what are the best succulents for beginners?
[Start image description: An ask from Anonymous saying, “Are there certain succulents that are easier to take care of than others?” End image description.]
I’m grouping these two questions together for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
So what I generally recommend for beginners is lower light tolerating succulents. Getting into high light succulents when you don’t have a good facing window or if you do it being blocked by outside things, and then needing lights, for a beginner can be a bit overwhelming. If you just want an easy plant to start with go for the lower light ones that do well in a sunny window but you don’t really have to worry about it being too shady, unless it literally gets no light.
Aloes, Gasteria, Haworthia/ Haworthiopsis, Schlumbergera (holiday cacti), and Sansevieria are the species you’re going to look for. Now these aren’t ones you can stick in a room away from the window and they’ll be happy. I’m not sure any succulent can stand that. Sometimes a Sansevieria can tolerate that, especially if you have a lot of light coming from windows but generally all of these will want to be as close to the window as possible.
Jade plants, Crassula ovata and it’s other hybrids and such (like Gollum or Ripple jade), can also do well indoors in a sunny window but don’t expect it to have any stress coloration on it like red tips you’d see from outdoor ones.
I personally find my Haworthiopsis attenuata and Haworthiopsis limifolia to be really easy and forgiving, set it and forget it besides watering them occasionally. While they can be a little on the harder side for a visual thirst cue I don’t think that makes it hard for beginners or hard to care for in general. As long as you’re checking the soil is bone dry all the way through before watering we’re good on these without the visual sign.
Schlumbergera, the holiday (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever you wanna call it) cactus, are really fun in my opinion. They do want a nice sunny window but you can get away with no direct light as they’re used to being shaded by trees in their native habitat. They give a nice visual thirst sign, wrinkling, and generally like water a bit more often than other succulents do because they’re from the tropics. I have one paired with an Echeveria ‘Lola’ (a high light succulent) and they’re both doing great, so they can take more direct light if slowly acclimated to it if you want it to.
That said you have to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success. The correct soil mix goes a long way toward that, if they’re not in a gritty well draining mix you’re more likely to overwater and rot your succulents. This also happens if you’re not using a pot with a drainage hole in it. I cannot tell you how many succulents I see killed by beginners having their succulents in glass mason jars or something similar with no drainage hole in it. This type of potting can work, and you can keep things alive this way, but I do not recommend it for beginners whatsoever.
The Succulent FAQ linked in my blog description goes over soil and what kinds of pots to use if you need that information.
I’d recommend staying away from anything that’s variegated (streaked with white), as those generally like more light because they have less chlorophyll for photosynthesis. Most Sansevieria will have some variegation but they’re a bit of an exception.
Now say you have all the light in the world and that’s not an issue at all; The succulent world is basically open to you, there’s nothing that’s “harder” than others. But I will say there are some that have a steep learning curve attached to them if you want to grow them successfully. I’m mainly thinking about mesembs such as Lithops and Pleiospilos nelii (Split Rocks), these have much stricter care needs and I’d recommend you read up (or ask me!) on their care before attempting to own one. They’re not hard, just very different and prone to rotting at the drop of a hat even if you’ve never watered it! So that can be discouraging for a beginner.
Of course you’re going to have to do a bit of trial and error with your own plants. I know some people who can’t for the life of them keep Echeveria alive even though they’re fine with all other plants for some reason. Some people can get away with using succulent soil right out of the bag with no amendments to it and all their plants are fine and love it, but I can’t do that or all my plants will rot. Our environments are all a little different, we each have micro climates, what works for you may not work for others, and what works for me may not work for you. Mainly just have fun, try different things, and if things die on you just remember it happens to all of us and to just try again and learn from the past.
So hopefully that was of some help! If there’s more questions about it I’m always open :)
