diy projects, home, succulents

DIY: Succulent Wreath

Succulent Wreath Front Door

I initially got the idea for a succulent wreath on my last visit to San Diego, when my Aunt Vicki (who is an amazing artist btw) introduced me to her friend Leslie who lives in the most adorable craftsman house in North Park, just around the corner from my aunt’s studio.  Leslie’s family is succulent royalty in San Diego – they run the San Diego Succulent Society and know so much about these amazing plants.  Leslie had a beautiful succulent wreath and filled me in on all her tips, so I could make a DIY for you all.  She told me a few tips and facts that blew my mind – which I’ve included in the directions below.

Succulent Wreath Door

Over the past few weeks, I had been intending to visit the garden store to pick up some new small succulents for the wreath DIY, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.  Well, yesterday I realized just how significantly 2 of the succulents I had planted in my succulent toolbox earlier this Spring had outgrown their space in the toolbox.  So, I clipped them and re-planted the succulents.  I had so many clippings, that I realized I could finally make my wreath…and then some!  With the clippings, I was able to make all 3 of these wreaths!  You’ll find directions for the wreath below, as well as for clipping and shipping them.

Succulent Wreath WallSucculent Wreath Large Succulent Wreath Medium Small Succulent Wreath

Materials Needed:

  • Natural or wire wreath
  • Succulent (small plants or clippings)
  • Moss
  • Hot glue gun
  • Floral wire
  • Scissors

Directions:

Directions – Clipping Succulents:

As you can see, I was in desperate need of some clipping on my succulent plants.  It is crazy how quickly this succulent grew – it more than tripled in size in two months time!

succulent toolbox

If your succulents are planted, first carefully remove the plants from the soil bed. To clip them, once you have one individual succulent in hand, you’ll want to remove any dead leaves on the bottom, as well as a several of the bottom leaves to expose the stem a bit more. If it’s flowered, make sure to remove most of the flowers, so the succulent doesn’t have to exert too much energy with those once replanted.  To clip them, you only need about 1/2-inch of stem at the bottom of the plant.

Directions – Succulent Wreath:

Succulent Wreath_Materials and DIY

Step #1: Use hot glue to adhere moss around your wreath. You don’t have to cover the entire wreath, just the area where you plan on positioning your succulents, as the moss will help hold in a bit of moisture for the plants.

Step #2: Once you’ve added the moss to your wreath, cut a long piece of floral string and wrap it around your wreath, twisting it at the end to secure. This will help keep the moss in position and provide additional support for your succulents.

Step #3: Now here is what blew my mind – when adding on large succulents you can hot glue the stems directly onto the wreath!  Crazy, right?!  I couldn’t believe it!  But it works. The hot glue won’t kill the plants, as they will be able to obtain water from their leaves.  But make sure to not glue any of the leaves when you’re hot gluing.  If the succulents are heavy, you can use additional floral wire to secure the plant to the wreath by wrapping the wire around the stem and then wrapping it directly around the wreath. And if that doesn’t seem sturdy, you can always add extra moss around the stem as well for a bit of additional support.

Step #4: For smaller succulents, you can just position the stem into the floral wire that was wrapped around the wreath in Step #2. If it looks a bit bare, hot glue moss atop the stems, which will also hide the floral wire.

Step #5: Once you’ve added all of your succulents, lightly mist the plants with a squirt bottle.  With my succulents in New York, I find it best to spritz them every few days, but that is totally dependent upon your climate.  This is another tip I learned, I always lightly watered my succulents.  Since Leslie filled me in on just misting them, I had tried it – and honestly, I’m fairly certain that is why I’ve seen so much crazy growth in the past two months!

Succulent Wreath_small Succulent Wreath_medium

Directions – Shipping Your Wreath:

I plan on making the small versions as Thank You gifts for some of my recent wedding clients – which I’ll need to ship.  If you too plan on shipping your wreath, the small wreaths are great because they can be packaged fairly easily. Use floral wire to secure the bottom of the wreath to the bottom of a box suitable for shipping so that it doesn’t move around in transit. Lay a bed of moss around the wreath to secure it in place.  Make sure to moisten the wreath before you send it off – a few light spritzes from a squirt bottle will do the trick!succulent wreath giftsucculent wreath gift box

Huge THANK YOU to Leslie for the inspiration and knowledge!

Do you love succulents?!  You can find more of my succulent-related posts HERE.

  1. Aunt Vicki

    June 12, 2014 at 12:31 am

    These are just beautiful, Alana! You have surpassed the ones that were your initial inspiration! And thanks for linking my webpage! Aunt Vicki

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