Hello and welcome to my blog! This is my very first blog post and I’m very excited! Today we’re going to be saving my roommate’s pot of succulents that she has in our living room. It was being neglected at her parents house, so I am going to fix it up and bring it back to life!
Before 
After
Saving the healthy succulents
The first thing I did was save the healthy succulents. I carefully removed whole succulents from the soil and set them aside. I then scavenged for succulent leaves that had fallen off and put those aside, as well. I will be able to propagate them and grow new succulents!
After picking out the savable succulents, I removed any dead foliage. This exposes the succulent’s stems and will facilitate new growth. I then rinsed them off in water. I did this because there was mold growing on top of the soil, and I didn’t want contaminate the new soil.
Out with the old
The next step involved getting rid of the old soil and dead foliage. I would normally compost these items, but I chose not to because of the mold that was growing on top of the soil. I then proceeded to to wash the pot with warm water.
Propagating “Leggy” Succulents
Before I talk about the process of turning this one succulent into eight (8) new succulents, I will tell you what it means for a succulent to be “leggy.” As seen in the picture below, a leggy succulent has a lot of space in between each leaf. This is the result of getting an improper amount of direct sunlight each day. As a general rule, succulents should get at least three (3) hours of direct sunlight each day.
Now for the fun part: creating new succulents! This is a very simple process and can be done with most succulents. All you need to do is grab one of the leaves and gently twist it off. It’s as simple as that! Each leaf will turn into a brand new succulent if propagated correctly (I will be posting a how-to tutorial on how to do this next week, so stay tuned!). For this specific succulent, I removed the seven (7) larger leaves, but I kept the head intact (the very top of the succulent where the leaves are clustered together). After removing the leaves, I cut the stem just below the head. By placing the head on top of the soil, it will eventually grow new roots!
Potting The Fresh Succulents
To begin repotting these succulents, I put fresh potting soil into the pot. In order to help with rooting and prevent root shock, I added water to the soil to moisten it. For each larger succulents that had roots, I created a hole approximately 1″ deep. I then placed the succulent inside, ensuring that all of the leaves are above the soil.
That’s all it takes! My roommate now has healthy succulents and I will be propagating the leaves to create even more!
Before 
After
Thank you for sharing this information. It is really interesting learning about how to bring a neglected succulent back to life. I think that I am going to have to try this on a succulent that my grandmother has, that has seen better days.