How To Grow Little Pots Of Sunshine And Delight

You might have seen this photo before – it’s been re-pinned on Pinterest by almost everyone it seems. But this is the original source! Tiny pots of sunshine and delight made from Sedum cutting. Check them out here.

You can plant them. You can pot them. You can grow them. You can root them. You can cut them. You can divide them.

You can use them in your mini garden bed. Use them for a “green roof.” You can craft with them. You can even use a hot glue gun with them too.

Colorful. Textured. Hardy. Tough. Resilient. Fun.

With a long list of possibilities like that, what’s a crafty-garden-miniature-lover to do? :o)

A Birthday in the Miniature Garden — Sedum cuttings are perfect for the tiny pots. Put the soil in the wee pot, poke a hole with a skewer, then plant the cutting. The cutting will last for a few weeks without the soil too.

Now That’s a Whole ‘Lotta Fun with Sedums and Succulents!

We’ve been having fun with Sedums in our miniature gardens for years now. If you know our work here at the Mini Garden Guru blog and Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center, you’ll know we don’t recommend just any plants. Our plants have to be tough AND fun – ’cause we don’t like to lose plants – aaaand we are SO NOT fussy! But with Sedums and Sedum cuttings, you can get a big-bang for your buck that will keep you playing for years and years if you know a “little” about how Sedums grow.

You see, as miniature gardeners, we don’t plant these Sedum cuttings all the time. We play with them and put them in our mini garden pots without soil to make “mini container gardens” for our miniature gardens. (If you can’t see just how obsessed we are from that last sentence, keep reading. Lol!) This is only possible because Sedums can last for a few weeks, or sometimes months, before they need to potted-on to a bigger place to root and grow.

Just mist the cuttings, pot and all, or sprinkle water on them a couple of times a week during the hot months and maybe once a week in the winter months. When they start to complain by getting a bit wrinkly (<~ technical term,) or if they are putting out too many roots, we can go ahead and plant them properly and they should grow into a full-sized plant after a couple of seasons. Just plant them in a sunny spot and let the soil dry out in between watering sessions. It’s that easy.

But here’s a bit more info for your arsenal so you are better informed…

You can plant the cuttings right in the miniature garden bed and root them in place. They’ll stay small for a year or so (depending upon when you plant them,) then you can dig them up as they get bigger and replant them somewhere else.

What’s the Diff Between Sedums & Succulents?

So, what’s the difference between sedums and succulents? I’m glad you asked…

All Sedums are succulents
Not all succulents are Sedums.

Well, that straightens it out, no? Lol! :o) Let’s dig in a bit:

“Succulents” is an adjective used to describe how some plants store water in their leaves. They come in all shapes and sizes, indoor and outdoor, tropical and hardy.

“Sedums” is a particular family of plants that are succulents – which is why we can say not all succulents are sedums because there are other families of plants that store water the same way. A good example is our favorite Hens and Chicks plants are Sempervivens that are succulent perennials and are not sedums, but share the same characteristics as they are both “succulent perennial” plants.

NEW Miniature Palette Planter from TwoGreenThumbs.com! — Cute Alert!! When we saw these wee palettes, we couldn’t resist so we made a mini palette garden. They work perfectly with our Sedum cuttings.

Just one lil’ cutting is all you might need to finish-off a cute little scene.

A “retirement” gift! Literally! There was an odd selection of tires after Steve fixed a couple of our garden wagons. So, what’s a crafty-gardener to do? Make a “Retirement Cake.” :o)

Baby Hens and Chicks! — A good example of the difference between succulents and sedum is our favorite Hens and Chicks plants, shown above, are Sempervivens that are succulent perennials – not Sedums. They share the same characteristics as the Sedum plant family as they are both “succulent perennial” plants.

When to Harvest Sedum Cuttings

WHEN – If you have a “mother Sedum plant” already growing in your garden, you can harvest sedum cuttings as you need them throughout the year. If you need a lot of cuttings all at once, that is when to pay more attention as to when to do the harvesting.

This timing may be different in your area so look for the new growth at the crown of the plant first – before shearing off all the stems. The main timeframe is in spring and, depending where you are, the plant could get another flush of growth in late summer or early fall.

HOW – But if you’re just clipping-off a cutting or two for a miniature pot, you can do that at any time. I like to clip the stems back where it’s needed at the time – if they are growing on my miniature patio, encroaching a pathway or taking over another mini garden bedding plant where I don’t want it to. Pinch or clip the sedum cutting stem off just above a new bud, or just above another stem so you don’t have just stem to look at when you are done harvesting.

Find your Sedum Cuttings for your miniature gardening HERE.

Coming up with different ways to miniaturize the full-sized garden ideas is one of the joys of the gardening in miniature hobby! After I poked the craft-moss into the mini dressmaker, I glued the sedum cuttings on. It lasted about a month before needing redoing.

A Sedum Collection all in one pot! Only from Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center – TwoGreenThumbs.com!

We’ve been serving the miniature garden hobby since 2001. We know what works. We know what’s fun to grow.

See the Mini Sedum Collection Pots here.

Got a spare saucer? Make your own little miniature gardening scene with a collection of Sedum cuttings! The mini patio is made permanent with our very own Mini Patio Mix Kit. It won’t wash away in the rain nor when you water!

Maintaining Your Cuttings

Here’s a quick chart to help you maintain the tiny pots with success:

If the leaves start to shrivel, mist it more often.
If the leaves are getting too puffy and pale, back-off on the watering.
If the leaves are starting to reach for the light, (grow long and spindly,) it needs more light. Monitor your cuttings closely at first, the cuttings won’t recover if they reach too much.

Find your Sedum Cuttings for your miniature gardening HERE.

See what miniature pots and pottery are in stock at Two Green Thumbs’ today HERE.

Bird's eye of top photo. Tiny bouquets of color! — Tiny bouquets of color! You can either mix up all the different cuttings. For a simpler statement or a more-modern-look, use multiples of the same cuttings in one pot.

How to Store Your Cuttings

If you’ve found yourself with a surplus of Sedum cuttings or you’re working on project where you can’t use them up all at once you can easily store them for a couple of weeks. I told you they were resilient, didn’t I?

Just lay them out in a tray or basket where they can stay on the dry-side. You want to keep them out of the sun, in a cool spot. Sprinkle them with water every week or so – dependent upon the weather. Check them every couple of days or so to see if they need more sprinkles of water – or if you are watering them too much. (You can lay them out and dry them on a towel if you have them too wet too.) You’ll lose a few leaves towards the bottoms of the stems and they will eventually start to root, but you can still use them for your wee pots and crafting.

If you can’t use all your cuttings and are done with your crafting for now – plant them in soil and they’ll grow roots. They are easy to pull and transplant too, so no worries if it’s a temporary fix. I told you they were fun and easy!

Did I miss anything? Please leave your question below in the comments. By liking and sharing this post, you’ll be helping spread the joy of gardening in miniature too!

Find your Sedum Cuttings for your miniature gardening HERE.

See what miniature pots and pottery are in stock at Two Green Thumbs’ today HERE.

Outside of the miniature garden, the cuttings can be a quick and fun monochromatic garden accent for any table-top. These small cache pot containers don’t have a drainage hole. The cuttings are simply placed in the tin. They will last for a few months before needing to be properly potted.

Adapting full-sized trends into miniatures are possible with Sedum cuttings!

This teacup was planted a couple of years ago with our Mini Patio Mix Kit and has since collected moss in between the stones. The “garden” has been updated once by poking new cuttings in the gaps left by the older cuttings.

Like this?

See more weird and wonderful ideas for your miniature or fairy garden here, in America’s Favorite Miniature Garden Center.

See all our plants, parts, patios and pieces for miniature gardening here, in our Two Green Thumbs’ online store.

See what miniature pots and pottery are in stock at Two Green Thumbs’ today HERE.

Want to dig deeper into the huge world of gardening in miniature? Join us and thousands of other like-minded people for your almost weekly Mini Garden Gazette delivered straight to your inbox. Join us here.