A while back I spotted this topiary ball in a magazine:
Instead of the usual foliage filling, it was covered in succulents.I set out to make one for myself. I set up my own little succulent nursery, purchased some additional plants, and fashioned a ball out of chicken wire.
It was a partial sucess. For starters, it's very difficult to form a spherical ball out of chicken wire. I should have bought a pre-made wire frame. Second of all, I was loathe to purchase too many plants; I wanted to work with the ones I had. Unfortunately, my crop of baby succulents are slow growers and the ball still has lots of bare spots. I also had a variety of succulents, not the hen and chick variety that is shown the photo. Consequently, my hanging ball is rather hodge-podge in appearance. Watering also requires dunking the entire thing in a bucket unless one lives in a moisture-laden environment.
I'm striving to be more patient with gardening projects and I've vowed to keep pushing ahead with the topiary sculpture. Maybe in another year or so it'll look quite proper.
Here are the photos from the creation stage of the process.
Craft ball from chicken wire. (or buy a wire form)
Get your succulent nursery up and running. Succulents are quite easy to propagate: cut off buds from the base, air dry them for 4-7 days, stick them in dirt. Easy peasy.
Fill ball with soil and moss.
Place plants in the ball.
As you can see, we still have quite a few bare spots, five months later. I'm too cheap to buy more plants and right now I'm content to let the plants spread naturally.
Get your succulent nursery up and running. Succulents are quite easy to propagate: cut off buds from the base, air dry them for 4-7 days, stick them in dirt. Easy peasy.
Fill ball with soil and moss.
Place plants in the ball.
As you can see, we still have quite a few bare spots, five months later. I'm too cheap to buy more plants and right now I'm content to let the plants spread naturally.
