What To Do When Your Hardy Succulent Plant Plugs Arrive

1. Unpack immediately and do an inventory to make sure your order is correct and healthy. If there are mistakes in the order or damaged/dying plants, contact the vendor immediately.

2. Make labels and if you didn’t get your containers ready while waiting for your order to arrive, you can do that now.  Also make sure you have your plant markers ready to go in the pots or trays as soon as you have planted them. That way you will be able to identify them after planting.

3. When everything is assembled for planting remove one plant at a time.  Use water to soften the plug material that the roots are growing in. Don’t be alarmed if the roots are very small, they will grow once planted. Gently remove the plug material. With most sedum the tiny pieces that fall off will root and make new plants, so don’t throw them away.

4. Pot in the appropriate potting mix and label each pot.

5. Water and let them sit in a sheltered but bright spot outside until actively growing. At that time you can plant them where ever you want to use them (raised beds, containers, etc).

Here I used a nursery tray, one that holds 4” plastic pots. This works well for the small type sedum and sempervivum as their roots don’t need much depth to grow. The ones that make deeper roots will do well in 4" plastic pots that will fit into the molded tray. It will keep them from falling over. Notice some of the pots appear to have nothing in them? They have the tiny broken pieces of sedum scattered on top of the soil with an ID tag so I will know which sedum it is once they start growing into more plants.

The photo on the right is from plants purchased last year from Mamajack's Co-op. Each one grew into a lush and lovely sedum that brings beauty to the garden this year.

 

Here is a small sample of heuffelii, Jovibarba and Sempervivum bought through MamaJack's Co-op last year.

J. heuff. 'Bronze Ingot', J. heuff. 'Mystique' and J. heuff. 'Red', J. heuff 'Munich Univ'  

J. hirta sobolifera, S. 'Canada Kate' and S. 'Firebird'  

All of these plants and many more in my collection arrived as plugs last summer. Each one grew into a beautiful and healthy plant, multipling itself many times over and growing in one year from a plug to a mature plant.