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Order in the court ― The artist arranges ‘Buddha’s Temple’, a Crassula hybrid, in multiple rows to form a tight square. Her sister Molly looks on.
Steven Gunther
Caring for succulents
• Provide good drainage. Succulents insist on it to grow their best. Use a light, fast-draining cactus mix made for these plants. If your container retains moisture (glazed pots do, for example), you may want to mix in additional pumice―up to one-half of the total blend.
• Withhold fertilizer. Since you don't want to encourage your carefully placed plants to rapidly outgrow their precise form, don't feed them. Go light on the water too―once a week is plenty.
• Remove flowers. Succulents lose their neat shapes when they bloom. To prevent this, nip off flower buds as they develop.
• Prepare to renovate. The plantings shown here will hold their shape for at least a year. After that you'll probably need to root-prune and replant. Or start over with new young plants, using the smallest size you can find; Arree Thongthiraj works mainly with 2-inch succulents.
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