As a natural born tight wad, I love free stuff, particularly free plants. That's why I'm hooked on succulents and their cousins the cacti. These are a unique group of plants that all share the same kind of specialized cells that allow them to hold tons of water in their stems and leaves. That's how they survive the long periods of drought in their homelands of southern Africa and the deserts of the Americas. It also explains why they are so easy to grow from cuttings, because they don't dehydrate before striking roots like ordinary plants. That means you don't have to be an expert to make more.

Each of the rounded fuzzy stems of this cactus can be separated at the base and rooted into a new individual.

            All cacti are succulent plants, but all succulents are not cacti. Cactus are strictly native to the New World, mostly in the American southwest, Mexico and South America. Most, but not all, come from very sunny, dry climates. Some, like the popular Christmas cactus, prefer more humidity and shade.

            Once I discovered how easy it was to turn one small succulent plant into many, they became best buys at the garden center. A $2 plant will eventually make me many more, costing pennies apiece. Anyone can create a whole garden of free succulent plants from cuttings, but only if you know the succulent secrets to success.

            Secret #1: Keep them sterile. Begin by thinking of a succulent plant like your own body. Naturally a cut must be kept clean so that bacteria can't enter to cause infection. Succulents are just as touchy about keeping their interior tissues sterile, so handle with care. When a cactus or succulent is punctured either by pruning, cutting or accident, organisms can enter to begin infection. The infection causes soft, slimy rot and discoloration.

This potting table at the Huntington Botanical Garden shows cactus cuttings lying out for days to dry and callus before rooting.

            Secret #2: Let it callus. When you take a succulent cutting, you can't just stick it in the soil or its wound will become infected. Instead, let the cutting sit in the open air, in full shade for a few days. It may take up to a few weeks until the wet end becomes thoroughly dried, which is called a callus. Only when fully callused is it suitable for rooting.

 In this display of small rosette succulents, some already have lots of offsets.  Buy these so you get many plants to separate and root immediately rather than just a single large one.

  Secret #3: Use offsets. Many kinds of succulent plants produce offsets, which are babies that form around the mother plant, as with the popular old-fashioned Sempervivum known as "hens and chicks.” Some, such as Kalanchoe daigremontiana, create babies along the edges of their leaves. The babies fall off and root all around the mother plant. To harvest the offsets to make a new plant, cut the stems and give these time to callus, too, before replanting.

            Secret #4: Root in sand. Ordinary coarse sand like the kind they use to make plaster is ideal for rooting. Put it in a well-drained pot and set the callused cuttings well into the sand. Coarse sand allows plenty of oxygen to promote root development and does not hold too much moisture.

            If you're short on cash, follow my lead and buy the smallest-sized succulents you can and grow them up into parents. In no time they'll have lots of offsets or branches you can cut and root.  Pot up the tender types to bring outside to dress up your porch or patio for the summer, then enjoy them all winter long on the windowsill. If you have a well-drained slope or rock garden, plant the hardy sorts outdoors where they're sun-drenched and dry.

            Let this be the year you begin your own romance with the succulent plant world. Like me, you'll soon fall in love with their extraordinary beauty, geometric perfection and incredible drought resistance.

Some years ago I helped out at Moorten Botanical Garden when a group of women from San Diego came in and bought many flats of our succulents.  They said they were creating an undersea garden.

Then this fall I was asked to speak at Quail Botanical Garden, recently renamed the San Diego Botanical Garden.  As I approached the building I encounted the very same garden those women were creating so long ago.  It was FABULOUS and I just had to share it with everyone.

As I studied this incredibly detailed compositon the words to the Beatles' song kept rolling through my head:

I'd like to be, under the sea/ in an octopus' garden in the shade...

Lo and behold the octopus was there, a giant Aloe vanbellini that had taken on incredible form and color due to the extremely dry conditions and full sun.

Behind is a vivid Euphorbia tirucalli 'Rubra' and a host of other Senecios, Crassulas and Euphorbs to name just a few.  And standing above them were the long treesses of Beaucarnea that wave in the breeze like sea grass

For even more interest they've used fossils and an old rusted anchor, cockle shells and lava rock to give it just the right look.  Check out the album in the Succulent Plant World group photo gallery!

I just set up a new gallery called Windowsill Succulent Inspiration for examples of how small potted succulents make some of the best holiday gifts!

This beautiful variegated rosette stands in bold contrast with the pot and the surface of ground recycled glass gives it even more pizzaz for a gift anyone would treasure!

I always begin with pots which typically come from yard sales or thrift stores.  Because most lack a drain hole in the bottom, you'll need a drill with a masonry bit and some masking tape.  Cut a piece of tape and then turn the pot upside down and stick the tape to the bottom.  This helps to support the ceramic and discourage cracks and chips.  Simply drill your drain hole through the tape and the pot and it is ready to plant. 

Once I have the pots ready, then I go to florists, house plant sellers or garden centers to peruse their winter succulent racks.  The goal is to match the right succulent with the pot you have selected and drilled out. 

Don't be afraid to go after vases and containers from '60s and '70s ceramics, particularly those oddballs that look like they were made in ceramics class by beginners as these are always one-of-a-kind.

Then set yourself up with cactus potting soil, pots, plants and gravel to make a whole garden of windowsill living sculptures to give away this holiday season.

Water them and they die.  Don't water them and they die.  Look at them cross-eyed and they go belly up.  This is the fate of those like me who have been spellbound by these oddball succulents that want to get lost in the rocks.  In their African homeland of ravenous herbivores, these plants have gone to great lengths to camoflage themselves in a sand and gravel landscape.  Living stones are a miracle of adaptation.

This group is headlined by genus Lithops, featuring plants with just two leaf surfaces that resemble the cloven hoof of an ox.  Each season they get all soft and wrinkley just before a new set of leaves rises out of the crack in the center.

Fortunately there are experts out there who can keep these tough and tempermental fellows alive.  The skilled folks at the Huntington Botanical Gardens manage to do this incredibly well in their greenhouse open to the public most days after 2:00 PM.  Even the mild climate of Los Angeles won't make the living stones happy unless conditions are strictly controlled. There is no other display in North America that comes close to the Huntington's collection, some of which I've posted in the Living Stones section of our photo gallery. 

community.learn2grow.com/succulents

Here's an old idea that new cactus lovers might really enjoy indoors or out.  It was created by Clark Moorten, curator of Moorten Botanical Garden in the California low desert.  The plant: Mammilaria spinossima.  Yes, it's growing out of the BOTTOM of the pot.  Note this is a plastic pot.

This cactus begins life as a small globe that elongates into snake like stems.  Those growing in my garden creep along the ground, growing at the tips which are ringed in flowers during the spring.  These crowns of blooms are a good way to identify Mammilarias.  

Below you'll see how the plant grows in habitat, creeping and branching, some stems low down and others upright.  There are many variations on this species, which can dangle down rock faces, slopes and off cliffs making it naturally adapted to upside down positions.

Here's how to make a topsy turvey cactus:

1. Select a well made 5-inch nursery pot with wire hanger.  Recycle one from a defunct house plant. 

2.  Obtain a Mammilaria spinosissima seedling by mail or nursery.

3.  Remove all the soil from the cactus roots.

4.  Cut a small X in the bottom of the pot, then push the points out to create a small opening at the center.

5.  Carefully insert the seedling head first through the hole from top to bottom.

6.  Snip off the sharp corners so they don't exert too much pressure on the cactus, but not so much that the roots or soil fall through.  YOu can snip more and more off as it grows larger.

7.  Fill the pot with sandy cactus potting soil mix and water in carefully. 

8.  Hang in bright shade protected from frost.