Succulent Windowsill Pots How-To and 7 Years Later Amazing tips

In my Succulent Windowsill Pots video and DIY below, you'll find out how to make a simple, colorful succulent windowsill garden. Here's how to transform your window at work or home into a mini-garden.

The six pots in my video, each 3-inches in diameter, came as a set from Amazon. Their rainbow colors make them fun to combine with colorful succulents. I added crushed glass topdressings for bling and sparkle.

You needn't use the exact pots I did; other multipot sets work equally well---for example, these from Mountain Crest Gardens. Scroll down to watch a video of Annie and me planting them with haworthias.

Windowsill pots with haworthias, from Mountain Crest Gardens

Materials and Method

You'll need...

• Four to six 3-inch decorative pots. Cover drain holes with a 2-inch square cut from a paper towel, so soil doesn't fall out.
• The same number of succulents in 2-inch nursery pots. Numerous varieties and even cuttings will work. These are Adromischus cristatus, Sedeveria 'Lilac Mist', Sedeveria 'Letizia', Senecio haworthii, Sedum nussbaumerianum, and Sedum adolphi:
• Gently slide each plant out of its nursery pot and tuck into its new pot. If need be, remove 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil from top or bottom so root ball stays below the rim.
• Use a gritty potting soil to fill gaps after putting plants (root balls and all) into the pots, or to elevate if needed. Soil should go to about half inch below the rim.
• Add a 1/4-inch layer of white or neutral-colored sand (but not beach sand---too salty). The sand will fill gaps and keep the glass topdressing's color true.
• Add a layer of crushed, tumbled glass (optional) from craft stores, floral suppliers or online. I chose glass that echoes the glazes on the pots. Alternatively, conceal bare dirt and give your pots a finished look with crushed rock, pebbles, rhinestones or beads.

Succulent windowsill pots

Care:

• Water lightly and infrequently. See my How to Water Succulents page.
• If your windowsill might be damaged by moisture, move the pots to the sink when watering. Let drain thoroughly before replacing. Cut little circles from foil and place one under each pot to protect the sill from condensation.
• If stem succulents stretch or rosette succulents flatten, they're asking for more light. However, the sun's ultraviolet rays, when magnified by untreated window glass, can burn leaves. If this is a concern, add a sheer curtain or move plants farther from the glass. Keep in mind that south-facing windows typically get the most sun and north-facing the least. Haworthias, being shade succulents, are especially at risk.
• It's normal for succulents to get leggy over time. After four to six months or whenever you tire of looking at stems that have growth only on the tips, take cuttings and replant.

Be sure to watch this DIY video on Mountain Crest Gardens' YouTube channel. In it, Annie and I plant haworthias in brightly glazed flowerpots:

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Discover Julian Duval’s Personal Botanic Garden Amazing tips

You're about to tour the garden of one of San Diego’s most endearing and knowledgeable plant experts: Julian Duval, retired CEO of the San Diego Botanic Garden.

In my new video, you'll see rare and unusual plants in pots, in the ground, and in an 18 x 24 greenhouse that Julian calls "a walk-in terrarium." His impressive, decades-old specimens routinely win blue ribbons at Cactus & Succulent Society shows.

Julian's vast assortment of uncommon succulents include uncarina, brachychiton and cyphostemma trees; bizarre and intriguing welwitschias, ant plants, caudiciforms, pachyforms, and epiphytes; and numerous oddball tropicals.

Uh, just what ARE those, Debra?

Julian introduces them in the video, but here are photos and definitions:

Ant plant (Myrmecophyte): Has a symbiotic relationship with a colony of ants. The plant provides food and nesting chambers; and the ants protect it from predation, provide nutrition via their waste, and aid in seed dispersal.

Myrmecodia tuberosa (ant plant)

Epiphyte: A plant that grows on another plant but is not parasitic, such as ferns, bromeliads, air plants, and orchids in tropical rainforests.

Epiphytic tillandsias and other bromeliads grow on the slender-trunks of a dracaena tree

Caudiciform: These plants have an enlarged base that stores water (a caudex). Despite being a succulent, the leaves may be thin. In many varieties, thickened roots can elevated and displayed like bonsai.  

Adenium swazicum with elevated roots

Pachycaul: From the Greek meaning "thick" or "massive:" A succulent with a bottle-shaped or swollen trunk that's minimally branched. Elephants, you doubtless know, are pachyderms.

Pachypodium lamerii is both a pachyform and a pachycaul. 

Pachyform: A general term encompassing caudiciforms, pachycauls, and other thick-bodied plants. 

Welwitschia mirabilis, native to African deserts, has two ever-lengthening leaves that emerge from a short, woody trunk. Certain specimens in habitat with leaves 8 feet or longer are thousands of years old---some of the longest-living plants on earth!

Welwitschia mirabilis

One of Julian's oddball tropical trees is Ficus auriculata, native to Nepal, China and Southeast Asia. Grows to 24 feet with oval leaves 15 inches in diameter. Large, donut-shaped, inedible figs cluster along trunk and branches.

Ficus auriculata

See more in the gallery below, all ID'd. 

Climate, soil, watering

The soil of Vista, CA is a mix of clay and decomposed granite that "isn't ideal," Julian says, noting it could be better-draining. "It's an adobe-DG combination."

For succulents and other dry-climate plants, Julian amends "mostly with inorganics such as pumice." However, due to the diversity of the plants he keeps, how he improves the soil is not a hard-and-fast rule. "The soil mix is also dependent on the watering schedule," Julian says. "There are lots of variables."

He and wife Leslie chose their 2/3-acre lot for its large boulders and sloping terrain that lets cold air drain. "Vista is generally frost-free," Julian says. "It stays warmer than the coast and cooler than farther inland."

Are you aware of the "collected plants" controversy?

Does Julian have favorites among the thousands in his collection? Yes---those with "fat bottoms" which he considers "sculptural." Because he's owned and tended these for decades, many of his bonsai'd caudiciform and pachyform succulents have the look of great age---a reason they impress Cactus & Succulent Society show judges.

Julian's bonsai'd Operculacarya decaryi took "Best Succulent - Advanced" at a recent San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society show and sale

It's frustrating to long-time collectors like Julian that "collected plants"---cacti and succulents taken from the wild---may be sold and/or displayed at shows, as though their owner had cultivated them a long time.

Julian says: "I support not entering plants collected from the wild in shows. Poaching is a serious problem that contributes to the potential extinction of some species. Plus I think growers who have taken the time to produce a plant that has the maturity judges look for in a show specimen should not have to compete with someone who has taken a plant from habitat."

What do you think? Agree or disagree? Tell us in the Comments!

 

Gallery of Julian's Plants

These are favorites from my recent visit, but obviously Julian has many more. If you'd like to learn and see more from this remarkable plantsman, I'd love an excuse to go back. LMK in the comments!

Note: Also see 80 photos of Julian's garden, taken in the spring of 2025, on Gerhard Bock's "Succulents and More" blog.

Adenium arabicum

Adenium swazicum

Aechmea blanchetiana

Agave guiengola regular and variegated

Aloe ferox and yucca

Aloe pseudorubroviolacea

Aloidendron ramosissimum

Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palm)

Beaucarnea stricta

Brachychiton rupestris (bottle tree)

Brahea armata (Mexican blue fan palm)

Bromeliads amid boulders

Bursera fagaroides bonsai

Ceiba speciosa (Chorisia speciosa) Silk floss tree, bonsai

Ceiba speciosa (Chorisia speciosa) Silk floss tree

Ceiba speciosa (Chorisia speciosa) Silk floss tree, detail of trunk

Cleistocactus strausii

Crassula arborescens

Crassula ovata 'Hummel's Sunset' bonsai

Crassula ovata 'Gollum' bonsai

Cussonia paniculata

Encephalartos horridus

Cyphostemma betiforme

Cyphostemma juttae

Deuterocohnia brevifolia

Dischidia nummularia

Dracaena draco (dragon tree)

Dracaena marginata

Ficus auriculata

Ficus macrophylla

Ficus palmeri

Ficus petiolaris

Hoya imbricata

Hydnophytum formicarum (ant plant)

Lepismium cruciforme

Monanthes polyphylla

Myrmecodia tuberosa (ant plant)

Nymphaea 'Ronda Kay'

Opercularia pachypus

Operculicarya decaryi

Pachypodium lamerii

Platyceriums (Staghorn ferns)

Ravenala madagascariensis (Traveler's palm)

Strophocactus wittii

Tillandsias and other bromeliads shot

Uncarina grandidieri

Vachellia (Acacia) xanthophloea (fever tree)

Welwitschia mirabilis

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