Greg- so not a valley girl. :) But yes, a valley girl by association...my address. Haha. It's been a couple years now that I've been into "gardening". Trying to turn my black thumb brown...hopefully one day, a green thumb. Segue (pronounced segway) is a smooth transition. In other words- I wanted to smoothly transition our conversation into a field trip to your garden conversation. Haha.

A few things to consider: I think the one on the right might be a graptoveria. I have something that looks very much like it that was identified on this forum as such. I also have a sedum rubrotinctum cv. 'Aurora' that looks similar. Either way, the care would be similar. It could easily go with the echeveria and even the aloe (which I think would make a nice backdrop to the two smaller plants), but I would keep the haworthia alone. The aloe looks a bit leggy which could indicate it is not getting enough light. It's leaves have doubled in length because they might be stretching for light. I am not sure if it has been indoors or out, but my common aloes are much more compact than that. The aeoniums grow when days are shorter so it is going dormant right now and will not need as much water as the above four will need right now. Keep it separate. It will still need water - just not as much. You could include it in the pot, but put it in its own pot sunk into your planter and take care to only water it every other time you water the rest. They stay pretty when they are dormant; they just don't grow and so don't need as much water. Lastly, I urge you to read the attached post on suggestions about soil. I would also urge you to the container gardening forum where you could do a surge for "Container Soils- Water Movement and Retention". There will be five post- V being the latest. These are scripted by Al, a genius in container gardening IMHO. He has science behind his postings and soil mixes. I use them and they are wonderful. You will learn from these post that having rocks or broken crock pieces in the bottom of your pots is actually counterproductive. Soil, unless it is a very course mix, always has something called the PWT (perched water table) which is the bottom inch or so of soil that always stays wet. The finer the particle of soil, the larger the PWT layer. If you put in this so called "drainage layer", you simply raise the level of the PWT closer to the roots, which is exactly what you don't want to do. Al's soil mix will stay moist not wet, and this is the ideal thing. Roots do NOT rot in moist soil. They rot in WET soil. There is a difference. Al's mix allows the roots to colonize the soil. The soil stays aerated and holds just the right amount of moisture. The vermiculite and Turface in the soil release water as the plant needs but allows the soil to drain freely and leaves a very small PWT if any at all. Many say that cactus and succulents have a very shallow root system, and I believe in nature that is true because they have to in order to absorb water. But roots are adaptable even within a single species and will search deep for water if that is where the water is. I have my C and S growing in a variation of Al's mix from his first post, and they have been in this mix for two years now. The soil is getting a bit compacted as it is left out in all conditions and has broken down. It has some peat in it (but won't with Al's new mix) too. However, all of the pots (azalea pots, not regular) are COMPLETELY colonized with the root systems of the plants. These are cactii and succulents that in nature would have very shallow roots systems. This mix allows for a much healthier plant IMO. There is NO peat in the succulent mix Al recommends, which you will find in almost every commercial mix for cactus and succulents. It is useless. It stays too wet and when it dries is impossible to rewet. Adding perlite to it, in my experience doesn't help much. It just makes the perlite float to the top that much quicker. Everyone has an opinion on soil and what works best. I urge you to read the attached post and find the above mentioned one to learn more, especially if all you do is container gardening. Forever learning, Tanya

Thanks for clearing that up, Beachplants. I don't know anyone with an Aloe plant, so I went ahead and bought a fairly nice-looking Aloe at Wal-Mart this morning! I went to Lowe's first , but the only Aloe plants there came in more expensive pots full of different kinds of cacti. For some reason, Wal-Mart didn't have any pots smaller than 4" diameter, so I went ahead and bought another 4" and repotted all 3 plants. I mixed a lot of perlite with the soil this time, about 50-60% perlite. It looks darker than that on top because I had to add some extra soil on top there. What happened was after I finished planting them, I went to pour out the extra soil/perlite mix in the garden. When I came back, all three plants had been ripped out of the soil, and the big one was on the ground outside of its pot! Coincidentally, my cat was nowhere to be found... She's now locked in the garage to think about what she's done :P Anyway, I had to a small layer of soil on top when I replanted them so that they would stand up straight. I'm keeping them inside for awhile too because I don't want my cat to get them again! Thanks again for the help, everyone. I know that the small plants should be in small pots, but they have grown well in a large pot so far. I will be sure to keep the soil dry between waterings. By the way, would anyone be able to tell me what type of Aloe the large one is? The stripes are really cool

gardens dress accordingly .. and go play in the dirt ... whats this nonsense about too dirty .. if you dont have mud in your eyebrows.. in your hair.. and gritting in your teeth.. you are a gardener.. btw ... this is the type of thing i would do at the very last.. just before heading into to the laundry room to throw everything i was wearing in the washer ... and then up to the shower ... its not the job you want to do first .. lol .. of course.. i only lander the garden clothes.. when they stand up in the corner by themselves because there is so much dirt encrusted on them .. lol .. when too encrusted.. its hard to bend your knees.. lol ... ken