Transcript:
Hey, guys, what’s up? It’s fern. Thank you so much for joining me for another plenty video today. I’m going to be talking all about my bearpaw succulent, which has been requested by quite a few of you and I am super excited to feature this guy today because he is definitely one of my favorite succulents ever like this is just the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. Look at the little paws. Oh, my goodness, I cannot. It’s like he is so cute. Okay, so I am surely not a succulent expert, but I’m going to share with you. How I take care of this guy and what I know about him. Okay, so the botanical name is a cotyledon komentosa. I believe I could be totally butchering that. In fact, I probably am, but it is much more commonly known as a bearpaw because obviously the leaves look like little tiny, fuzzy paws. This guy has been so easy for me to take care of, so I think it’s definitely a succulent that is great for beginners, so lets. Just hop into the care, so the first thing that I’m going to talk about is light, which is very straightforward, in fact. All the care for this plant is very straightforward, but for lighting. I have always grown this guy in a actually. Yes, I have always grown the sky in a south facing window, which is giving it the most light possible for where I live the spring summer fall. It receives quite a bit of direct sunlight. Now we are winter. It is quite dark and rainy. I still have him in a south-facing window with no supplemental lighting, however, if you are concerned, I’m sure it would be very happy if you popped it under a grow light. I’m just going to monitor and see how he does. Um, he’s actually doing fantastic. You can tell how healthy he looks. He’s even blooming, which is crazy, but he’s doing great, so I see no reason to really move him from his spot right now. But in general like most succulents, they enjoy a lot of light and can tolerate quite a bit of direct bright light as well and when they are receiving a lot of direct sunlight, they can actually get dark. Tips like little fingers can get dark and that’s really cute as well. Mine is just pretty much green right now, but I know that they can sense dress and look like that. The one thing that you have to stay on top of if you are providing this plant with a lot of direct sunlight is watering because this guy is going to dry out fast in the summertime, I was watering it very often, especially because it is in Terra Cotta, but the good thing is that it is very easy to tell when he is thirsty, so these thick juicy pads will get very soft and squishy when he’s thirsty, and if you let it dry out too much, then it’s actually going to drop. It’s big, juicy leaves, so you don’t want that? Um, just monitor how soft they are right now. I actually just watered him yesterday. I believe, so he’s quite moist, but you can, um, but right now I’m feeling that the pads are very firm, so he’s well hydrated and as for blooms, you can see it right now that he is actually in Bloom, which was totally unexpected, especially at the end of November. I have no idea why he is blooming now. I was under the impression that they bloom in the spring, but he is just so happy. Apparently so. I think we are doing this right, So the blooms are a kind of light yellow, but I think that they do range in color. So this is a plant that I don’t do anything special for humidity wise. It’s a succulent, which tells me that they are usually quite adapted to a drier climate. I think that these plants are actually native to Africa. Okay, sorry, we had to take a pause because my neighbors were screeching. So the last thing that I wanted to cover is going to be a quick one anyways, and it’s actually propagation, and it’s going to be quick because I have never done it, so I have no experience to speak from so allegedly, you can stem propagate these pretty easily just by taking a cutting, letting it callous over for a few hours and then popping it into soil. I plan to maybe experiment with that in the summertime, so ill. Keep you updated if I do that. Oh, yeah, I should also talk about soil as for the mixture that I have it in right now. It is honestly just a regular potting mix with quite a bit of perlite, any kind of cactus and succulent mix should be fine, but even with those, I do add extra drainage, so I will add extra perlite or pumice just any well draining Mix is what you want because you don’t want this thing holding on to a lot of water and then for an extra measure, I also throw into terracotta because it is going to wick moisture as well. Basically, you don’t want this thing retaining and sitting in a lot of wet soil. Um, I also just love Terracotta, like, look. How cute it looks in this. So I think that pretty much covers everything like I said. It is a super easy, succulent to take care of, and it’s so so cute. This actually comes in a variegated form as well which I really want. Um, hopefully I can find one next year in 2021 Because they’re just so cute with the white variegation and I’m super excited to see how much this guy grow in the next growing season as well. They can actually get pretty shrub-like and pretty large. I mean, I’m not sure how big it will get inside. Um, if you live in a warmer climate, you can actually grow these outside. But yes, obviously. I live in the Pacific northwest, so I grow mine indoors. Okay, that is it. That is all I have to share today. If you have any questions, please leave them down below in the description box. I would love to chat with you as always and give this video a like if you liked it. Ooh, let me know which plant you want me to cover next for my plant care videos If it is one that I feel confident and caring for I will do it. I do get some requests for plants that I have. That are just not doing well. So obviously I’m not going to make a video on that until I have got that care or just really locked in. You know, anyways, enough of my rambling. Thank you guys so much for watching. Don’t forget to like this video. Subscribe to my channel, and I’ll see in the next one, okay. bye you?