In November, I crammed as many of these Kalanchoes into this pot as possible. 11/20/15:


It was great, quite a display or blooms inside for winter.


I never did do anything with these except take the pot back outside & pile bricks around it because these plants are really heavy (and the pot is seriously ugly.)


Have you crammed a pot? Your stories/pics welcome!

Interesting. I never thought growing plants in a pot was about how many you can cram inside. Reminds me of phone booth stuffing. But, I doubt there are many phone booths around anymore. Gene

LOL! I'd love to see how many Kalanchoes I could cram into a phone booth.

The 2 reasons for my instance of cramming was primarily to be able save & to see the blooms of so many plants in the space of 1 pot. And I had no idea winter wasn't coming and thought I would only be left with what I'd saved and that the rest of plants left outside would be killed. In addition to seeing the blooms inside over winter, I wanted to save as many plants as possible to put back into the landscape this year, so the arrangement was meant to be for only a few months. Although frost did zap the taller, older plants left outside that I couldn't bring inside, right at the height of their blooming, hundreds of babies were fine so I didn't need to add any saved plants to the landscape.

This post isn't about creating a permanent display, just about saving as many plants temporarily for winter as possible. I don't let stores dictate what I'll be using "as annuals."

That has always been the way I garden: Cram as many cactus or succulents into one pot as possible. As long as the plant isn't too top heavy, pot away. I try to find a wide flat pot, put several plants into it and wait impatiently for it to become full and overgrown.

Oops, I did it again! All of these plants are in the way of either path GH will take or place where it will sit, so all of these plants had to go. Here's a few shots from the past couple weeks:


Everything to the left of the tallest Brugmansia stems here, but not the Brug:



Yesterday, it took about an hour to change it to this:


The tallest 150 or so Kalanchoe houghtonii plants are in this thing, with a couple shovels of dirt. They come up so easily, it makes me wonder how they stay put when the wind blows. That left about 60 gallons of smaller plants that I put in a pile to compost, assuming winter shows up this time. I can't devote any more space than this to this silly plant, but imagine if just ½ of them bloom. Most of them look big enough to do it. We will see what ends up happening...


The variegated K. fedtschenkoi plants are all in another pot but they are unable to stand on their own and that pot's leaning up against other plants so much that the pics aren't helpful. Whenever frost threatens, I'll move it to GH & hopefully be able to get a decent pic.

Update on the last pic.


Buds are starting!


Some of my snake plants (Sansevieria) that were in the ground for summer to the left. To the right, some Callisia fragrans plants that were also in ground, with a trellis.

I cram these sempervivums in this low container, they look better if they seem to mound. But since it gets too hot here, it goes dormant, then perks up nicely during Fall to Spring. This natural active and dormant cycle somehow helps control the growth so even if it may start to finally go crammed, it will just hold back when dormant time returns.
03Feb2016


29Mar2016 - I love how it makes its babies, surely hoping then I will have a really good yield to fill the container


14Jun2016 - dormancy time, so rosettes tighten up and got to give them more shade to endure our tireless heat here


Hooray for Fall temp cool downs! Wake up time and semps are actively growing again! Hope it manages more to fill up the container. Rain has abated for awhile, so it is just cool and dry, just the way it likes.


I got mixed succulents in these containers, they endure well our cold temps in winter and our intense heat during the warm months. Thankful for the upright growing cacti that just slowly fills up the container and Faucaria tuberculosa, just low growing and manages some nice daisy-like blooms during Fall. Got to keep some room there, even if they are crammed there. Some containers I can really just manage two kinds of containers, leaves are either just too wide growing and seems to look better not going too jungle like.


This wooden box has more mixed succulents, which at times I have to cut down and replant when some get too leggy.
08Jan2016

05Nov2016


This pastry container houses some Sedum rubrotinctum, Echeveria 'Sleepy', Haworthia cuspidata and Haworthia emelyae, giving them all a good wiggle room to spread and mound, though the sedum and echeveria tend to grown more upright so at a certain time, got to trim them down and replant on same container.
14Nov2015

31Mar2016

03May2016 - active blooming time for the Haworthias

05Nov2016


Got in this container Kalanchoe marmorata and Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, both has grown rather tall, but I am keeping them like that, seems like a little forest, though Kalanchoe marmorata is more temperamental, easily drops its leaves. The active and dormant cycles helps control their growth, so the container though full never gets crammed. But soon I should decide to cut and replant to make them less leggy.
04Feb2016

05Nov2016

This was a fun trip through your space too! Everything looks so colorful & happy! Those Semp babies are the absolute cutest!

Thanks Tiffany

Frost last night! I cut all of the best stems with buds & stuck them in this pot:


Most of these were excavated with roots:



The pot in front put together yesterday, the pot behind is from last November:


Last November's cram pot still going strong.