Using Succulents As Wedding Décor

You can't glance through a wedding website without seeing them, sometimes resembling a chubby flower, sometimes looking more like a cactus without the ouch-y spines. They're being used in everything from wedding bouquets to cakes to table centerpieces and everything in between. We're talking about succulents, the plant with the oh-so-sexy name that seem to be cropping up like kudzu (except not nearly as obnoxious!) in wedding decorating everywhere. Seems like wedding décor used to be just flowers, flowers, and more flowers, mostly roses, lilies, baby's breath and the like. Roses and lilies are still popular, baby's breath has seen a huge resurgence in popularity, but just flowers don't seem quite enough to hold a bride's attention these days. Plus, with the growing cost of flowers, even if you are DIY-ing your flowers and buying them wholesale, it just makes sense to buy something that's easy to work with, almost impossible to kill, and can really add an interesting and unique look to your wedding decor.-

Succulents, the "fat plant", are water-absorbing and water-retaining plants with staying power beyond belief that make them an excellent choice for wedding flowers. Besides being hard to kill, they are easy to propagate, making them a great long term project for a DIY bride or a way to involve relatives with green thumbs in the wedding process. Some people confuse cactus with succulents and although just about all succulents are a form of cactus, the reverse isn't necessarily true. Agave and aloe are succulents as well as echeverias which resemble lettuce, sedum, and jade. Succulents also include air plants which need no soil whatsoever to grow, only air and water. They come in some pretty color variations including purple and can even be spray painted with an acrylic-based paint to match your wedding colors. However, their natural colors are so beautiful, it's easy to work them into your decor.

Succulents can be rooted through simply cutting off a stem or using one that is already broken. Put the stem aside until the broken end has air dried and turned a bit grayish.Stick the root into some cactus potting soil and it will grow roots within a few weeks. The trick to keeping succulents alive is watering correctly. Spring and summer are the growing season for the succulent, so that's when they need the most water. Even so, the soil should be allowed to dry out before being watered again. More succulents are killed from overwatering than any other reason. If your succulent has already turned yellow or white, the damage may have already been done. If it has developed brown spots, it is probably being underwatered. In winter, succulents need very little watering at all, since winter is a dormant season for them. Once every other month or so is probably sufficient. Just make sure your pot has a good drainage hole. Succulents like bright, but indirect light, so keeping in a windowsill is not a good idea.

Now that you've propagated a whole garden of succulents, what are you going to do with them! They add wonderful texture to traditional wedding bouquets and can take the place of filler flowers and greenery. Men love them in boutonnieres, because they are less "girly" than their more fluffy, flowery counterparts. How can you mess with a guy wearing something that looks like a cactus, right? You can use covered florist's wire to wire your succulents into bouquets or even insert regular wire into the bottom of the succulent and wrap with folorist's tape. The great thing about using succulents is that after the wedding you can disassemble the bouquets or boutonnieres and re-pot the plants! Voila, a living reminder of your special day!