Designing For Success With Succulents

With their reputation for hardiness, it's easy to think that succulents need only blazing sun, rocky soil and the occasional raindrop to survive. Fortunately for our earthy endeavors, that's not the case! In fact, across the diversity of our coastally-influenced Mediterranean zone, from Cambria to Arroyo Grande to San Luis Obispo itself, San Luis Obispo County is home to many thriving succulent gardens.

It's important to keep in mind that succulent gardens immediately on the coast will have different requirements than those just a few miles inland, which experience more sun and higher temperatures year round. With their warmer temperatures, succulents in San Luis Obispo will love the warmth but need a shady break from the intensity of the afternoon sun. These gardens will yield plants with rich color and bountiful blooms. Immediately on the coast, the same plants will have less intense coloration and a smaller stature, but be just as stately and beautiful.

Succulent Design Tips:

• Inland, in San Luis Obispo, your succulents will benefit from some shade to provide relief from the hot afternoon sun.
• The plants that want full sun on the immediate coast/want afternoon shade in San Luis Obispo include these species: Echeveria, aeonium, crassula, and kalanchoe.
• Hardier varieties that can take full sun all day are the aloes, agaves, dyckias, dudleyas, and sedums. (They're adaptable to both a little shade and the full brunt of the sun's heat.)
• In the more extreme North County climates with hard freezes and days in the 100s, your plant palette is limited to the hardiest of agaves, aloes, and dudleyas.
• Succulents are even more dazzling backed by the texture of grasses, reeds, or striking Red Hot Pokers (kniphofias). They are brought to life by the echoing colors of neighboring perennials, or by the vibrant foliage of leucodendrons and the other-worldly flowers of pincushions (leucaspermum). We suggest blending in your other favorite water-wise plants with your succulent design for the greatest effect!
• Above all, remember that succulents are highly adaptable, so have fun experimenting with them in different conditions!!