One mini garden I'm going to work on is a jade forest consisting of rooted cuttings.

The other will be an arid area type scene with caudiciform succulents, pachycaul tree cuttings and seed grown, and cacti grown from a free pack of mixed cactus seeds I got with an order of seeds.

I will use this thread to ask for advice and provide updates.

Plants I plan to put in the jade forest.
Crassula arborescens
Crassula arborescens undulatifolia
Crassula ovata
Crassula ovata crosby compact
Crassula ovata gollum
Crassula ovata hobbit
Crassula ovata hummel's sunset
Crassula ovata rubra

The number next to the plants is how many I will use an * means I don't know yet.
Plants I plan to put in the arid area scene.
Adansonia rubrostipa 1
Aloe dichotoma 2
Aloe ferox 1
some Aloinopsis 5
Beaucarnea recurvata 1
Dioscorea elephantipes 3
Dorstenia foetida 1
Euphorbia ambovombensis 1
Euphorbia capsaintemariensis 2
Euphorbia enopla 2
Euphorbia hedyotoides 2
Euphorbia suzannae-marnierae 2
Fockea edulis 1
Iberbillea lindheimeri 2
Ipomoea arborescens
Pachypodium brevicaule 2
Pachypodium gracilius
Titanopsis mix 6
mixed cacti 3

Will this be in a container? if so what will you use?
Is this an in house garden?
You have quite a collection of plants there.

They will be in a store bought containers that I will modify and decorate.
The arid area scene will take a while to start because a lot of those plants are slow growers and I'm going to grow them to a certain size before I put them in the garden.


I still have things to decide about both mini gardens like the size I want them to be (the arid area one will be the larger one), the placement of the plants, what decorations I want to use, the substrate I going to use for each one.

The mini gardens will always be inside under lights.

Concerning the arid area garden figuring out the substrate will require a lot of research.
One thing is should I come to a happy balance that all the plants will find average? Or should the substrate be different in different parts of the garden to suit each plant best?

Will you have drainage holes & be able to water copiously, with run-off? If so, I would just fill the containers with your mix.

Thats an amazing plan Adam.

I do actually use cuttings in many of my miniature gardens. Once they root some are dug out and potted for grow out. I do this with Boxwood and Juniper a lot. They don't go brown, create a great look immediately and the grow!

I updated my species list for the arid area garden by adding three species I just got seeds for.

Very impressive long list Adam!

Shallow containers with drainage will be very good!

Sounds like a good plan , I will be watching your progress.

When do you start your seeds?

I already have seedlings of most of them.

Here is the plastic container I bought to use for the arid land mini garden.


I going to have to modify it. For example it is clear so I'm going to make it opaque and drill drain holes.

Thats a nice size to work with. You can do a lot there!

Adam - I look forward to photos of your progress and the completion! Sounds like a great plan!