My “Under the Sea” Coral Reef Themed Succulent Bed Arrangement

Back in July, I took a visit to a local plant nursery and picked up a large number of the few pots of succulents and cacti they had for sale. I did my absolute best to buy succulents I didn’t see in my local grocery store – which often has a decent range of succulents and a plethora of teeny-weenie cacti on sale. The result from the plant nursery was a decent-sized haul.

I came home, ripped out half the lavender I’d planted earlier in the year in the flower bed in our front garden, and replaced it completely with this gorgeousness:

Shout out to hubby for recommending I put in some colourful grocery store kalanchoe blossfeldiana to make the arrangement pop. I selected only two colours – pink & orange – ones I thought looked coral enough and that the other succulents didn’t have. Love the result of adding the kalanchoes; the arrangement didn’t even have half the impact without these.

Some close ups;

I wasn’t expecting to do much more to this arrangement besides wait on a shipment of lovely black rock to top dress with. That being said, a heat wave struck the next few weeks, and a few slightly sunburned plants needed moving (some which sadly didn’t make it). Then over the following week or two, noticed a few neighbourhood cats beginning to use the in-between sections as a litter box… not good as they kept uprooting a few plants.

Essentially, it became pretty clear pretty quickly that I chose the wrong flower bed for this beauty. To save my plants, a few weeks later, I moved every plant out to a number of well-draining terracotta pots. A bit defeated, but still very happy with the terracotta pots, so no big deal.

If I’d had that magical lava rock top dressing that cats don’t typically like to walk over, I may have left this arrangement there. Still, the way things turned out is quite alright. I’m happy to wait and give this bed another go with plants propagated from the pots.

So glad I have photos of this bed’s beauty. Hopefully it’ll give you an idea or two of what plants you might want to use if you’re planning out a colourful, under-the-sea themed succulent bed arrangement yourself.