Posted on Sat, Jan. 03, 2009 

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Point of perfection: Striking succulents pack a lot of pizazz for almost no effort – or water

Whether from arid deserts or humid rain forests, striking succulents pack a lot of pizazz for almost no effort – or water

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Neil Sperry

• Ornamental cabbage, kale bring a splash of color to the winter landscape
• Neil Sperry: Christmas cactuses add a festive splash of color indoors during winter
• Poinsettias have close relatives, and they share similar traits
• It's bark season
• Decisions based on gardening successes and failures yield a good harvest
• The Garden Guru: Now's the time to plant dependable Shumard red oaks
• The Garden Guru: Design a garden for the ages with concrete benches, pedestals, birdbaths and more
• The Garden Guru: This fall, hit the blue notes in the garden
• Public gardens offer dazzling fall day trips
• Grow something tropical: Bromeliads are worth learning about
• The Garden Guru: Longer nights and the lower angle of the sun can spur the growth of seasonal plants and bathe your landscape in autumn warmth

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neil sperry

The term "succulents" encompasses thousands of plants from scores of families. neil sperry

Did you ever wonder what the distinction is between cactuses and succulents?

They’re amazing plants with fascinating stories. They’re also some of the most unusual and dependable plants, capable of withstanding adversity with hardly a blink. But what’s the difference between these two groups of plants? (A clue: It’s botanical, and it has to do with their relationship to each other.)

Botanists say that all cactuses come from one plant family (Cactaceae). The term "succulents" is a much broader name, and it encompasses thousands of plants from scores of plant families. There are hundreds of representatives from the lily, amaryllis, Crassula (jade plant) and milkweed families, to name a few.

There is one common thread that runs through the entire group of plants we collectively call cactuses and succulents, and that is that they’re all able to catch and store water to survive long periods of hot and dry weather in their native habitats. It may be from very thick, fleshy roots, stems and leaves, or it can simply be from low levels of water consumption.

And, there’s another interesting difference between cactuses and the various succulents — their native habitats. Members of the cactus plant family are native to the Western Hemisphere. Granted, some have been introduced into other parts of the world (prickly pear in Australia) and have thrived, even become bothersome. But they hail from North and South America.

Some cactuses grow in arid desert lands of the southwestern United States and Mexico, where rainfalls are infrequent. However, there are actually cactuses that grow in tropical rain forests. Christmas cactuses are one such group (from the mountains of Argentina).

So are two other groups in the genera Rhipsalis and Hatiora (from the rain forests of Mexico and Central America). All three types of cactuses are epiphytic, meaning that they grow suspended from high tree trunks. However, that abundant rainfall drains past their aerial roots very quickly, hence their need to be able to capture and store water for the dry seasons.

Succulents other than those in the cactus family hail from all over the world. Many are native to the same habitats as our America cactuses, but others are from Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. Many members of the jade plant family (Crassulaceae) are from the desert Southwest and from shores surrounding the Mediterranean. Succulent members of the lily family (Liliaceae) are spread all over the globe, but there is a preponderance of them in South Africa. They include haworthias, gasterias and aloes. Members of the Sansevieria family are native to southern Africa and Asia.

A wise, but grumpy old college professor at Texas A&M once told me that I didn’t need to learn "how to grow plants, but instead, how plants grow."

He was pointing at the university’s collection of succulents as he told me, and he used them to illustrate that these plants grow naturally in gravelly, dry soils. While most of them can withstand an occasional thorough watering (in nature, that would be a rainstorm), all require perfect drainage. I learned to start with a good potting soil then incorporate 30 percent to 40 percent perlite, sandblasting sand (similar to what you will find in pet stores for aquariums) or expanded shale. The resulting mix would be porous yet able to retain at least modest amounts of water.

These plants are a fetish for me. My current collection has probably 1,000 plants, and I’m always a sucker for something new. I grow my plants in nearly full sunlight (shade from hot afternoon sun in the summer), and I use a complete-and-balanced, water-soluble plant food to fertilize my collection of cactuses and succulents. I apply the food every time I water them: In summer, that may be every six or eight days, but in winter, the intervals may stretch up to three weeks. If in doubt, I let them go dry for another couple of days.

So, as for the difference between cactuses and succulents, my old college professor put it best: "All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti."