Intro to Succulents Workshop with Succulent Native
- Kimi's Travel Thoughts
- Mar 18
- 5 min read
March 2025 Monthly Adventure
I'm a (plant) mom again! Like many people, I love caring for plants and this is a particularly popular thing for Austin area locals. This month's adventure was inspired by the spring season while focusing on supporting a local business that Austinites and visitors of Austin, TX can enjoy.
Background
How well do you fare with keeping succulents alive? Personally, I have a completely abysmal track record when it comes to caring for succulents. I can keep a pothos alive with no issue, but succulents have been so complicated for me that I have killed every succulent I have ever acquired. In Austin, there are plenty of people who are plant enthusiasts that specialize in succulents. One place that I have known about for years is a local shop called Succulent Native. While scrolling through Eventbrite for some non South by Southwest activities for March (if you live in Austin, you know to avoid getting too close to SXSW events because traffic is a nightmare), I came across the Intro to Succulents Workshop series hosted by Succulent Native. Determined to finally keep a succulent alive, I decided to go to one of their Sunday afternoon succulent workshops which only costs $30 per person!
Intro to Succulents Workshop
When I arrived to Succulent Native at 1:00 PM on a Sunday, I wasn't expecting the store to be so busy and neither was the person staffing that day. I was the only person attending the Intro to Succulents Workshop the day I went, so I patiently shopped around the store while she assisted the other customers. At Succulent Native, you get to pick you plants and a pot for them and the staff will prepare the final arrangement for you as they educate you on how best to care for your new plants. Witnessing the care and attention paid to both the customers and the plants, I was already feeling confident that I would walk away from the succulent workshop more prepared than ever before to keep my succulents alive.
As I looked around the store, I took some photos of plants that I wanted to circle back to as the workshop concluded because I wanted to purchase another plants. The succulent that I would bring home after the workshop was included in the price of my workshop ticket from Eventbrite, but any other purchases that day in the store would be discounted at 15% off as a workshop participant! I kept the plants I had my eye on in mind as the workshop began.
The Intro to Succulents Workshop started off with a bit of background on Succulent Native and how the business operates. They hand pick their plants from local wholesalers to ensure only the best available plants are in their shop, make their own soil, sell local artists products in their store, and are available in-person or via text for any assistance you need with keeping your plants healthy. I was able to share more about my rather unfortunate previous experiences with caring for succulents and we were able to discuss what some of the issues might have been and how to prevent them from happening with the succulent arrangement I would be making in the workshop.
The rocks were already put in the bottom of the small glass planter for me and then I added some of the soil mixture that Succulent Native makes in-house to the small planter. The rocks will act as a reservoir for my succulent arrangement if I ever added a little too much water. After that, I learned about how to repot the succulents. It turns out the roots of plants are much more resilient than one (me) would think and breakage isn't something to be concerned about. I got my succulents arranged in the glass and then came the decorations! The rocks making up the top layer of my succulent glass planter were for decoration as were the pieces of moss that I added for texture and color. I learned more about proper watering techniques after discussing the schedule I currently have for all my pothos plants and it turns out the succulent will likely be on a similar schedule. This will make it so much easier to care for all my plants.
Before leaving Succulent Native, I decided to purchase a parlor palm which was the plant on display that grabbed my attention so much that I simply couldn't leave the store without it. My two new plants were boxed up as I paid for the parlor palm and then I was ready to return home!
Wrap-Up
On the way home, I carefully thought about names for my new plants. Yes, I name my plants because that's just a thing that I do. I also speak words of encouragement to my plants and I try to play music regularly for them to enjoy. Some people got a pandemic puppy and I got a pandemic plant despite having less time to care for something. This is why I specifically chose plants that don't require too much watering. I have give them rainwater that my parents collect and I bring home jugs of it back to my apartment when I visit them, so they have to be able to go multiple weeks without watering. The tap water in Austin is actually terrible for plants which is something I learned more about during the succulent workshop. I also travel regularly which means I need plants that can survive for extended periods of time without much water. I'm so dedicated to my plants that I have made the direction windows face a significant feature on my wishlist when apartment hunting in Austin.
Anyway, hopefully you used the rest of that paragraph to think of what I could have possibly named my new plants. The photo above shows my full collection of plants. From left to right:
Poppie: a golden pothos named after my grandfather
Lola: another pothos
Charli: my new parlor palm (not named after Charli XCX but after the British children's show Charlie & Lola)
Granny: a golden pothos named after my grandmother (originally a piece that accidentally split off Poppie when I was moving)
Geri: my succulent arrangement named after Geri Halliwell a.k.a Ginger Spice because these succulents will turn redder in color if they get enough sunlight
One of the best things about Austin is how much people across the city appreciate nature. It's evident in the support for and usage of parks along with supporting local plant and floral shops like Succulent Native. While this activity may not be ideal for those visiting Austin by plane, it's something that I highly recommend if road tripping or catching a bus to the Capital City and looking for relaxing activity on a Sunday afternoon. Oh, and they also have an Intro to Cacti Workshop later in the afternoon on Sundays if you prefer a cactus over other succulents!
On to the next adventure!
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