Artificial Succulents & Cacti

Succulents and cacti give you a completely different look from leafy planting — dry, architectural and graphic rather than soft and abundant. They suit modern interiors, desks, shelves and bathrooms, and they work in small spaces where a leafy plant would simply be in the way.

There is a certain irony in artificial succulents, given these are the plants sold as impossible to kill. In practice they are killed constantly, almost always by overwatering, and they also need far more direct light than a desk or a shelf in an internal room can offer. Etiolated, stretched, leaning succulents reaching for a distant window are a very common sight. These stay compact and symmetrical.

The range covers echeveria rosettes, aloe and agave spikes, trailing string-of-pearls forms and classic columnar cacti. They are at their best grouped — several small pots clustered on a tray, or a mixed planting of different forms in one shallow bowl, which is how they would grow. Small, shallow containers suit them best; see ceramic planters and foliage plants.