Do you have what it takes to own a succulent?

Hey SUCCAs! Yet again, it is another great week to write a blog about succulents! I would like to start this blog off by thanking each and every one of you SUCCAs who have been here with me since day one. It truly does mean a lot and I enjoy writing for you guys more and more every week. This blog is going to be just a tad longer than my previous ones, so hopefully you have the willpower to stay with me until the end. However, this blog is not only about succulents… it’s about you too. No need to worry though!

So now that I’ve probably already freaked you out, let’s start off with a couple of questions:

1. Are you willing to take time out of your day to benefit another’s life?

2. Do you have commitment issues when it comes to weekly tasks?

3. Are you willing to talk about something else other than succulents this week?

4. Are you willing to talk about yourself?

Now hopefully you’ve thought of some answers to the questions listed above, but the main question is:

Do you have what it takes to be a succulent owner?

Over the course of the past seven weeks I have taken some serious time to discover who I am as a person and if I have the personality/character traits of what it takes to be the best succulent owner ever. How am I correlating personality traits with how well you could own a plant? Well think of it this way, if you have to have the right traits you most likely going to properly, and successfully, take care of a precious little plant. You can’t be an, “Oh I’ll just do it later, plant lives’ don’t matter” type of person, or else your succulent will die within a couple of weeks. What personality traits do you need to have in order to be an ideal plant owner and how did I choose these traits? Well, I chose these specific traits by watching other people’s successes and failures when taking care of their own plants. For example, there’s my friend who forgot their plant existed and then my mother who waters her garden of flowers/plants every night. You can already imagine how the plants’ lives were different. Throughout this post I will discuss the best personality traits you should have when being a succulent owner, whether or not to buy the plant once you discover who you are as a person, and you’ll finally find out if I’m fit to own a succulent.

By the time you get through this blog, I want you to not only figure out who you are as a human being, but to also find out if you are the right fit for owning a succulent by yourself. You may be thinking, “Courtney, seriously? I can easily care for a plant regardless on if my personality is or isn’t what you say it should be. You’re crazy.” Well, you may in fact be a hundred percent correct, but keep in mind that this blog is mainly to help the SUCCAs who do not know whether or not to buy a succulent. Think of this post as a helping hand and an answer to the question, ‘Will I end up killing my plant or will my plant thrive?’. Many of you, may be on the fence on deciding whether to make a plant purchase or not. Don’t worry I was in your exact same spot, but once I aligned who I am as an individual compared to who I am as a person with a succulent by my side, I immediately knew which path to take. However, the question is do you know what path to take?

I’ll be honest, I have never owned a succulent in my entire life. Would I go back in time and purchase one? Do I regret not being a cool person? No. Truth is I didn’t even realize they were such a popular plant until I came to Ball State University. However, whenever a person is given a task to write about them for a consecutive 15 weeks, they start to learn a ton of information. Information that you wouldn’t even think was real. For example, I had no clue that succulents didn’t need as much water as most plants. I didn’t know that they are supposed to be the easiest plant to take care of. I also didn’t know that people went to the extremes with this plant, like having succulent themed wedding decorations. Do you see what I’m saying when you wouldn’t think it was real? Is making succulents wedding decorations too far? I’m not sure. Although there is a lot that I don’t know about succulents, there is one thing that I am sure of.

That your personality must match up with the following criteria:

1. You have to be a giver, not a receiver

As a succulent owner, you must realize that you are giving all of your effort towards this plant and it will give you nothing in return. As a short comparison…imagine that you are Santa Claus. He gives his love and expensive presents to the entire world, but he doesn’t expect anything back. Sometimes families will leave him a few chocolate chip cookies and a cup of milk. Same with your succulent. You are going to give it water, provide the love, you will do all of the talking, and you will make sure it gets the proper sunlight. What will you get in return? Little to nothing. You will get a nice decoration in your windowsill and potential comments on your plant, but it’s not going to say thank you, make you food, or even give you the smallest present. You have to be okay with giving all of your time and effort towards this succulent without getting anything back.

2. You can be a procrastinator, but you must consistently get the task done

Okay, so I haven’t met one person who hasn’t procrastinated at least once in their life. I procrastinate every day, it’s just a part of my personality. I’m not ashamed. Some common examples of mine include: Not finishing my homework until a minute before it’s due, I don’t clean my room until it actually NEEDS it, and I leave my house when there’s five minutes until class starts. All of these are not my best moments, but it gave me an idea on if I should become a succulent owner or not. Now that I told you some of my life situations, I want you to think about some of yours. Do you procrastinate a lot? Do you procrastinate until the very last minute, but still manage to get things done? Well, if you’re one of those people… you have what it takes to be a succulent owner.

Here’s the thing, when you have a succulent’s life in your hands, you have to water it. Thank goodness for us procrastinators that you are only required to water it every other week. This means that you can go without watering it for up to 14 days, but whenever the time comes, you have to provide it with some moisture. We all know that a succulent is an easy plant to take care of due to how little you have to water it, we even just went through how little you actually do have to water it, but you have to get the task done. Think of it this in a procrastinator’s perspective, if you don’t water it one week, you can just wait until the next! As long as you water it at some point, no matter what level of a procrastinator you are… you can definitely take great care of this plant.

3. You must be passionate and be able to overcome difficult situations

The second that you purchase the succulent you are in full control of the rest of its life. It’s not just about watering it. It’s about providing it with the best life that you can give it. You must have passion when caring for this plant. You have to WANT to water it, you have to WANT to put it in the sunlight, and you have to WANT to go above and beyond for your succulent’s life. I’m not saying to go crazy and throw it birthday parties and dress it up for Halloween, but it needs to know that it’s not just a plant to you. It has to know that it’s your plant. Perhaps you could paint its pot, say good morning and goodnight, and maybe even put some other plants beside it!

Now moving on to the difficult situations part of succulents. You have to realize that a succulent will not live forever. There will come a time where it will wilt and never come back. You have to be able to wrap your head around that idea and not become too attached. That’s just part of life. As a succulent owner, you must also know that along the road it will have hard days as well. Some days the sun won’t shine, some days it’ll wilt, and some days it’ll be extremely dry. This is where you SUCC it up and become a strong person for your plant. It needs you on these difficult days and you are the only one who can help it.

WHEW.

We’ve made it past what it takes to be a succulent owner. Does your personality fit the criteria? If it does, then that’s wonderful. You shouldn’t hesitate one bit on buying a succulent! However, if what I described above is the complete opposite of your personality, that’s okay. Right now, you may not have what it takes to successfully care for this plant, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t change. Make it so that you are forcing yourself to get tasks done, know that your succulent can’t give anything back to you, and stand by your succulent through the hardest times of its life. If you can do those three things, then you are golden and on the right path to a successful life with a plant.

So, many of you may be wondering if I am a good fit to care for a plant. The truth of the matter is, no I’m not the ideal person to be a succulent owner. Although I get things done and realize that owning a plant won’t benefit my life at all, I lack passion. I don’t want to be in charge of a plant’s life, and I don’t think that I would give it the love that it truly deserves. I already know that I would just treat it as an object in a windowsill and nothing else. I would probably forget to water it, which would cut its life short. I can’t be responsible for something like that. All in all, I know for a fact that I won’t be putting my everything into a succulent, because I don’t have interest in taking care of a plant like other people do.

For the those of you whose personalities were described within the three personality traits needed, you should for sure consider investing in buying a succulent. You definitely have what it takes to keep the plant alive, you will more than likely provide it with water, love, and you will never leave its side. Do not be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone.

However, for the ones who are like me, I don’t recommend buying a succulent. There are better homes out there for them. They wouldn’t be living their best life.

If you SUCCAs enjoyed this post on succulents, check out me and my succulent group’s other blog posts on https://aguidetosucculents.wixsite.com/website. They range from ‘What is a Succulent’ to ‘Succulent vs. My Little Brother’. Crazy right? I hope this blog helped your decision on buying one of the world’s most popular plants!

Until the next time SUCCAs!