Photos by Richard Maack “My husband and I have always been into eco-green. We were doing it before it was really fashionable to live that way.” — Patti Smith, Succulent Designs

Patti Smith’s live succulent wreaths are a gift that keeps on giving.

Like so many Valley residents, Patti Smith grew up in the Midwest, where humidity is plentiful and ferns and philodendron thrive. When she moved to the Valley in 1980, she had to think outside the container. “Cactus was the first logical step,” she says, adding that she began loading container gardens full of them. But cactus is so yesterday. Every tourist trap and airport gift shop stuffs them into pots and sells them for $25. “Everyone knows Arizona has cactus,” Smith says.

In 1997, she watched a Martha Stewart segment and found a new love: succulents. “Succulents have every form, shape, color and texture. They are fun, creative, unique, colorful and eco-friendly,” she says.

And a business was born.

Smith’s Apache Junction-based company, Succulent Designs, specializes in wreath and topiary arrangements made from drought-tolerant, long-lasting succulent plants. Placed in a wire form filled with sphagnum moss, the succulents take root, grow, and even change color with varied sun exposure and temperature. Recently mentioned in Birds & Blooms magazine, Smith’s homespun business has begun to take flight. By early October she was backlogged for deliveries into November. In her spare time she’s prepping for a holiday rush.

Smith realizes her labor of love is labor-intensive, meaning she’ll never get rich arranging wreaths. Small wreaths take about four hours to arrange, and a large wreath takes the better part of a day. At $109 for a large wreath, that’s about $15 an hour minus materials.

While agave and aloe are probably the most commonly recognized succulents, Smith works with at least 75 different succulent plant materials, depending on the season. Each 15-inch wreath is guaranteed to have a variety of more than 15 succulents. And not to worry, if plant names like crassula, graptopetalum, aeonium and X Pachyveria leave you saying “gesundheit,” Smith knows her plants. She has learned through years of tinkering how to best arrange a wreath for a long-lasting life.

Step 1 - Grow different varieties of succulents, including aloe and agave. Step 2 - Select multi-textured, seasonal clippings.

“There was a lot of trial and error,” she admits, saying that at first she had problems packing her wire wreath forms tightly enough. “Sometimes the plants would fall out because they were not rooted.” That was in the days when she worked as a postal clerk by day and made wreaths and succulent containers in the evening to unwind. She started giving the arrangements away as gifts. Finally, at the prompting of friends, she branched out into working craft fairs. And in December 2008, she created her web-based business, Succulent Designs.

Today, she knows just how to place the succulent clippings into sphagnum moss – a natural, high-quality moss “straight from the bog” – in order to foster plant health. She works hard to protect her plants from critters, as evidenced by the fact that her 20-by-8-foot sedum garden looks like Fort Knox with all the cement and chain link fencing around it. “This is raw desert. Out here it’s a battle with rabbits,” she says. “Those suckers find a way to get in.”

Smith does all her own planting and propagating, although she admits to assigning grunt work like digging and weed pulling to her husband. The fruits of their labor are live, eco-friendly arrangements that have found homes all over the country. “My husband and I have always been into eco-green. We were doing it before it was really fashionable to live that way,” she says.

At $55 to $109 per wreath, Smith’s prices are higher than the price of cut flower arrangements or evergreen wreaths. “You can buy a flower arrangement for someone for $50. In a week it’s in a landfill,” she says. “Something like this, even if it only lasts a couple of months, it’s still outliving a cut arrangement by a long stretch.” She insists that if customers follow directions, her wreaths can last for years. Her most outrageous prediction for how long her wreaths could live? Five years.

Though she’s based locally, a whopping 98 percent of Smith’s business comes from states other than Arizona. Her most popular products include 15-inch and 12-inch wreaths, which can either hang or lie flat with candles in the center. Though plants vary by season, Smith makes sure that all of her creations form a unique arrangement of textures and colors, including red, green, gold,  and sometimes, variegated white accents.

Some of Smith’s favorite varieties include:

Crassula: In layman’s terms, this is a compact jade. It helps wreaths hold their symmetry. “It is a living plant, and you will have to trim it. But if you start sticking all sort of plants on the outside, a wreath can lose its circular shape,” she says.

Sempervivum: This more muted green plant can add texture and depth. If trimmed, it gets bushy, and if left untrimmed it trails from your wreath.

Aeonium: Featuring long, reddish-tinted leaves, this succulent looks like an artichoke. Different degrees of sun exposure create a reddish hue. “It might be green when you get it, but by summer or winter it might change color,” she says. “Some plants get red with the sun. Some get red with the cold.”

Echivaria: This succulent is very green in the summer and becomes red-rimmed in the winter.

The key for longevity is to follow instructions. For example, when a wreath arrives, it is important to keep it flat for four to six weeks. When Smith places the plants into her arrangements, they are merely cuttings and need time to take root. Customers also must dial down the urge to water. “The worst thing you can do is overwater. Once the roots get rotten, the plant dies and you cannot bring it back,” she says.

In the end, Smith hopes her business will spin into a full-fledged, full-time job. In 2008, she took early retirement from the U.S. Post Office. Her kids are grown and gone. And her gardening and arranging is – outside of those pesky rabbits – fun and stress-free. “I would love for this to be what I do all day every day,” she says. “It’s a dream job.”

RESOURCE
Succulent Designs
Apache Junction
480-201-8959
etsy.com/shop/succulentdesigns