Prices, Promotions, styles, and availability may vary. Our local stores do not honor online pricing. Prices and availability of products and services are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Lowe's reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted.

How to Plant a Succulent Bowl

Valerie Albarda

By Valerie Albarda
Updated March 20, 2023

Creating a lush and lovely bowl of succulents for your patio table is easy. In fact, you can do it in five easy steps. We'll show you how to grow succulents and give you some popular examples of these low-maintenance plants.

Skill

Beginner

Time

Few Hours

Several small succulent plants in a pot.

What Are Succulents?

A container full of several varieties of succulents.

Succulents plants come from all over the world. They have interesting shapes and marvelous textures and colors, and fleshy leaves, stems or roots. Popular examples include agave, echeveria, sempervivum and sedum. (Cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti.) These undemanding plants are easy to grow. They excel at conserving water, making them great, low-maintenance choices for your containers. Lowe's Garden Center sells a variety of succulents in different colors and leaf types.

Succulent Care and Planting

While succulent pots don't have the watering and maintenance requirements of other plant types, there are some things they need.

  • Bowl: Make sure you use a container with a drainage hole in the bottom. If the container doesn't have one, drill several small holes.
  • Potting Mix: Succulents don't like wet roots, so your soil should drain easily (which is why you need the drainage hole in the container bottom).
  • Light: Succulents love sun. Put them somewhere with full sunlight. Ideally, your plants should receive six to eight hours of sun each day. However, many succulents will do just fine indoors in bright, indirect light. Consult the plant tag to be sure of the light requirements.
  • Water: While all plants need water to live, succulents don't need a lot. That makes them very low maintenance too. If you aren’t sure when to water your succulents, gently squeeze a leaf. If the leaf is firm, it needs no water; if there’s a little squish, it’s time to water.
  • Temperature: Some succulents — like sedum — are hardy. Others need protection in winter. Bring them indoors before frost.
  • Gravel: Gravel or another ornamental topper is optional, but it provides a finished look and keeps soil from splashing on the foliage when watering.

How to Plant Succulents

Which Succulents Should I Plant?

A multitude of forms, hues and habits make succulents versatile performers. These plants are all about color and texture, so mix and match them for artful combinations. Here are some examples:

A Key Lime Plant with green leaves.

Key Lime Pie Plant (Adromischus cristatus)
Fuzzy, plump leaves are crimped at the tips; flowers are tinged in red.

An Echeveria Lola plant featuring gray-green leaves.

Echeveria ‘Lola’
Attractive rosettes of dove-gray leaves are tipped with rose; it displays orange and yellow flowers.

A Graptosedum California Sunset plant showing green leaves fading to pink tips.

Graptosedum ‘California Sunset’
Blue-green leaves blush to pink; it has white star-shaped flowers.

A baby toes succulent plant featuring stubby foliage.

Baby Toes (Fenestraria aurantiaca)
The small, stubby stems have translucent tips and bright yellow blooms.

A Plush Plant succulent shows leaves with a velvet surface and red edges.

Plush Plant (Echeveria ‘Pulv-Oliver’)
Velvet-textured green leaves have red tips; orange flowers appear in summer.

A Pachyveria Blue Pearl succulent with thick blue-green foliage.

Pachyveria ‘Blue Pearl’
Small shrubby stems have thick, blue-green leaves.

A Kalanchoe succulent plant featuring green leaves with scalloped edges.

Kalanchoe (Kalanchoe millotii)
A branching shrub with frosty-green scalloped leaves; it has yellow-green flowers.

A Haworthia succulent featuring spotted green leaves tightly clustered together.

Haworthia (Haworthia spp.)
An upright grower, it has distinctive alligator-like markings and clusters of small flowers.

An Echeveria Lime and Chile plant displaying flat, lime-green leaves with hints of red.

Echeveria ‘Lime and Chile’ (Echeveria elegans ‘Lime and Chile’)
Showing off a tightly bunched lime-green rosette, it has bright orange-yellow flowers.

An Aeonium Catlin Hybrid succulent displaying a tight rosette of green leaves tinged with burgundy.

Aeonium ‘Catlin Hybrid’
Burgundy-tinged leaves form large rosettes; it has golden-yellow flowers.

Several varieties of Sempervivum Hens and Chicks in different shapes, sizes and shades of green.

Sempervivum 'Hens and Chicks'
Over 6,000 named sempervivum varieties offer different leaf colors and plant sizes.

Related Tags: