Feeling Succulent!

One of my favourite ingredients for everything from installations to bouquets, centrepieces to cloches, are succulents. These beautiful plants make a fantastic live ingredient as they have amazing shapes and textures, and come in a wide variety of colours.

Recently for a corporate event they wanted an interesting textural centrepiece with a "green" twist. Although flowers are beautiful, after they are cut they only have a very short lifespan. My suggestion was to build the centrepieces out of succulents (image below), and provide little brown bags for guests to take them home at the end of the night. Succulents are incredibly sturdy and survive with minimum water, just chuck them in a pot near sunshine and they will thrive!

Succulents also take paint and colour more-so than most flowers because they have a non-porous skin. Succulents in the image below and on the left have been painted silver to give an antique feel to rustic driftwood pieces, and posies of peonies. On the right succulents have been hit with electric blues and purples to make a neon succulent garden. If your corporate colours aren't found in nature succulents are a simple way to interject unique colours.

Finally in bouquets succulents add a rich texture and earthiness. There is an effortless rustic feel to a dusty succulent, or a fresh pop of green with a small green succulent. They can be used in a very structured dome bouquet (pictured to the left), or be a finishing touch on an organic and loose bouquet (pictured right).

Interesting Fact: Virtually all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti..

- Paige Jones

Senior Event Stylist