Succulents taking centre stage

Succulents taking centre stage
By Joel Pearson Cyprus Mail

OVER the past summer, sweltering temperatures shrank Cyprus’ already depleted water reserves, pushing the drought to critical levels.

But while the grass turned a sickly yellow and the lilies languished, at least one group of plants was laughing drought in the face – the succulents.

With structural adaptations allowing them to survive with very little water, succulents and cacti seem to have found a place in the hearts of Cyprus’ gardeners as nurseries islandwide are reporting a marked increase in sales of the plants over the past months.

“Sales of succulents have indeed increased as people are looking for plants that are drought resistant,” Christos Djamas of the Christina Pieri Djama Ltd Garden Centre in Dherynia told the Sunday Mail. “A rough estimate is that the sale of cacti and succulents has doubled this year.”

He lists Aloe Vera, Crassula ovata and Kalanchoe blossfeldiana as some of the more popular varieties.

“People seem to avoid planting excess numbers of annual plants and most of them will ask for plants that do not need a lot of water.” While this would indicate that Cypriots are giving more consideration to the water crisis, Djamas believes the increase also “comes from our own promotion of cacti and succulents since they are the first plants we will recommend for gardens in Cyprus”.

“We have always been specialising in cacti and succulents and promoting them,” he said, “so we feel that now we are being proven right for our stand.”

The Green Garden in Limassol has also noticed a boom in succulent sales. A member of staff said on behalf of the centre’s director Nicos Themistocleous that they too recommended succulents to their customers and that “the importers of plants in Cyprus have over these months increased the quantity of succulents and cacti they import and so there is a much larger variety to choose from than in the past.”

“Over these last months, we have also been contacted by previous customers … to try and find ways to reduce the water consumption in their gardens - in some cases even by replacing with new plants which do not require much attention,” she added.

In 2007 the Cyprus Cactus & Succulent Society was established with Mary Michaelides as its president. “It aims at creating awareness about these amazing plants and the near-perfect climate we have in Cyprus for their growth and cultivation,” she said earlier this year. This week she said, “Nurseries have responded - we see them bringing more succulents in … We think they are giving them more space.”

However she said that some nurseries still do not know how to properly care for succulents, with over-watering and insufficient sunlight reducing the chances of the plants’ survival. “We need to educate nurseries on how to take care of the plants.”

Nurseries with the know-how could in turn give customers advice on how to effectively cultivate a succulent garden.

The Environment Commissioner, Charalambos Theopemptou, has collaborated with the Association in promoting the use of succulents as a water-wise gardening alternative.

“Succulents and cacti are the solution for people who cannot bear the thought of having no garden,” he said in an interview earlier this year.

The Commissioner was pleased that succulent sales had experienced a boost but said that it is the professional gardeners who need to be convinced to also “go in that direction”. “Professional gardeners especially choose plants that need a lot of water,” he said this week.

Despite the vast amounts of water it usually gulps, grass is almost always a feature of professionally maintained gardens such as those of some embassies, housing estates, hotels and municipalities.

“It is completely unacceptable for people to still be wasting water on lawns and flowers.” Theopemptou said.

“A grotesque feature” is how Alexander McGowan, the Cyprus Mail’s resident plant expert, describes lawns. Preferring gravel or even artificial grass over the genuine article, he too welcomes a greater emphasis on the use of succulents and cacti in Cyprus gardens.

He said that the culture of water-guzzling gardens in Cyprus is a relatively new one spawned from the influx of people to the island and that the ‘traditional’ Cypriot garden consisted of a lemon and olive tree in the backyard – trees that are well suited to cope with the Cyprus climate.

Through the use of succulents and other water-wise plants - lavender, gazania, rosemary, sage and thyme to name but a few - perhaps we can modify the ‘traditional’ garden into something more beautiful but equally eco-friendly – and there is much beauty to be found in the humble succulent. McGowan explained that “Many people are not aware that succulents are floral” and that in fact they have “a spectacular range of colour.”

The water shortage does not signal the end of gardens but rather a change in the type of plants green-fingered Cypriots should choose. Experts say that the recent rain doesn’t change the fact that there is still a critical water problem and now more than ever, Cypriots should be inviting prickly characters into their gardens.

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