I live in Dallas, but bought my succulants at either Walmart or Home Depot and my sedums at Bluestone.

This is a good question! As Molly said most of the garden centers carry much the same thing and most of them are not hardy. I'd like not to have to carry them into the greenhouse for the winter.

Not to highjack your thread Molly, but I'm willing to buy mail order. Does anyone have a suggestion about from whom to order hardy succulents? I like the 'hens and chickens' types, small agaves, and sedums. Patty found a site once that sold collections for two or three dollars a plant, but I can't find it now. Hopefully, someone reading this can name one or more good succulent sites.

I agree, Roselee, it would be good to get some information from people who have ordered online. Although some are readily available, many of the really unusual ones are not. The range of colors can be quite spectacular, as you can see on this site: http://pinterest.com/pin/29132728809029714/
Molly

Sedums, I bought some from Yuccadoo online sight and then I ripped them apart into a million leaves and grew a whole bunch of them. The nursery in Austin have a lot of the hardy graptopetalums and sedums, so I am lucky. I got a lot of my succulents by trading on the C&S forum. Mostly opuntias and cylindropuntias, aloes and agaves. I have not traded on there recently but they were productive trades. Aloes would be good for you.

Okay, I think I found the site that Patty sent. Link below. Anybody know any thing about this nursery? Maybe some of us could order different collections and share offsets or leaves.

Also if you google "cold hardy graptopetalums" (Mara, thanks for the name) a D site will come up with a great article and pictures of hardy succulents. I want the Graptoveria Fred Ives it talks about!

Mara, I bet you could bring lots of poppy seeds to the swap! :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Sempervivum and other hardy succulents ...

Oh dang it. I pulled the wrong heart down ... LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: Hardy succulents ..

R&E Plants in Weatherford carries 22 varieties. They dont mail order but it could be well worth the drive if you are looking for hard to find sedums.

Hi all! I just put a question about ordering a collection of hardy succulents on the cacti and succulent forum. No replies yet, but if you'd like to follow the thread the link is below.

BTW, I've found only positive reviews on SMG Succulents.

Also if any of you who grow succulents have any ideas of what to order or from who I'm open to suggestions as I know nothing about this subject.

Here is a link that might be useful: Question on cacti and succulent forum ....

Smg succulents :) great proces great assortment of hens and chicks (sempervivum). Other used to be squaw mountain gardens

Mountain crest gardens is great for sedums and semps

Have you been to Maas nursery in Seabrook over by Kemah? Our garden club takes a bus trip to there every year, huge place. They have everything! And I have seen succulents and sedums there. It's most definitely worth going to. We love it and always leave with the back of the bus loaded with plants. Very healthy plants too, decent prices. We go to the nursery then head to the Kemah boardwalk for lunch on the water very nice day trip from North Houston area.

http://maasnursery.com/

For an online source try rainforest rose

http://www.ebay.com/sch/rainforestrose_com/m.html?item=381179134779&chn=ps&lpid=82&rt=nc&_trksid=p2054897.l2562

Thanks for all of the information on purchasing succulents! I have been to Maas nursery, but it has been 3 or 4 years. They have a beautiful selection of plants, but at the time I was there, I wasn't even thinking about adding this plant group. Before Yucca do nursery moved, it was not far from me and I have bought quite a few plants there. They have a wonderful selection of agaves, etc.,

Molly

I've heard that East Austin Succulents is good too.

I get a lot of succulents from HD and Lowes but I need to know my species and their hardiness. Some of them ARE cold hardy for Houston.

I, too, have to watch for cold hardiness on the succulents because I truly hate having to protect plants from frosts....have had to do it too many years. Generally speaking, sempervivum are frost hardy whereas echeveria are not. I found the following information to help differentiate between the two useful:Echeveria have flower stems that arise from the sides of the rosettes and have tubular five parted flowers. The rosettes can produce flower stems for years without dying.

Sempervivum have star-like flowers with many more than five petals. The flower stems arise directly from the center of the rosette and the entire plant dies after flowering.

Like Wantonamara, I need to learn more about cold hardiness. I have purchased many succulents and sedums and none of them lived. The only sedum I have had to live is from a single rooted stem that a co-worker gave me in 1989. I have given many starters away and everyone has had good luck with them. I wish I knew which one it is.

I need to learn about them because I would like to fill my containers with a variety of cold hardy, drought tolerant succulents/sedums.

our coop is doing an order for these now, most of them are zone 8 though so I didn't order any. The coop has moved to facebook. it's an open group.

Tally HO!

I just received an order of succulents from Daniel's Specialty Nursery in Lakeside, CA. The prices were modest and the plants received were outstanding. You must do your own homework as to hardiness. I highlight the botanical name and do a Google search. Dave's Garden or some other site usually shows up and gives a hardiness rating. Gardening with succulents in our part of the world challenges succulent success with high nighttime temps and high humidities, so many succulents rated as extremely cold hardy will rot immediately when our summer kicks in. Sedum adolphii, S. potosinum, S. reflexum, S. forrestianum, Delosperma cooperi, D. nubigenum, Echeveria runyonii, and Graptopetalum paraguayensis have all performed well for me in San Antonio. There are also some relatively small and "friendly" agaves - Agave celsii ( recently renamed A. mitis), A, bracteosa and the tiny A. geminiflora, A. "Sharkskin Shoes", A. leopoldii, and others. There are many aloe including Aloe aristata, A. saponaria, A. vera, a. humilis, A. grandidentat, and A. brevifolia that do well for me. Manfreda species seem all to do well. Some of the sedums and all the rest are available from Yucca Do Nursery in Giddings, Texas. The list goes on but this is a good start. The key for success is excellent drainage, a challenge in Houston unless you are in one of the sandy soil areas.

Daniel's Specialty Nursery http://www.gosucculent.com

Yucca Do Nursery http://www.yuccado.com

High Country Gardens in Santa Fe

Live in Colorado and about to move to Dallas area. Up here we buy our succulents from simply succulents up in Wisconsin. In the ground here they handle our cold winters, in the pits the usually don't make it through the winter but we get below 32 degrees often. I think thy would do good in Texas. I have purchased Dom them go 5 years, they have quality plants and ship them to you safely.

The colors are oftentimes more vibrant when a succulent is exposed to more sun. I find mine thrive much better in my greenhouse over the winter and then on my patio in the summer, than they do indoors.

There is a place called cactus king in Houston area they have a website too

Thank you for the information on Cactus King in Houston. I plan to go there in the next few weeks to do some shopping!

Molly