If you enjoy vertical gardening, you’ll love making a living succulent wreath. Compared to other vertical gardens, they can be inexpensive and just as easy to create.
This time of year, it’s nice to have a door wreath for the holidays, but with a live wreath – you can enjoy it all year young. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that succulents don’t like extremely cold temperatures.
If you live in a climate where you get freezing temperatures on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to bring your wreath indoors. However, in warmer areas, they can do well outdoors all year round, especially in more protected entryway locations.
There are lots of pre-made succulent wreaths that you can buy, but when they are so simple and fun to make – why not make one yourself? This way, you can also customize the plants that you use, creating a specific design you like or simply incorporating a wider variety of colors, shapes and textures into your arrangement.
Here is What You Will Need:
- A Wire Wreath Frame
- Sphagnum Moss
- Succulent Plants
Yes, it’s really, that simple. In fact, if you want to make it even easier, you can actually buy frames with the moss already in place. Then, all you need to do is insert your plants.
Wire Wreath FrameYou have a couple of options here. First, you can get a 3-dimensional frame designed for “living” wreaths. You’ll notice that these specially-designed frames not only hold the moss and plants, but they are have “legs” that keep them from hanging directly against your door (or wall). This provides better ventilation for the plants but also is good for your door too.
By the way, you can buy these wire frames in a variety of different size and shapes, like squares, stars and hearts too.
Second, you can choose the flat round frames which typically cost a few dollars less. With these, you will need to get nylon mesh tubing, fill it with moss and attach it to your frame (watch the video below for instructions).
Sphagnum Moss
You can find bags of this moss at home improvement stores like Home Depot for under $5 a bag. Your local vendor may also sell a wreath frame that you like as well.
Succulent Plants
Depending on where you live, these may be available at your local nursery. You can purchase a few and divide them up into smaller sections so that you have more pieces from which to use in your wreath. (Cuttings easily sprout roots in the right growing environment.)
If you are looking for a wider variety of cuttings – or your local nursery does not supply them at the time you want to create your wreath, you can buy them online. Yes, there are very convenient kits specifically for building vertical gardens, custom arrangements and wreaths. These start at about $30 for about 25 starters. You can get larger kits if you need more cuttings.
Fresh cuttings will take about 2-4 weeks to root and should not be watered during this time. They should also be kept out of direct sunlight. After that, they can grow surprisingly quickly to fill out your frame, so don’t worry if your wreath looks sparse at first.
Check on the video below for step-by-step instructions, plus cold-hardy succulents that you can use inexpensive tools to make your project easier and how to make your plantings look “fuller” instantly.
And yes, you can buy an artificial succulent wreath. I’m not really one for artificial plants, however, succulents are so rubbery-looking anyway, the artificial variety can easily pass.
They are also low maintenance and may be an easier option for those who live in snow – although that might be a direct giveaway that your wreath is not fully alive…
