Kai: Although not a typical homestead plant, succulents and plants belonging to the aloe and air plant family can be fun and interesting critters to propagate. They make for easy house plants and help to clean the air. Studies even say they can reduce stress when put into a home or work environment.

I’ve only been working with these types of plants for a short while when I acquired a few species from a “Take a Plant Leave a Plant” box in the Spring. They were just fun to play around with, and I tried making some terrarium landscapes and fairy gardens with them. Before then, the only succulents I really knew was aloe, purslane, and some of the edible cacti, but now I’m aware of the huge world of the crazy, strange, and downright bizarre looking succulents out there. If you’re curious, I highly encourage you to take a look at some of these earthly wonders.

For now, I am propagating some of the common species from the Kalanchoe, Echveria, and Crassula family, which seem to clone themselves like crazy. Succulents have a unique way of rooting – almost backwards of how a normal plant would- by sprouting leaves from it’s leaves and growing roots later!

Recently I purchased a few new faces, which are pictured in the aquariums. They are the Blue Rose, Pincushion cactus, Panda plant, a graptopetalum color morph, snow pole cactus, straw flower, crassula pangolin, and several others that did not come identified.

I highly recommend growing succulents as a hobby, and if you already love nature, it’s a great way to bring the outdoors inside, though I do have one word of caution if you have kids or pets – not all common house plants are safe if accidentally consumed. If this is an issue for you, be sure to research and acquire only the nontoxic varieties.

Many succulents can survive long periods without water, though they do appreciate it when given. They can even sit in water without soil and remain well. In fact, some can be rooted in a glass of water just like other plants, but will also root, sprout, and spread atop moist soil. Many of the common species will accept fairly poor soil quality as well.