5K Shares

Since I’ve been succulent gardening for a couple of years, I’m always asked what are my favorite plants for starting a succulent garden. Here are my top 5 best succulents for beginners.

A beautiful garden doesn’t have to take a lot of time and maintenance to provide hours of natural beauty. Consider the succulent garden; making a resurgence of popularity on platforms like Instagram right now, these hardy plants come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and varieties. Their trademark shiny, thick leaves are able to store water making caring for them easy and less time consuming.

As with any new endeavor, creating and maintaining a succulent garden may seem intimidating to a beginner. Choosing the right varieties to start with will transform the beginner into a succulent whisperer in no time at all.

5 Best Succulents for Beginners

ALOE ||

Aloes are known for their medicinal salve. The most popular type of aloe, Aloe Vera, is used to treats wounds and burns (think sunburns). Aloe is very easy to grow, needs little watering, and can be grown, easily, in pots. There are other types of aloe that are lovely, decorative, and just as easy to maintain. A couple of my favorites from my own succulent garden are Climbing Aloe and Zinzabar. These types of aloe have upright shoots and they may even bloom. Propegating them is easy as chopping off the tops and repotting them.

Crassula ||

Crassula includes Jade varieties and they have very thick, sturdy stems and thick green leaves.

Jade plants are easy to propagate (which means to grow other jade plants from cuttings or from the leaves of jade plants).

Echiveria ||

Echiveria often have short stalks and they can very in color, from deep, deep purples to the pinkest of pink leaves and every other color of the rainbow. Unlike most succulents,echeveria need a little more water and fertilizer.

Sedum ||

Sedums are another hardy succulent with leaves that are often thick, round, and short. Sedum rubrotinctum, also called the “Jellybean” or “Pork and Beans” has become one of my favorite succulents to grow. As a protective measure, the shiny dark green jellybean-like leaves turn to red during hot summer months.

Cactus ||

Did you know that all cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti? A lack of leaves on cacti are what makes them unique. Instead, cacti have sharp spines which provide protection. You see, cacti store water making them able to go long periods of time without water. The spines act as protection from anything trying to get that water from it’s body. Crazy, right? Just like other succulents, there are so many types of cacti available. Some bloom, seemingly, overnight and off-shoots happen frequently.

These are my suggestions for the 5 best succulents for beginners that I have grown in my own succulent garden. I love that they are so easy to care for and in the coming weeks I’ll be sharing my best tips for caring for succulents.