Video:Types of Cacti and Succulents

Transcript:Types of Cacti and Succulents

Hi. My name is Kimberly Sevilla with Rose, Red and Lavender. Hi. My name is Kimberly Sevilla with Rose, Red and Lavender. We’re located in Brooklyn, New York, and I’m here with About.com to talk about cactus and succulents.

Facs About Cacti and Succulents

Cactus and succulents are one of the most popular types of houseplants. Not only are they beautiful and unusual, but they’re also extremely easy to take care of. They really thrive on sunshine and neglect. They don’t need to have a lot of water because they actually store the water in their stems. This fleshy tissue that you see here is full of water, and the plant uses that water to feed itself.

What Makes Cacti and SucculentsPopular?

One of the other popular features of cactus and succulents is that they’re extremely easy to propagate. Most cacti reproduce through a process that’s called vegetative propagation and basically what that means is that they self plant. So this is a very good example of how they achieve this. These little tendrils coming out of this zig-zag cactus, these are actually roots, and what this cactus does is that it sort of creeps along, and where it finds some ground with its roots, it’ll form a new plant. These are a particular type of cactus called Rhipsalis, which grow in Brazilian jungles.

Varieties of Cacti and Succulents

Here are some different varieties and you can see that succulents come in a lot of shapes and sizes and colors. This is sedum, it has a low-growing habit, it likes to creep. This one is an Echeveria. It grows in these clusters and it comes in spiky varieties that point out. This one happens to crawl back on itself and it has this beautiful sort of gray, bluish, greenish color. This is Euphorbia or a pencil cactus and it’s a really cool plant. You can see it has some very tiny little leaves. This is called a fish-bone Kalanchoe—it’s a type of succulent—it’s super awesome. This one is in bloom right now. This is a type of sedum that has a trailing habit and you can see it looks really, really beautiful in this hanging basket. Some people call this icicle sedum.

This is another type of Kalanchoe and this has some really, really beautiful paddle shaped leaves and some beautiful red highlights on it. This is actually two cactus plants: the top plant here, this is called a coral cactus. This is another type of cactus that the coral was grafted into and you can see the joint here, so that it would have some sort of space-alien, otherworldly, planty sort of look to it. And some people call these castle plants or fairy cactus and things like that.

Potting Cacti and Succulents

One of the things you want to use with your cactus and succulents is a pot that breathes. Terracotta is an excellent material to use for cactus and succulents. One thing they don’t ike is to have wet roots or to be too damp. They really don’t like that.

And these are just a few cactus and succulents that are good for your home. For more information, please visit About.com