Introduction: How to Work With Hanging Succulents Without All the Leaves Falling Off

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You can see Trailing Jade & Fishhooks Senecio in this beautiful mixed succulent planting.

Hanging succulents are the cat’s meow, and if they’re happy, will trail like crazy. I’ve gotten a few questions from Youtube viewers about how to work with them without all the leaves falling off. This shows you a little trick I use to minimize the amount which falls off and has always worked like a charm for me.

I was simultaneously filming a video and taking pictures for the post about reporting a large Ponytail Palm and forgot to take snap a few shots of this project. As usual, it’s all in the video below so best to give that a looky-loo. The hanging succulent you seeing me transplanting is a Burro’s Tail Sedum which is one that the leaves fall off of simply by touching it. This planting, both Ponytail Palm and Burro’s Tail, came with me in the back seat of my not so big car along with quite a few other plants and cuttings. It’s a wonder they all made it 9 hours across the desert!

Step 1: How to Work With Hanging Succulents:

This method works just fine for other trailing succulents whose leaves are prone to falling off. Popular ones besides the Burro’s Tail include String Of Pearls , Trailing Jade, String Of Bananas and Fishhooks Senecio . You can always propagate succulents from leaves but I prefer to keep as many on the one I’m working with as possible.

Here’s how I keep too many leaves from falling off:

1. I carefully put the succulent trails in a pillowcase & clip it closed at the top. If you’re working with a small plant, you can use a dish towel.

2. Dig the succulent out of the pot it’s in being mindful to get as much of the root ball as possible.

3. Put the succulent in its new pot. Because I was also working on transplanting the 3-headed Ponytail Palm , I lowered the Burro’s Tail into a pail until I was ready to plant it.

4. Plant the hanging succulent, with the pillow case still encasing it, as you normally would. Unclip the pillow case & carefully take it off.

Step 2:

This little trick is nothing fancy but has always kept a lot of leaves from falling off. It also helps prevent any of the trails themselves from breaking off too. I love my trailing succulents and want them to grow as long as possible, and I’m sure you do too!

Want some succulents of your own? Mountain Crest Growers has a great selection of trailing & vining succulents (including the ones I talk about here) as well as many others for you to choose from.

Happy gardening,

Nell