My succulent love/hate relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with succulents. When they're cared for properly and arranged thoughtfully, they can be beautiful - but if they're left to wander, overgrow their containers or struggle they're not very attractive at all. As Barbara points out, when they're in a gravel patch or you can see dirt around them, they don't look good. I agree. I have a few arrangements I've put together which by accident turned out well.  Here they are....

And I have a growing heap of plants in the scraggly category. Yesterday I painted some pots and started looking at the succulents in relation to the pot colors, something I've never done. I just plopped them in any old pot and let them grow.

This is the kind of hodge podge I don't usually like but for some reason this combination looks zany right now...blooms sticking out like hair licks everywhere. It makes me chuckle when I pass by. 



Now I'm attempting to match pots and plants more harmoniously. As I'm no artist by any means, I'm learning as I go. 

Kind of mahogany colored pot

Spray painted a few plastic pots bright yellow - yellow plants?

 Do these plants look better in the terra cotta pots? Or the blue green pots?

 What's better in the floral pot...one color? or a bunch of colors that match the pot?

 I think the yellow pot is better for this little ground cover. Hoping it will droop over the edges.

 

 

 

When I get sick of the succulents I check out the Mexican primrose - this is the first year I've grown this in De Luz. It's spreading rapidly.

 The sweet peas are finally ebbing after 11 weeks of non-stop bloom.

 And a finally a few more succulents. I don't like the pot with the tree-like succulent...it's too high for the companion plants and it keeps leaning as if it wants to get out of there. I think it "vants to be alone".