I just recently learned of the term "hard grown", have others hurd of this term? Or have you done this type of growing technique intentionally? I've been doing this for years but never knew there was an actual term for it. It gives a plant wild/bonsai type of character.

Hallow said:I just recently learned of the term "hard grown", have others hurd of this term? Or have you done this type of growing technique intentionally? I've been doing this for years but never knew there was an actual term for it. It gives a plant wild/bonsai type of character.

No, I think it means plants grown in hard conditions, acclimated to whatever weather extremes a region experiences. At least thats what I remember of the term...

Hard grown can also mean that you intentionally give the plant the minimum amount of care necessary to survive and grow, but usually that is paired with harsh or extreme conditions so high heat, intense sun to bring out the plant's more rugged aspects. This does not necessarily make them bonsai that involves things like aggressive root pruning and what not, but hard grown plants do tend to fall towards to the smaller end of their normal size range. Especially in Agaves and Cacti it tends to make the plants look more fierce with better developed spines and teeth.

There is a continuum but here are the extremes:

Hard conditions = max sun, min water, min nutrients (sometimes min space)
Hard grown = compact stems, firm leaves (sometimes with curling or other signs of dehydration, often with stress colors), slower growth. Glaucous plants often more glaucous, spiny plants often more spiny.

Soft conditions = filtered light, regular water, regular nutrients (or rich soil)
Soft grown = longer distance between leaves along the stem (or between successive areoles if it's a cactus), weaker stems, leaves greener and often droopy or floppy, faster growth, extreme senstivity to full sun if not gradually acclimatized

Your typical succulent for sale in a big box store is grown soft (a time advantage for growers in getting plants to market). Very few sale plants are grown hard. The economics make this a losing proposition unless your explicit goal is to produce plants that can tolerate harsh conditions right out of the gate. Your typical indoor plant (especially in latitudes above the subtropics) is grown soft unless it gets the absolute maximum amount of light. Your typical outdoor plant in full sun (reminder this means more than half a day of direct outdoor sun) is growing hard unless maybe it gets some kind of special pampering with water and nutrients, and only then in some cases. Light dominates this continuum but water and nutrients play a role, especially toward the extremes.

The hardest conditions are the harshest and the closest to the way things are in habitat for xeric plants. The softest conditions are a product of human care, generally too much protection and pampering, and soft-grown plants often look very much unlike plants in habitat.

I took some pictures of examples.
a year old rosemary.



A Jade, it blew off is stand and the top broke off. Where the new growth is coming it should give it some character in a few years.

a 5 year old rosemary grow it's whole life like the first one.


the little group

Based on Baja's conditions, I doubt any of us are growing a "hard grown" cactus or succulent. Maybe some shade of grey between hard and soft.

Did you know there is specialty black paint available that absorbs *even more* photons than regular black? True that.

I would think the closest I have gotten to "hard grown" is the succulents I installed in the park, which are growing in nutrient poor alluvial soil in nearly day-long sun, with zero irrigation (and only 5-8 inches of rain a year in recent years, none at all in the summer). The public garden closer to home is a similar situation (very rocky soil, nearly day long sun) and I don't water any of the big agaves out there at all. So yes, those two locations would qualify in my mind. If I didn't treat the agaves out there with total neglect, they would make even more pups and become even more gigantic, so growing them hard is actually a defined objective, and one I would recommend to anyone with a giant offsetting agave in the ground.

Most of the plants on our rooftop patio that receive nearly day-long sun are growing hard, if you were to judge them by their form, even if they do get a trickle of regular nutrients and weekly water. Limiting container size does affect the outcome there too, but the sun does sort of dominate in that situation.

An illustration: hard/soft (harder/softer if you prefer)

I wouldn't define hard grown by the sun. Any native habitat plant is almost by definition a hard grown plant and a great many of those grow in shady, swampy, temperate rainfall, rainforest, forest, as well as in sun. I think the distinguishing characteristic is the care they get which modifies the conditions they grow in naturally. I'm with Daisy in that I think there are many, many shades of grey in the definition. Plants have their own ideas, so some actually thrive outside their natural habitats.

Love the red Jade!!!!!
the tree in the background to the right is a fairly common where I live. It a look I try to mimic when I can. That's the look I want my rosemarys to have. That tree isn't very large but it's probably over 200 years old.

I remember when I started to grow cactus and succulents, I have some discussions/arguments with quite a lot of people on this, I assume all those plants are from desert and need maximum sun, should be grown outdoor, I really can not understand why everybody asked me to grow them in shade, no direct sunlight. That is how I lost my first batchs of echeverias, crasullas, sedums, etc. Even though I am not happy to admit that I was wrong, but that is the fact.

Hallow said:Love the red Jade!!!!!
the tree in the background to the right is a fairly common where I live. It a look I try to mimic when I can. That's the look I want my rosemarys to have. That tree isn't very large but it's probably over 200 years old.

You should enjoy the bonsai hobby then, if you have the time and passion, go for Japanese style, or go for Chinese style for something instant.

Kaktus said:I remember when I started to grow cactus and succulents, I have some discussions/arguments with quite a lot of people on this, I assume all those plants are from desert and need maximum sun, should be grown outdoor, I really can not understand why everybody asked me to grow them in shade, no direct sunlight. That is how I lost my first batchs of echeverias, crasullas, sedums, etc. Even though I am not happy to admit that I was wrong, but that is the fact.


You should enjoy the bonsai hobby then, if you have the time and passion, go for Japanese style, or go for Chinese style for something instant.

I have been considering bonsai for a long time now, bonsai would probably do very well in my environment. In my environment witch is often cool rarely higher than 90 and damp, it is a challenge to grow dessert types of succulents. Unless I keep succulents indoors all year they struggle.

DaisyI said:Based on Baja's conditions, I doubt any of us are growing a "hard grown" cactus or succulent. Maybe some shade of grey between hard and soft.

I think my semps grown in a clothespin box qualify/