Succulent-Topped Pumpkin Design Ideas, How-To Amazing tips

Above: Laura Eubanks of Design for Serenity demonstrates her succulent-topped pumpkin method. It's also a featured project in my book, Succulents Simplified.

Follow Laura's simple DIY and your succulent pumpkin will last months. It'll rot sooner if pierced or cut, so avoid doing that. At any time, you can remove the succulents and plant them in a pot or the ground.

Laura pioneered the concept in 2011. It caught on immediately, becoming as popular for fall decor as wreaths are for the holidays. After several years of making pumpkins for sale, Laura went on to specialize in succulent landscapes.

Laura Eubanks during our photo shoot for Country Gardens magazine

Pumpkin How-To

Pumpkin how-to from Succulents Simplified

So simple! Basically, Laura coats the top of the pumpkin with spray glue, adds dry moss, then hot-glues succulent cuttings and seed pods to the moss. Incredibly, hot glue doesn't harm the succulents, which eventually root through the dried glue into the moss. Design possibilities are endless.

Spray adhesive for attaching the moss Click to order from Amazon (affiliate).  

Pumpkins to inspire you

Use these examples to help you create your own "pumpculents." Have fun!

The first nine are by Laura Eubanks. Which is your favorite?

 

This may be my favorite, despite not including succulents!

More by other talented designers:

 

 

I'll post more pumpkin photos as I run across interesting, eye-catching and innovative ones. Be sure to check back! -- Debra

 

shop succulent Cuttings

More Fall-Winter projects

Make a Succulent Cornucopia

[With Video] A succulent cornucopia makes a refreshing update on the traditional Thanksgiving centerpiece, and then after the holiday, you can remove the plants and pot them.  As early as midsummer, craft stores begin stocking holiday containers like this wicker cornucopia

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Succulent Wreath Tips and Ideas

Do you like the succulent wreath that my friend Denise made during a wreath party at my home? To create a similar one, you’ll need about 100 cuttings, a wire wreath form, 24-gauge florist’s wire, a chopstick, and a bag of sphagnum moss. The form, moss and wire are available at any craft store. Cuttings will root right…

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Succulent Christmas Tree Holiday Centerpiece

[With Video] Make a succulent Christmas tree for your holiday tabletop centerpiece. This topiary cone with cuttings inserted into the moss needs less care than a floral arrangement and lasts much longer.

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Holiday Decorating with Succulents

Holiday decorating with succulents This time of year, the succulent elves bundle up, go into the garden, and transform it into a holiday wonderland. Should I reward them with cocoa, or considering their size, chocolate chips? When you’re not much bigger than a caterpillar, you take your life in your hands when you decorate a serrated succulent. But…

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Annie and Me at The Succulent Cafe Amazing tips

During succulent celebrity Annie Schreck's week-long visit to Southern CA, of course we went to The Succulent Cafe near San Diego. It's a charming outdoor patio-garden eatery specializing in pastries,  espresso and lovely succulents in decorative containers. Location: 505 Oak Ave., Carlsbad, CA, three blocks from the beach. 

Annie with a driftwood succulent arrangement at The Succulent Cafe

Meet Annie

Annie is the staff horticulturist and researcher who produces informational videos for the largest online succulent nursery: Mountain Crest Gardens.

As she and I sat amid walls of succulents and chatted over lavender mocha and chai, Annie explained she has "the coolest job in the world" despite it being "the middle of nowhere" in northern CA near the Oregon border. She also mentions some of her favorite succulents, including two she's seen while hiking the Pacific Northwest.

About the Succulent Cafe

Here's a description of The Succulent Cafe from an article I did for a Better Homes & Gardens publication two years ago:

"Owner Peter Loyola's aim is 'to create an environment that appeals to all the senses.' He achieves this with fragrant coffee, flaky pastries, a splashing fountain, soft music, and colorful plants in textural containers.

Succulents in soup ladles at The Succulent Cafe

"Loyola enjoys the challenge of planting succulents in objects such as wood pallets, vinyl gutters, and vintage kitchen utensils. 'The more patina the better,' he says, gesturing to a verdigris copper colander holding blue and pink echeverias.

"In addition to coffee drinkers, dogs on leashes, babies in carriages, and brightly dressed cyclists, visitors include tourists taking photos. 'Locals come here to unwind,' Loyola says. 'But if you're from Minnesota, you probably don't see succulents all that often, and you're mesmerized.'

"When designing with succulents, Loyola often places the largest plant in the center, then surrounds it with smaller ones. Containers may also have a cascader, like a fine-leaved sedum, string-of-pearls (Senecio rowleyanus) or burro tail (Sedum morganianum)."

See 40+ examples in the Gallery below.

More Annie Adventures

This video---part of a series of Annie's succulent adventures in my neck of the woods---introduces you to the effervescent, engaging Annie. In a different video, she introduces yours truly to fans and followers.

Soon to come in the series are additional destinations as well as fun, creative projects. Make sure you don't miss any by subscribing to my YouTube channel and that of Mountain Crest Gardens.

 

Succulent cafe gallery 

Aeonium pot, cuttings, Annie

Aeoniums, sedums, jade in ceramic clam shell

Annie & Debra w Agave 'Blue Glow'

Annie and Debra w coffee

Annie w cacti at the Succulent Cafe

Cotelydon orbiculata in sign

Crassula 'Calico Kitten'

Crassula and graptopetalums in copper colander

Crassula perforata

Crassula, aloes, aeoniums

Debra w egg cup w sedums

Disocactus flagelliformis (rattail cactus)

DLB, tire with aeoniums and senecios

Annie with a driftwood succulent arrangement at The Succulent Cafe

Driftwood, sedum, sempervivums, aeoniums, echeverias

Echeverias, aeoniums and more

Face pot w sedum

Graptosedum 'Vera Higgins' and others

Gray pot w jade, burro tail sedum

Hanging pot with sedum

Hedgehog pot w sempervivums

Iron pyramid pot holder w cuttings

Mailbox with echeverias, gasterias, sedums and senecio

Mug w cacti and jade

Mug w cotyledon, aloes, sedum

Mug w echeveria and sedum

Mug w jade, sedeverias

Mug w pachyverias

Mug with Sedum nussbaumerianum

Rusty can w aeoniums

Sedum dasyphyllum and jade

Succulent wall display

Succulents in metal double pot

Succulents in repurposed containers

Teacup w pachyverias

Tillandsia in bloom

Vase pot w sedums

Ceramic clam shell w blue echeverias, sedeverias

Mug w jade, sedum

Oil can w aeoniums, sedum

Red box w aloe, aeoniums, graptoverias, crassula, othonna

Aloe, pachyveria in bloom

Tillandsias in 3-tier container

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When Aeoniums Get Leggy Amazing tips

Got leggy succulents? Off with their heads!

In this new video, I show how to do this while holding my iPhone in my left hand and doing everything else with my right. It's that easy.

I prune my arboreal aeoniums (those in the species arboreum, meaning "tree-like" or "trunk-forming") when they start to look shabby: Every three or four years. In the video you'll see how I snap off the rosettes and use them to create a lovely container garden. The same method is suitable for all stem succulents.

I've grown a dozen different varieties of aeonium in my garden for more than 15 years. Learn more about their cultivation requirements and see a gallery of aeonium photos on the Aeonium page of this site.

I also show how to redo a garden bed that's mainly aeoniums in a popular video: How to Refresh an Overgrown Succulent Garden.

A common confusion

I'm likely to blame for a common confusion regarding Aeonium 'Zwartkop' and others in the arboreum species. As opposed to more mounding, shrub-forming aeoniums, I typically describe Aeonium arboreum, A. arboreum 'Sunburst' and others as having "solitary rosettes atop ever-lengthening stems."

Aeonium arboreum atropurpureum

Laura B. in Queensland asks: "I have a zwartkop that is about 3 years old. It has a main large rosette that has actually started growing 3 smaller rosettes behind it. I am curious as to why it’s doing this? I thought that aeoniums grew a single rosette at the top of their branch?"

These plants do branch over time, I replied. "Mature specimens can become several feet tall with multiple heads."

Aeonium rosettes grow from their centers and drop their lowest leaves. I think the confusion lies in that each branch is eventually tipped by a solitary rosette. "You can remove the rosettes and start them as cuttings at any time," I added. "If you don't, the plant eventually looks like this, with ever-thicker stems and smaller rosettes."

Leggy aeoniums

From my Aeonium page

Did you know I have website pages dedicated to each of the most popular garden succulents? It's a wonderful resource. Each page provides a good overview and includes a gallery of varieties. 

"When aeoniums get leggy, cut off the tops, leaving an inch or two of stem, and throw the rest of the plant away, roots and all. Replant each rosette as a cutting. Insert it into the soil, so it sits just above the ground. The best time for this is in the fall, after the weather cools, when the plants begin to come out of summer dormancy."

Related Info on This Site

Aeonium Uses, Photos, IDs, Varieties

Aeonium Uses, Photos and Varieties Native to the Canary Islands and Morocco, aeoniums thrive outdoors in zone 9 (and higher if in dappled shade). Prune and replant in autumn. See All Succulent Types Aeonium Agaves Aloes Cactus Crassula Echeveria Euphorbias Ice Plants Kalanchoe Portulacaria Senecio About Aeoniums Aeonium rosettes resemble big, fleshy-petalled daisies. Colors include green,…

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Aeoniums with Annie Starring ‘Lily Pad’

When succulent star Annie Schreck visited recently, we did a video about aeoniums and planted several in container gardens. Learn about handling aeoniums, and discover the lovely ‘Lily Pad’ variety.

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How to Redo an Overgrown Succulent Garden

Every three or four years I redo this succulent garden outside my office window. Last time was 1-1/2 years ago when I added the fountain. It’s an important view area because I spend so much time…uh…gazing outside instead of working. (I can’t help it. The fountain doubles as a bird bath.) In my YouTube video, How to Refresh an Overgrown Succulent Garden, I…

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