat:

In the next flat I made, I used four different kinds.  (So far, I've only made these two flats.)

What am I going to do with the new plants?  Sell them?  Give them away?  Propagate more plants and see if I can get on "Hoarders?"  I have no idea.  Most likely, I'll try to trade them with other succulent aficionados for plants I don't have yet.

For many of my plants, though, I only have one or two specimens.  Or three.  Or four.  (Whatever--don't judge me.)  Here's a shot of the inside of part of my greenhouse.

And lastly, just for fun, two random pictures I took in my backyard the other day.

Thanks again for being awesome, and for sticking around to watch this blog grow.  I promise you, it'll only get better!

I never had a greenhouse until six or eight months ago, though I've wanted one since I was a kid.  My girlfriend is impressively handy, and constructed our greenhouse mostly from parts we salvaged for free from someone who was getting rid of her greenhouse.  (She says "we" built the greenhouse, but she was the brains of the operation, as well as most of the brawn.) 

Anyhow, I use the greenhouse partly for propagation.  I started many of my plants from leaves or cuttings.  The adromischus at the far left is just a few months old, the pachyphytum in the middle, maybe 4-5 months.  And the [echeveria?] at the far right is at least 8-9 months old.

For my small plants, I take those plastic nursery trays and fill them with 2" square pots.  This seems the most efficient use of space.  To the extent possible, I try to organize the flats by type--both for the sake of convenience and the ease of care.  Here's a flat of sempervivums.

And here's a flat of (mostly) echeverias.  As you can see from this picture and the previous one, very few of my plants are labeled.  Only recently did I realize how darn convenient it is to know what things are and when you got them (and if there's room on the tag, where from).  Nearly all of these echeverias here started last spring or summer from leaves.  They grew a bit over summer and fall, did basically nothing over winter (well, some died), and now seem to be enjoying spring as much as I am.

Once, when I happened upon a small nursery that was going out of business, I found this hard plastic thing in a corner of a greenhouse, all mud-covered.  They used it to grow agaves from seed, and sold it to me for $5.  Now I use it as a place to grow my teensiest plants--the ones that aren't ready for 2" pots yet: a stray sempervivum baby that falls off, a wee kalanchoe sprout, etc.  The little compartments are less than 1" square, so they hold quite a few plants and are great space savers.  Anyone know where I could get another one?  I've seen similar trays, but never made from hard plastic.

It is hard to overstate how much I love having a greenhouse.  I'm still getting the hang of it, and have learned that for many succulents, the heat and moisture it traps are sub-ideal.  I managed to cook--literally cook--a dozen or more plants, half of which are on the mend, and the other half of which now live in plant heaven.  Now I keep a closer (near-daily) eye on it, leave the door open, and cut a big slit in one side of the plastic covering to help air circulation.  I haven't had any more problems (knock on wood...), but I'd love to get tips from more experienced succ-ers on how you use your greenhouses. 

I love propagating succulents from leaves.  For many kinds of succs, all it takes is a leaf, a tiny bit of soil, and about 30 dollops of patience.  Here's what to do:

1. Pluck a leaf from your succulent.  Some of the easiest ones to propagate are graptopetalums, pachyphytums, and the fleshier echeverias and kalanchoes.  Make sure you pluck the leaf right from the stem, so that none of the leaf's flesh is still attached to the stem.  Fallen leaves often work, too. 

2. Place the leaf in soil.  I like to cover the base with just a few millimeters of soil.  You're supposed to wait a few days for a callus to form.  In my experience, this doesn't matter much, except with kalanchoes.  But it certainly won't hurt.

3. Water the soil lightly, at the base of the leaf, every other day or so.  I like to use a spray bottle and spray gently a couple times right at the base of the leaf.  Yes, this is more frequently than you'd water a full-grown succulent, but you have to coddle the baby leaves or else they'll dry out.  (But if you water them too frequently, not allowing them to dry between waterings, they'll rot.  This balance sounds harder to achieve than it actually is.)

4. Wait.  If you're really patient, wait for four or five weeks.  If you're like me (incredibly impatient), wait two weeks, pull the leaf out a little, and see if roots have started to grow.  This kind of disturbs the plant, though, so be gentle. 

5. Once roots start to grow, I like to put a plantlet in its own little 2" x 2" pot.  I water it based on the guidelines I explain in #3 above.  Then I wait some more.  Eventually (in three weeks or a month or six weeks--it varies based on the season and the type of plant), a baby plant will begin to emerge from the base of the stem, just like in the picture above.  So cool!

Of course, it will be quite a while before your plantlet becomes a full-sized plant.  But it's still incredibly cool to watch a gorgeous succulent go from nothing to awesomeness. 

For advanced propagation techniques, I highly recommend the book pictured above, which I talk about in more detail in my Books that Succ section.  So how about you, fellow succ-ers?  Do you propagate from leaves very often?  With great success?  Any great tips you can share?