I’ve been on the road for the past 2 weeks. I’ve been traveling non-stop but have had such a blast meeting so many of you in person at both the Beekman Boy’s Summer Garden Party and the Country Living Magazine Fair in Rhinebeck, NY. While I was at the Country Living Magazine Fair, I did a presentation sharing how to create a beautiful succulent tea party tablescape.
I love to entertain and I love to send home a personalized planted tea cup with each of my friends. It’s a little piece of me and memory of the special day we all shared. Well as promised, here is the DIY tutorial for those of you that missed it in person.
I love succulents and I adore collecting vintage tea party items. I guess you could say I am kind of a hoarder of both! I guess it could be worse. Check out your local thrift stores. This is where I discover the best well worn treasures. In fact, I picked all these lovelies up at the local thrift for around $5 a piece.
Here’s what you will need to create these beauties on your own.
Supply List:
- assorted Succulents with a variety of leaf patterns, colors and shapes
- tea cups, teapots and sugar and creamers
- succulent potting soil
- garden pruners
- chopstick
- paint brush
- moss
- gift tag with string or ribbon
To begin, fill your vessel to the top rim with potting soil. Don’t worry about being a bit messy. We all get dirty doing this. I’ll show you how to clean up your mess in a jiffy. Plant the succulents into the dirt and pack them in tightly. You can take succulent cuttings too. With the garden pruners, snip off a sprig, like this sedum and tuck it into the teapot’s spout. It will make new roots.
All succulents will make new roots. You can also plant the leaves in soil too and they will root and create baby succulents of their own.
I even planted the lid of the tea pot with tiny little sprigs of succulents. It is a miniature little garden all on it’s own. I actually think it is my favorite part of this tea party!
If I’ve made you nervous about trying this, no worries. Chose one single succulent plant and pop it into a tea cup of it’s own. Like this beautiful one ready to bloom.
The sugar bowl is all planted up too. One trick that I like to share is try using a chopstick to help nudge things into the right spots in the planter. The closer you pack in the succulents the less likely they will be to get leggy.
Mix and match those colors and shapes. When you are done, simply tuck in some moss to fill in any small spots where the soil can be seen and then take your paint brush and give it a good dusting. The dirt miraculously comes right off. The best part is that the tender succulents are not damaged in anyway.
Because you have used succulent clippings in this craft, be sure to avoid watering for a couple of weeks until the succulents can scar off the cutting spot. Place your arrangements outside in a bright sunny spot on inside on the sunniest windowsill. As there are no drainage holes and succulents do not require much water, water them gingerly. I tell folks to let a couple of ice cubes melt and then water their teacups that way.
I hope I remembered all the key points for you as I have shared my succulent tea part tablescape and if you have any questions, feel free to pop them into a comment below. Happy planting!
Click here to watch my succulent tutorial that I did for Country Living Fair. Learn all the techniques that I shared in this post.
