An echeveria rosette in a small terracotta pot on a bench scattered with potting soil, with spare clay pots, two cacti and a pair of snips around it

What growing succulents involves

Ten minutes a week, mostly looking

Most of the work is leaving the plants alone. A typical week is a walk along the windowsill to check for wrinkled leaves, stretched growth or the white fluff of mealybugs, and a deep watering for whatever has gone fully dry. A few times a year you repot, take cuttings and shuffle plants toward better light. Beginners usually start with rosette and leaf types (echeveria, haworthia, jade, sedum) because they show thirst and too little light within days, so you learn quickly what they want.

Your first week

Tick each one off as you go

Bare-root succulent cuttings, small rosettes and loose leaves laid out on a white surface with soil still on their roots — Cuttings and loose leaves, out of their pots

What you can grow in your first month

A repotted windowsill row

Your starter plants moved out of nursery peat into gritty mix and clay pots, which is the single change that keeps most of them alive.

A tray of leaf cuttings

Leaves twisted off an echeveria or jade, dried for a few days and laid on dry mix. Pink roots show in 3 to 4 weeks.

A shared pot

Two or three small plants with the same watering needs, planted together in one 4 inch clay pot.

A beheaded and rerooted rosette

A leggy plant cut below the head, left to callus for a week and set on dry mix to root again.

Light and water, the two things to get right

Drying time

Indoors a small clay pot usually dries out in 10 to 14 days in summer and 3 to 5 weeks in winter. Plastic and glazed pots take longer.

Read the leaves

Thirsty leaves wrinkle and go soft. Overwatered leaves turn translucent yellow and drop at a touch.

Six hours of bright light

A plant that leans, pales and opens gaps between its leaves is stretching for light, and the stretched part never shrinks back.

Grow light hours

Run an LED for 12 to 14 hours a day on a timer.

Know the growing season

Most succulents grow in spring and summer and rest in winter. Water sparingly and hold the fertilizer while they rest.

A sunny windowsill crowded with small cacti, a spotted gasteria and a red-topped grafted cactus in pots — Cacti and a gasteria on a sunny sill

Three directions to take it

Open one to see where to start. Each adds its own plants and gear to the kit.

Close-up of two lithops with flat, patterned tops split by a cleft, sitting in coarse grit — Lithops in coarse grit

Cactus growingSpined, ribbed and often flowering, cacti want the most sun of the group and a cold, dry winter rest to bloom.

Start here

Add the cactus gear to your kit. Pot each plant in the same gritty mix while wearing the gloves, then put it in the sunniest spot you have and leave it completely dry from November to March.

Lithops growingLiving stones are pairs of fused leaves that mimic pebbles. They follow a strict yearly cycle and rot if watered at the wrong time.

Start here

Add the lithops gear to your kit. Pot the plants in the mineral mix with the tops level with the surface, and before you water even once, read the yearly cycle so you know which months to keep them dry.

Lithops.info

Caudex plantsSpecies such as desert rose and ponytail palm grow a swollen trunk or root that you raise above the soil to show it off.

Start here

Add the caudex gear to your kit. Set the plant in the shallow pot with the swollen base sitting above the soil line, and water only while it has leaves.

A living stone reference

Lithops.info Free species gallery and a season-by-season growing guide for living stones

What trips beginners up

Watering on a schedule

More succulents die of rot than of drought. Check the soil, not the calendar.

Pots with no hole

Glass bowls and sealed ceramic hold water at the roots, and a layer of rocks in the bottom does not fix it.

Leaving plants in nursery peat

It stays wet for a week, then dries into a brick that sheds water.

Misting

A spray wets the leaves and leaves the roots dry. Water the soil.

Expect slow growth

Many species add only a few leaves a year, and a cactus may take several years to flower.

Expect some losses

Lower leaves dry up as a rosette grows, which is normal, and most growers lose a plant or two to rot in the first year.

Expect mealybugs eventually

Check new plants before they join the shelf and dab any white fluff with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab.

Tall woolly column cacti in terracotta pots topped with gravel, standing on a greenhouse bench

Spines, sap and pets

Handle with gloves, shelve out of reach

Glochids

Prickly pears carry tufts of hair-fine barbed spines that come off at a brush. Lift them out of skin with tape or tweezers.

Euphorbia sap

The white latex in euphorbias irritates skin and can injure eyes. Wear gloves when cutting them and wash your hands afterward.

Pets and children

Jade, aloe, kalanchoe and desert rose are toxic if chewed. Echeveria and haworthia are not.

Check a plant before it comes home

ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plant List Free searchable list of which plants are a risk to cats and dogs

Where to learn more

A local club is the fastest teacher and the cheapest source of plants. The Cactus and Succulent Society of America lists affiliates across the country. For a name or a diagnosis, post a photo to r/succulents. LLIFLE and World of Succulents cover individual species, including which months each one grows.

Clubs, forums and species pages

Why the kit looks like this

The money goes into drainage, not plants. Gritty mix, pumice and unglazed clay pots are what stop rot, and together they cost more than the first handful of plants. The grow light is there because few indoor windows deliver enough sun from October to March. Gravel top dressing and fertilizer can wait until the plants have settled in. Each of the three directions adds its own plants and one more piece of gear.

A wide red clay bowl planted with a dozen small blue-green and pink-tipped rosettes — A mixed bowl of small rosettes in clay

Fill the windowsill tray

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The lines for the three directions (Cactus growing, Lithops growing, Caudex plants) and the two optional lines start out of the kit.

EssentialPlants

Assorted starter succulents

A mixed set of small rooted plants shows you which types suit your light before you spend more on any one of them.

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Succulents

What growing succulents involves

Your first week

Light and water, the two things to get right

Three directions to take it

What trips beginners up

Spines, sap and pets

Where to learn more

Why the kit looks like this

Fill the windowsill tray

Assorted starter succulents

Cactus and succulent potting mix

Horticultural pumice

Terracotta pots with drainage holes and saucers

Full-spectrum LED grow light

Succulent tool kit with squeeze bottle

Live cactus assortment

Thorn-resistant gloves

Live lithops plants

Soil-free gritty mineral mix

Desert rose plant

Shallow bonsai-style pot with drainage

Top dressing gravel

Low-nitrogen cactus fertilizer