At the 2026 RHS Badminton Flower Show, our succulent display was named Best Exhibit in the Floral Marquee. It is the first time we have ever won the award, and we are over the moon about it. The judges also gave the display a Gold Medal, which made the week even sweeter. RHS medals are awarded to every exhibit that reaches the judges' standard, so several nurseries can take home a Gold from the same show.
Our sixth Gold medal in a row at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Spring is the best time of year to repot succulents. As the days lengthen and temperatures climb, your plants wake from their winter rest and start pushing out new roots. Repotted now, they establish quickly and fill their new pot with healthy roots before the main growing season begins. Repot when a plant has outgrown its pot, when the compost has become compacted and waterlogged, or when you simply want to refresh the soil mix.
Seeing your Aeonium burst into flower for the first time is a special moment, and those bold, cone-shaped flower heads can come as a real surprise. Flowering also raises a few questions. Why is this happening? What do I do next? Does flowering mean my plant is dying? Each flowering rosette produces a large, conical flower spike (sometimes called a panicle) that can grow anywhere from 15 cm to over 60 cm taller than the original plant, depending on the variety. The spike is covered in hundreds of small, star-shaped blooms.
Cold weather on its own rarely kills a succulent. Most can handle a surprising amount of it. What they cannot tolerate is sitting in soggy, waterlogged compost whilst the temperature drops, and that combination is what finishes them off. Here in the UK, our winters are rarely brutal cold snaps.
Daniel already had many years of hybridising experience, and he had often talked to RHS botanists about the theoretical chances of crossing other members of the Crassulaceae family. Some of these, such as 'Phoenix Flame', have survived frost in testing, but most Aeoniums are tender and need protection over winter in the UK. So we started looking at how we could create plants with the architectural structure of Aeoniums and some of the hardiness of other succulents, such as Sempervivums. x Semponium is an inter-generic hybrid between Sempervivum and Aeonium.
This guide covers the challenges we all face, from extreme weather and frosty nights and days to taking cuttings. Enjoy the read; we hope you find something here that helps. Aeonium ‘Blood’ in summer. The darker colouration comes from intense summer sunlight, and it is at its most extreme during heatwaves and droughts.
This year's display was our most ambitious yet, with a wide variety of succulents, some of which we've been growing for over 15 years. Daniel Michael led the exhibit, and the whole team worked on it, from growing and watering the plants to designing, building and setting up the final display.Daniel said he was "over the moon" with the result and incredibly proud of everyone involved. We have won several honours over the years, including the RHS Plant of the Year award in 2022 for our hybrid x Semponium 'Destiny'. We're proud to keep finding out what these plants can do.
Succulents are drought-tolerant plants that store water in their leaves, stems and roots, so they need watering less often than other plants. Watering them correctly keeps them healthy for longer, and getting the method and conditions right helps them avoid root rot and grow well. This guide covers everything you need to know about watering succulents, including our own reliable method, the 3 D's: Drench, Drain, Dry! We wanted to make watering succulents simpler so that people make fewer mistakes. The 3 D's were easy to remember, so that is the method we use.
Start preparing for winter as early as September. Finish any repotting and propagation you had planned, slow down your watering and feeding, and decide where your succulents will spend the next several months. You may need to set up a cold frame for them. Temperatures below 10°C Strong wind Heavy rain Weaker sunlight and shorter days If you are planting in the ground, prepare the area first: clear any weeds and make sure the soil suits succulents.
They will brighten up a windowsill, patio or garden with very little effort. This guide covers the basics of growing succulents in the UK: what they need, and how to keep them healthy all year round. Choose a pot with a drainage hole if you can’t limit the watering (outdoors). A pot with no drainage hole can be used as long as you water moderately, but a pot with a hole tends to be more forgiving.
Haworthia come in a huge variety of shapes and colours, from spirals to geometric, sculptural forms. They are slow-growing succulents that like warmer temperatures and lower light levels, which makes them well suited to growing indoors. Their main growing season is winter. Haworthia are native to Southern Africa, where they grow camouflaged among arid, rocky outcrops and have adapted to survive extreme heat with very little water.
Aeonium tabuliforme is one of the most striking species of Aeonium, with a Fibonacci spiral of leaves and a compact, nearly flat form. It grows well outdoors but is sensitive to cold, so it needs protection from frost and from temperatures below 4°C. Plant it at a slight angle so that water drains off the crown (centre). In the wild it grows on cliff faces, so it can even be planted vertically in walls or rockeries, which makes it a good choice for vertical gardens.
It can take temperatures well below freezing, so in the UK it can be grown outdoors all year round. Aloe polyphylla is native to the Maluti mountains of Lesotho, where it grows in mineral-rich soils through snowy winters. It is also the national plant of Lesotho. Unlike many succulents, the Spiral Aloe is quite thirsty and hungry, and needs more frequent watering and feeding during its growing season.
Their strong structural shapes make them excellent feature plants for pots, gardens and rockeries. Many species can take temperatures well below freezing and will grow outside in the UK if the drainage is good. Take care when handling them: they are covered in sharp spikes that protect them from herbivores in the dry places they come from, where water is scarce. Agave leaves unfold very slowly and neatly from a central conical crown, often leaving pronounced markings where the previous leaves rested.
There are about 35 species of Aeonium, all in the Crassulaceae family. Most are native to the Canary Islands, but they are also found in Madeira, Morocco, the Cape Verde Islands and the east coast of Africa. These succulents are adapted to very dry environments and store water in their leaves and stems. Aeoniums come in many shapes and sizes, from the ornamental Aeonium 'Medusa' to the large Aeonium 'Pomegranate' (shown) and the smaller Aeonium aizoon.
If you have grown Aeoniums yourself, we would be very grateful for your comments, as they help other readers grow these plants. Our Aeoniums come back to life and start to change colour as winter turns to spring and the warm winds return. As soon as we get a full day of sun, the colours really begin to transform. Aeonium ‘Blushing Beauty’, for example, turns from lime green to an orangey pink.
