Er Nancy,

that is no decorative gravel. The plants are not planted in dirt. What you see is the substrate which is considered best for succulent plants, with very few organic compounds, though Sans survive in almost everything. Not counting Hermine's Sansevieria ashtray of course.

Helli

Nancy,

That's called top dressing. It's aethetics, weed control, and prevents pots from drying out, too. The entire presentation of plant, pot and top dressing is called staging, as in staging the plant.

I'll tell you a secret - I'm a recovering top dressing snob - at one time, I had over 20 different types.

Helli,

A lot of times top dressing is purely decorative, but I can't imagine ever again having a potted plant without some top dressing, preferably one that's colour-coordinated.

That's a funny final sentence! I know one (S. francoisii) that lived over a year on a non-smoked cheese sandwich.

Hi I'm with you, Cactusmcharris, mine and all Sans growers here are mostly for decoration.
Though, we use few organic mix but there are some dirt composed.
So, any kind of gravel as top dressing are able to keep the top soil from
flying up when we water our Sans.

{{gwi:115497}}

Stephania,

That last picture! Taking my breath away with its beauty - what species is it? The patterns in the leaves are very pretty.

It's labeled as Sans. kirkii 'Silver Blue' a nice clone which said to be released
from a well known succulent nursery in EU.

Consider the size of the top dressing to go with the size of the plant and pot. The smaller the gravel and if strained for size will make the plant pop out. (show up better) White gravel is never considered for show plants. We don't want the gravel to take over the attention of the judges for show. I often use a large size to hold in the plant until the roots tap down solid, this is really ugly, most small crassula in 3-4 " pots I put through a size strainer so all of the gravel is the same size. It does make a difference. Try it you may like it. I am also a gravel snob. I prefer tan color, no green or blue, pink or yellow, I like natural colors. Norma