Houseplant ID: string of pearls

String of pearls, also know as string of beads or Senecio rowleyanus. A succulent houseplant, their cascading bead/pea like stems are an attractive focal point to a room and need little care. One of my favorites.

i'm a sucker for a succulent.

Photos from my iPhone.

summer succulents

 busy, busy, busy! spring time is so busy for me. i've been working with dried flowers for my shop, with fresh flowers for mother's day free lance, my container gardening business and tonight I will be making a million corsages for a junior prom. I have so many photos to show you of the fun I've been having container gardening. These succulent centerpieces are for a client we did yesterday and they will last her all summer in the sun of her backyard. We scattered them about her tables and poolside. More photos to come when I have another breather.

Speaking of summer sun, i love this song... definitely a favorite for this summer!

see you soon.

vertical garden, hotel Ushüaia

images via urbanarbolismo and paradis express

A brand new vertical garden opened at Hotel Ushüaia in Ibiza May 2011. The green wall acts as a sound barrier between the open air disco located in the hotel's central courtyard and the neighboring guest rooms. The rows and rows of ceramic terracotta pots are planted with succulents that designers selected which thrive in the Mediterranean island climate. They include a variety of crassula, euphorbia, echeveria, aeonium, kalanchoe, sedum and sedeveria.

Happy first day of summer!

burro tail outdoor centerpiece

An easy way to make your outdoor setting more inviting is to make a simple planter centerpiece. I chose these burro tail succulents for hanging texture along with small planted fire color dahlias and small potted orangesicle straw flowers that will bloom all summer long. What could be better than a centerpiece that lasts a few months!?

design inspiration

Today's design inspiration comes from floral grubb. Flora's divine vertical succulent gardens leave me SPEECHLESS. Apparently as per a previous post, I currently have a thing for all things succulents. I love that she is taking the horticulture world into the art realm. Her beautiful blog even has DIY instructions and is now over there to the right under my favorites!
How wonderful would it be to wake up every morning and see that?

succulent love

I recently got back from a trip to Southern California. Succulents are everywhere spreading their roots in the ground and adding their classy geometric textures.

echeveria's in the gardens of The Getty in LA

I love succulents. My first encounter with them was when I was a freshman in college. I was studying vigorously for a horticulture houseplant ID class when I fell head over heals for the Jade plant, Crassula argentea. It's bonsai like trunk and thick supple leaves, whats not to love? I loved it so much that I sold Jade plants to fellow students in cute planters for dorm/apartment therapy and extra cash.

What makes a plant a succulent? They have thick water storing juicy leaves or stems due to the dry environments in which they originate. If kept indoors they require the same environment. Little water in the winter months and lots of vital sunshine.

Now for some succulent finds...

My friend Mackenzie from college -whom I met in Floral Design class- lives in Southern California and makes her own succulent planters. Don't you agree with me that she should start an online shop selling these?

indoor/outdoor concrete planter circle from tortoise loves donkey:

butter cream pedestal and succulents by greenwaredesign:

spider web hens and chicks by succulents galore:

brenda by livingarrangements:

I am smitten with the shop succulentLOVE and their blog:

I hope my love rubs off on you a little, especially in the gray of winter.
<3 Christina