Thanks Bunny! I've only got about 5 non succulent plants, so I didn't count them. The funny thing is, 300+ feels a little small! ;-) I just got back from a friends place thise weekend, who has easily 1000+ succulents! True, he is dabbling in commercial growing, but it still puts my number in perspective. As to where I grow them: anywhere they'll fit! I live in an apartment, but thankfully my landlady has let me slowly take over just about the available space on the property...

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Most of my plants are in the back yard. These two racks get full sun for almost the entire day.

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This is an older picture of my part-sun rack. Those big plants have all been moved off it, and it is now covered in Aloes!

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This is my full-shade rack, as well as where I keep my potting supplies.

I've also got a front porch with more racks set up, but I don't have any photos of that...

Wow......I'm so jealous. I live in a house, but I don't trust putting any of my plants (except my Citrus tree) outside during the summer 'cause where I live (Southern Alberta, Canada) the weather's so unpredictable. Mid June and we were still dipping to zero celsius and lower...with an incredible amount of rain...dunno how many succulents could handle that for several weeks....

I almost went to Rona today to buy another shelf to take up another wall in the house, but I don't know how hubby'd react to that...he enjoys some wall space as well so he can hang his swords.

Another issue I have here is that being in Canada...we don't get very many uncommon, let alone rare and interesting succulents here. Mostly just run of the mill stuff.....eew...there's a spider on my window......not that I don't love all my plants for their leafy goodness...

But man I'm so jealous...I could stare at your pics all day...

I'm still bowing by the way.....

My list says right at 350, but I'm sure there are a couple I lost this summer that didn't get deleted, but then there are several cuttings I haven't added, which I do when they're thoroughly rooted and showing signs of growth. That includes my ever-growing Hoya collection. A few years ago, before I started downsizing my succulent collection as my Hoyas grew, I had more like 450. And yes, it's quite a challenge to grow that many in our climate! I don't use grow lights, so none go to the basement. They mostly get packed into my little 7x16 GH (off my kitchen...) and the rest around my abundant windows in the house. I've started the process of bringing in because it seems fall may come early... *sigh*

Denise in Omaha

I wish I could share with you guys all my sunshine here!
Though I have the space, I don't have many succulents yet because not many species are available. Yet, I'm increasing my collection noticably... :-o)

Succulent is as bad as hoya for addiction!

Xuan

I have 211 pots all together.
97 cacti/succulents
63 cacti/succulent cuttings
25 cacti seedlings and counting
26 assorted houseplants
I hope to one day have 1000+ That would be so awesome. In due time. In due time.

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This is my tiny deck outside my townhouse. Getting kind of cramped :)

if your just counting succulents I have around 50 but if you count my epies 500 mature and young rooted cuttings,hoya 15, plus Selenicerus Anthonyanus,grandiflorus,Hylocereus spinulosus,and the list goes on for about 900 more types of cactus, I keep them is shade houses and green houses and every fall the all go into my basement under lights for the long New England winter, would I give them up never in this life time

About 430, the vast majority being non-epiphytic cacti, but also some epiphytic cacti, succulents, Hoya and a few orchids.

With my buying frenzy in August my total is around 1000. In another couple of weeks I'll be going to another sale, then there's the UC Davis sale in October so that will put my count a bit higher.

My back's getting sore from bowing...you guys are my inspiration!

"Anyone else out there keep track of how many plants they have in their collection?"

Are you kidding??? I'm the Quintessential Virgo...I keep track of EVERYTHING! = )

Seriously, I maintain a spreadsheet of all species I currently have, as well as all "unsuccessful" species. I update the status in the doc (when they bloom, etc.) continually. It helps (especially with my Fouquieria's) give me an idea of the cycle each plant follows from year-to-year.

I don't separate succulents from the rest on the spreadsheet, but I have about 70 species of succulents/cacti. All but 8 plants are in-ground.

Great question, Jo!
Cheers,
Tristan

And here I have a measly 46 as of now. I managed to thin out my collection this spring, but then I bought 30 more throughout the summer, so I may well be on my way. I have to limit myself though, because my plants all need to come inside under lights for the winter (within the next month probably). I also keep a list of all my plants, date obtained, where they came from, and just recently added a section for when they were last repotted. It comes in handy.

I really find all of this very inspirational, or at least comforting. Every once in a while, I sort of stand back and ask myself, "What are you thinking buying so many plants!?" But it really is my interest, and seeing so many others share the addiction makes me feel good about my collection. The other thing that impresses me, is how much devotion there is to these plants. Gardenbear, moving that many plants each year could only be called a labor of love. Seeing how much effort you put in makes me think I should do more with my good weather. Denise, stuffing all those plants into your greenhouse! Seriously, you guys make me feel so lazy!

The other thing I like about this thread is how well it illustrates everyone's different interests around here. From epies to hoyas and fat plants to tropicals, there is an astounding variety of species being grown by our forum members. (Now *that* would be a super interesting question: How many different species are being grown by all the members of this forum?!)

Much thanks to everyone who has shared so far. Hopefully some more of you will join in the fun! ;-)

Last time I checked, I had about 60 small pots of cacti and succulents, which is a pretty sorry amount when compared to some of the other numbers here. Many of mine came from cuttings I took on vacation in Florida, or even broken pieces from the floor of a greenhouse or two. I even have a couple of plants I started from a single leaf, such as a Kalanchoe beharensis 'Fang'. With not much in the budget for expensive succulents, and a wife with a limited appreciation of what is this forum's passion, I have had to limit myself to mainly the more common species.

But I love succulents and have since I was 9 and I bought my first plant, a jade. That would be another interesting question for the forum...What is the first succulent you bought, and how old were you when you bought it?

Christopher

wow i cant wait to show my girlfriend this post so she sees my 20 something is not bad at all...
Of course that dint work with my five fish tanks (compared to others who have 20 or 30) but it will help. I am glad i found this site feeling overwhelmed and uninformed. Went to barnes and nobles today to do research and they had one book which i already read and it was a beginner book...

I remember my very first succulent which was my very first plant as well. Just a regular Sansevieria trifasciata. I was 10 years old. I eventually managed to kill it though...and I've had to start my collection from scratch a couple different times. Each time I seem to start with a Sans. This collection I started with a Sans...I named him Sam the Sans.

Ooooh! And good news. Hubby's cool with me buying another shelf! Yay! More space for more plants...considering I bought 4 more today...I think it's a really good thing.

My first succulent was Cyphostemma juttae purchased in the early spring of 1991 at Home Depot in a 3-4" pot. Surprising I haven't killed and it is one of the gems of my collection.

My first plant was a Faucaria tuberculosa my wife (girlfriend at the time) bought for me at a garden center in St Louis, MO in 2004. It made the move out to L.A. with me, and is still doing great after all these years. It gives me unimaginable delight to bring up the fact that *she* was the one that got me into this hobby/obsession! :-)

More than 100 but less than 125. No exact count is available at this time.
I have 3 cactus tables outside. If there is a space due to a fatality I might buy a new item, but what the tables can hold is all I can handle.
My first buys were in about 1980. 4 ball-type cacti in the 2 inch pots. Still have those but they are in individual 8 inch pan pots now.
This year I have purchased maybe 4 aloes and 2 dudleyas. And I got a thick 2 foot tall Lophocereus Schottii Monstrose off of craigs list that is pretty cool.

I don't have an exact count but I would imagine it is in the neighborhood of 700-800 succulents...but that number is misleading - a 4 inch pot of Lithops can easily hold 30+ plants so 10 pots like that and you already have 300+ plants.

X

As far as my first succulent, I'm kinda in the same boat as Jo...when we decided to buy a house, we also made the decision that we both wanted to be in AZ (Land of the Succulents). And, one of the things I looked forward to the MOST about owning my own home, was having a yard where I could wreak havoc (it's in my blood...my dad spent most of his days in his garden when I was growing up) and create my own little plant world.
I moved out to AZ (from the midwest) 2 weeks later than Jacob, but when I arrived (on our 1st wedding anniversary), one of the gifts he gave me was a Golden Barrel Cactus.
It was the first thing I planted when we moved into the new house 2 months later (and is still going strong).
It was certainly not the last (often much to Jacob's chagrin!). So, it's his fault, 'cuz he started it! = )
Cheers,
Tristan

I lost tract somewhere after 600. That is about half of the total number of pots, although I have multiples of many species. Add another 100 or so in the ground.

It looks like my wife may be right. She thinks I have way too many...

350 is the number of different species I grow, about 50 different genera and 17 different families. My mom always said that variety is the spice of life!

Deep Roots - you should teach a class in restraint! This is a hobby that so easily turns into an obsession. There's a lady in my C&S club who makes me feel like I have great restraint, but most of the people I know think I must surely be crazy to have so many plants!

Denise in Omaha

I found this thread and read the whole thing with great longing! I only have 35 ccacti and succulents, along with 9 other plants and several chinese takeaway trays full of cuttings and some cuttings rooting in water. I live in england so I can't keep cacti or most succulents outside, and Im only 16 and have disaproving parents so all of my plants are crammed into my little bedroom, with the curtains open 24/7. I just cleared off the top of a booksehlf thing and got some new shelves so there are lots of gaps wating to be filled now :P, but the nearest garden center is miles away and I get plants regularly from homebase so I don't know what half of them are called. one day I will own a house and have a job. then I will not be able to move for cacti and succulents hopefully.

Oh flupmakintosh. You sound like me when I was 16 living with my dad. Him and my step mom didn't understand my love of plants. When I had like 5 they were like "oh that's too many, what do you need those for anyways? They're not useful..." etc. My litte bedroom was cramped with plants, and just to rub it in, I got a lizard too, and every once in a while I'd let a cricket loose in the basement to chirp all day and all night long. It drove my dad absolutely INSANE!

That...was my payback. GO PLANTS!

Too funny, BG! I was about that age - 17, actually - when my future MIL (then my boyfriend's mom) got me fascinated with these wonderful plants. She had a common Sans, Aloe vera, Kalanchoe Mother of Thousands (whose name is too much of a tongue twister for me to remember, and she called it "Monkey Pod Tree" - go figure), and a few other interesting ones. She gave me starts to all of them. And then, on Valentine's Day 1977, my boyfriend (future 1st husband!) gave me a Hoya. I was hooked! (More on the plants than the guy!)

And here I am 30-some years later, swimming in plants and loving every minute of it!

Denise in Omaha

10 years ago I immigrated from Europe with 2,000 plants. Now I don't know their number. It just looks like this in the greenhouse and in most parts of the garden.
Jordi

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Doubt that anyone can top Jordi "the king of cacti". : )
I still only have around 300+ myself. Of course, my greenhouse is a small shack compared to his. LOL

Free cactus to whomever builds me a very very VERY large greenhouse.......................please?

Dang Jordi. That's one heck of a collection you've got there! Alot of those cacti looks just splendid!

I have about 55-60 individual succulent plants, some of whom share containers. All of them are in the Crassulaceae family, except for 3 Haworthia attenuatas, 3 Anacampseros rufescens, and 1 Anacampseros telephiastrum variegata. Of the Crassulaceae, I have 7 Echeverias (1 peacockii and 6 Perle von Nurnberg). Of the remaining plants, most are good ol' Crassula ovata. I have regular jade, small-leaved, variegated/tricolor, Hummel's Sunset, Hobbit, and Gollum. The way I ended up with so many of the same plant is that Home Depot and nurseries stick several trunks in one pot, but I separate them. My purchase of a large Crassula Ovata 'Hobbit' ended up being 10 separate plants!

My first succulent purchase was a small-leaved crassula ovata with three separate trunks in one pot. I bought it about 9 years ago, and now it's 6 separate plants who are much healthier and happier since I found this website! They were so tall and spindly that I decided to cut each plant in half, and they are all thriving. On a sidenote, when I bought the plant it was just labeled "Jade," so I assumed all jades had small leaves. I didn't see a regular jade until last Fall, and boy was I shocked at its size!

Sarah

make that 36! I have had cacti or succulents since we moved into our house 10 years ago, there was an empty greenhouse in the garden (unfortunatley given away now) and I found a cactus tucked away in a corner and had it in my bedroom. It survived untill I was about 10 and then dad put it outside because "plants don't live in the house" and it was promptley eradicated by an english winter, this started a cycle of me buying cacti or succulents and dad putting them outside to die. about three years ago my aunt gave me some cuttings from her jade plant and I grew them into full plants, that stumped dad because he can't throw gifts away :D so I got to build up a large collection of cacti and succulents, unfortunatley the original jade plants were killed by my brother, but she said I can have loads any time I want because her plant is to big to be on the windowsill of her kitchen now! I may go and get some today because you guys have inspired me :) so realy I have to thank my dad for making me so determined!

Jordi is in a whole different league! I can only imagine what a nightmare it must have been to move so many plants half-way across the world! (And *three* A. pillansii in one picture? I'm so jealous!!!)

Thanks again to everyone for sharing. This really is an exceptionally interesting thread!

I have not enough and to many.

Hey, Jo!
Well, after seeing this Thread pop up, you convinced me to count my succulents.
I have 31 - most of them Jades, with duplicates/cuttings.

Josh

I'm not naturally organized but i do have a spreadsheet of my succulents. I have about 70 most of them I got this year. I have some duplicates and some just didn't make the list at all, some seedlings/cuttings too.
First succulent? hmmm??? sansevieria cylindrica a lady gave me at a swap.
And then there are another 50 or so hoyas in pots.
There were many years when I didn't grow anything but roses in pots although I have almost always been a gardener starting at about age 8.

WOW........You all are great, what collections you all have...
I have about 125 give or take....I just lost a lot, most of my hoyas to mealy bugs, I just could not win...
and I lost a few cactus that got broken when my son was playing football with his dog...
I was wondering if all these plants are in your homes, I did see a few have greenhouses but the rest I was just wondering....
My 125 give of take a few are in my house in the winter and outside over summer....
alot of moveing in and out....
I would love to see all of the collextions I just plan love plants haveing them and seeing them...
great growing to you all...........
linda

All of my plants are kept inside. A large majority of them are on shelves under artificial lighting, and a few are infront of my large north window (only the ones that can handle somewhat lower light of course).

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Of succulents, about 50 in pots and 50 in the ground. The largest one is a Dasylirion longissimum at 6'x6' and the smallest one is an (unhappy) Anacampseros at 2"x2". I got my first two plants, a Graptopetalum paraguayense and a Sedum dasyphyllum, from a neighbor when I was 5 years old. I still have the same Sedum! Different pot, though--except I still have the pot it was originally in. Somehow lost the Graptopetalum over 3 or 4 relocations. Too bad she did not give me an Aloe dichotoma--think how much that would have grown in a few decades...

I have... six, plus about that number in cuttings and off-parts. The non-cacti are a small yucca and an inch-wide spider plant offshoot that's neither rooted nor withered in the week and a half I've had it.

I'm going to drag out the stand-up greenhouse and put most of them outside, I think. Even though the garden faces north, it's raised half a room high and a couple of spots get almost full sun.

I have all my plants listed in a log on the computer on another web site, so it is easy to track them all... of course, the total includes the dead or gifted plants so I really don't have as many different plant species as my log says I do... but I did at one time. So if you dont' include the 550 plants I DID have, but no longer do, I have about 3000 plants in my collection (most are different species)... unfortunately this does not include seedlings, cuttings, pups, or anything that grew on its own... so should I include all those I would put it at more like 3500. Oh well...time to thin the herd. A lot of plants for a yard the size of most homes in some areas of the country.

This is a losing game...there's always someone who has more plants than you do.

Maybe a more interesting question is, what is your "plant load." How many plants are you comfortable with keeping, and what are your special interests?

-R

I don't think it was meant as a game, more like a survey of plant collection sizes. I can comfortably host about 250 plants, which is half the number I have today (for natural reasons I try to get cacti as small and short-spined as possible). I don't care much about how they look as long as they have those big, brightly colored flowers with that peculiar, reflective sheen. So, lots of South American cacti and many Echinocereus. Plus some Opuntia, which really take up too much space. And a few Astrophytum.

I guess you don't know what "a losing game" means.

It means you can't ever win.

In this case because there will always be someone with more plants than you.

-R

-R,

With all due respect, you don't know the first thing about what TJ knows and doesn't. He's been a valuable contributor for some time. Please note that you haven't been. I hope you become one, but so far you seem to go out of your way to comment inappropriately.

Land,

You seem to be missing the point that this was not a competition. It may be to you, but wasn't posted as such btwn these participants. Seems to me more as TJ suggests abt comparing different folks' varying comfort levels w/ different size collections.

"It means you can't ever win."

That is what I thought. The question is whether I misunderstood the purpose of this thread or not.

And, TJ, have you? I'll bet you a mealy-infested Haworthia emelyae that you have not.

At last count I had over 300 plants in about 225 varieties. Only a few are in pots, most are crowded into my small front garden. Even though I've now moved a few blocks away, my soon-to-be ex-wife has graciously allowed me to continue maintaining MY garden. I don't have any recent pictures of the whole area, but here are a few views at least a year old:
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The only non-succulent plants are a couple of Grevilleas and Arctostaphylos rudis (Manzanita)

David, your collection continues to amaze me, and, being from almost the North Pole regions, makes me green with envy.

Christopher

I haven't counted mine lately, I lost a great deal to our cold weather two years ago. It's not how many you have, but how you care for them. I started at 4.5 years old, when they were making Shirley Temple doll clothes for a doll that I was to receive for my birthday. They sent me out to take care of the cactus, I then started buying them for 12-19 cents each. I became hooked no pun intended just like the rest of you. Norma

Actually my plant count is really a point of shame... WAY too many plants, and WAY too crowded in a tiny yard. I should be on an episode of hoarders... which is why I am currently in the process of downsizing... dumping most of my cacti and agaves off at the local cactus meetings in an effort to be able to enjoy the back yard again. Certainly did not mean to accumulate so many. Now, if you asked me how many really nice plants I have, it would be a much tinier number. And that is my goal someday is to keep it at that number.

Probably a couple hundred species in this shot alone of one corner of my what once was a fairly open, spacious yard. Desert plants on left, tropical plant on right
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Even starting to have to put potted stuff in the driveway (lost about 20 plants so far to greedy passers by this way)
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Every square inch eventually gets filled up with something

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