More Succulents to Plant in the Florida Landscape

Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’

Although we have the sun and the heat in Florida that succulents love, we also have some extreme rainfall which they don’t enjoy. Therefore it is very important to plant succulents in very well-draining soil. You can make the soil drain better by adding sand, or small gravel to the soil - this will keep water from collecting around the roots. One of the succulents that can withstand Florida’s climate is:

Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’ 

Furcraeas are very much like Agave. They are actually in the same family. They form large, fountain-shaped rosettes and have cream to yellow stripes on leaves with green margins. These long leaves are more flexible than those of Agaves.

Furcraea ultimately grows to 4-5’ tall and 6-8’ wide. It is easily grown in rich, well-draining soil and filtered light. These plants need protection from scorching sun so shade is preferable in the afternoon. These plants are heat, humidity and drought tolerant. They do beautifully in the ground as well as containers.

Bulbine frutescens

This South African native is a perfect succulent for Florida since it tolerates hot temperatures and dry and sandy soils. Bulbine makes a great groundcover since each plant will spread and form a clump over 4’ wide.

The succulent grass-like foliage grows to about 1 foot tall and the flowers stalks of yellow or orange extend to 2’. 

Bulbine will grow best if in a sunny location with well-draining soil. Once the plant is established it is very drought tolerant. Deadheading will encourage the plants to produce more flowers.

High Maintenance or Low Maintenance

There is much discussion about whether a plant is high maintenance or low maintenance. Most people who talk about maintenance have done very little plant maintenance. There are so many things to consider when you classify a plant as a high maintenance plant or a low maintenance plant. And here is one HUGE consideration when classifying plants that has to be looked at: if you plant a low maintenance plant in the WRONG location you may have turned it into a high maintenance plant. Wow! That’s confusing, isn’t it! Let me give you an example, Dwarf Firebush, Hamelin patens ‘Compacta’ is a low maintenance plant. Once established it does not need a lot of water, will take sun, if given a 4’x4’ space, it does not need much if any pruning and it will tolerate the native soils. If you place this plant in a 2’ square bed, plant in the shade and give it lots of water, all of a sudden you have a high maintenance plant. It will require pruning every month and will start to look leggy because it doesn’t get enough sun. Suddenly you HATE this plant and tell everyone it is hard to maintain. Do you see what I mean?

The first thing to remember when choosing a plant, if you wish it to be low-maintenance is to plant it in the right spot (sun or shade) and give it enough room to grow to it’s mature size. If everyone JUST did that, people would have much more success in their garden.

Now what are the characteristics of a plant that make it high or low maintenance? Let’s list them out.

1. Does it need a lot of water? This time of year it is not a problem, but in the winter, when we have watering restrictions, you will want plants that can endure the droughts with 2x a week irrigation.

2. Does it need to be pruned a great deal? For example, who does not love a Bougainvillea, but if you let them go for 3-4 months without pruning, you have a big and thorny project ahead of you.

3. Is your tree or shrub self-cleaning? What does this mean? Self-cleaning means that the plant drops its flowers after they go by and new flowers emerge to take their place. You see that beautiful picture of the Bird of Paradise? When the flowers go by, they turn brown and stay on the plant making it look messy unless you cut them back.

4. Is the plant susceptible to disease or insects and require regular spraying? I personally won’t plant a plant that I need to regularly spray. It makes me think that my environment is just not correct for this plant and I can’t be bothered. Take roses for example. Roses hate humidity and get black spot and powdery mildew when they get too much moisture on their leaves or have too much humidity. Hello, we live in Florida!!!! I have seen very few nice looking roses except for possibly in the Spring when they first emerge. To get them to look nice you need to spray for diseases. Another plant is the Sago Palm which is a gorgeous cycad. However they get scale and mealybug and need to be sprayed weekly!!!! Who wants to spray weekly???

5. Is the plant likely to be damaged with a frost? For all of you that love your Tropicals, most of them will not withstand temperatures below 32 degrees. So it necessary to cover these plants with some sort of fabric when we get cooler temperatures.

6. Does the plant need special soil? Some plants require special soil with more organic matter like Camellias or they require special fertilizers.

7. Does your plant spread uncontrollably or is it invasive? Yikes! That is a great way to have lots of maintenance.

So you can see, there are lots of things to consider when choosing plants that are low maintenance. My rule is that shrubs and trees should only have to be pruned and fertilized three times a year- early October, end of February and end of May. They should not require spraying and should not have to have extra irrigation. They should not be invasive and they should fit into the space you give them.

Next time you choose a plant, go over this list and ensure you are not buying yourself a problem.