Beluga Supply Co. - The Sonder Planter

We are long time fans of Beluga Supply Co. If you’ve been around here for a while, you probably remember us selling their amazing Classic Corner 45 Planter in our shop. We quickly fell in love with their striking yet minimal design.

Image via Beluga Supply on Instagram

More recently, Beluga has begun offering a larger more versatile planter that we had to get our hands on. The Sonder Planter comes in two colors: Fossil White and Galaxy Black. Like the Classic Corner Planter, the Sonder Planter has drainage holes, a hidden drip tray and self-watering capabilities. As an added bonus, it also comes with a stylish wooden plant stand that is reversible to suit your preference or add height. (Or forget the stand altogether!)

The clean mid-century design is eye catching, but the hidden drip tray is what we really love most about this planter. If you’re like us and are constantly dealing with water leaking out of your pots onto furniture, shelves, and the floor of your home, you’ll love this planter. Plastic drip trays do the job okay, but they usually hang out under your pots, are visible and not the most attractive.

With The Sonder Planter’s two drainage holes, your plants won’t be sitting in excess water long. This is a major plus for us succulent lovers. We can’t count how many times we’ve come across a pot that we loved, only to discover it had no drainage. (Though we have been known to bust out the concrete drill and add our own drainage, this isn’t always doable!)

The two different color options make The Sonder Planter suitable for any space. Even if your style isn’t necessarily modern, this planter can fit in with all different styles of home decor. The size is perfect for tabletops, shelves or large windowsills.

We highly recommend The Sonder Planter to all plants lovers. In addition to its appealing minimal design, the convenience of its hidden drip tray and self watering wick make it a must have!

Check out Beluga Supply Co. online or on Instagram @BelugaSupply

Beluga Supply Co. - The Sonder Planter Unboxing

How to Save your Succulents from Mealybugs

Let's talk about every succulent lovers nemesis, the Mealybug. We hate them. We despise them. We loathe them. Get the picture? They are the absolute worst. They can come out of nowhere and destroy beautiful succulents in the blink of an eye! Mealybugs usually look like a white cottony substance that can be found close to the new growth on your succulent. They will be on the stem, at the base of leaves or right in the middle of your plant on rosette types. Mealybugs sneak up on you, so it's good to check your plants from time to time, even if there are no visible signs of them. Most of the time, before you even notice the actual bugs themselves, you will see your leaves beginning to grow misshapen and deformed. This happens when you have pests hanging out near your new growth. 

Sometimes, it can be harder to spot Mealybugs if you don't carefully inspect the entire plant. On a plant like this Aeonium tabuliforme, the leaves grow so close together even mealys can't squeeze their way in between them.  Instead of having a noticeably deformed plant, the bugs are hiding below, feasting on older leaves and new growth near the stem. This can be a dangerous breeding ground for Mealybugs, making it easier for them to go unnoticed as they spread to nearby plants.

The mealy situations mentioned above are bearable, and plants such as these will most likely recover quickly with a little assistance. Other times though, the plant can be so infested and damaged, that it's best to just KILL IT WITH FIRE! Not really, but definitely get it as far away from your other succulents as quickly as possible to avoid spreading the infestation. 

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So now that we know how to spot the little buggers, what can we do about them? There are all kinds of insecticidal soaps and sprays out there, but are they safe for succulents? We've tried some and weren't super happy with the results. We've tried mixing dish soap with cooking oil and water. Once again, the plants seemed to suffer a visual marring as the beautiful coating on the leaves is permanently removed. Before opening our shop, when we had a lot less plants to care for, we would comb through our succulents and simply stab the Mealybugs with a pin. This option is very effective if you have a few large visible Mealybugs, but does not deal with tiny bugs that are too small to see, eggs, or mealys that might be hidden in the soil.

Let's talk about Ladybugs for a minute. Not only are they super cute and harmless to succulents, they are general predators that feed on a variety of problematic insects, including Mealybugs! This is a natural and organic remedy for taking care of your succulent's Mealybug problem. We purchased Ladybugs from Amazon and had so much fun sprinkling them all over our succulents and watching them feast on any aphids, mites and mealys they could find! The great thing about having these little warriors fight your battle for you is that you don't have to spend time examining every inch of your plants in search of pests. The Ladybugs are happy to inspect your garden for you, saving you time and saving your plants from potentially getting damaged in the process. 

Isopropyl Alcohol kills Mealybugs on succulents and evaporates quickly.

The most effective and immediate solution we have found so far is 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. This readily available and inexpensive remedy has been a lifesaver (literally) for our plants! We keep a squirt bottle full at arms reach at all times. You simply spray your entire plant, taking special care to saturate tricky areas where tiny bugs can be hiding. The alcohol completely evaporates in a few minutes and the Mealybugs should be dead. You can visibly see the cottony substance disintegrate and the grayish white bugs turn a deep red. After the alcohol evaporates we wash our plants with a strong stream of water to remove the dead bugs. You will want to check back in a few days to make sure you got them all. If not, just reapply the alcohol as needed. 

We have used 70% Isopropyl Alcohol on almost every type of succulent with great results.  We do want to note that we have seen slight burning on our Echeveria 'Blue Sky', Graptoveria 'Debie', and Graptoveria amethorum plants. All succulents are different, so if you are unsure, test the alcohol on an inconspicuous area before covering your entire plant. For the plants we mentioned above or any others that you notice a burn after being sprayed, we recommend using 50% Isopropyl Alcohol and reapply as needed. 

A lot of times, Mealybugs can be hard to spot without a microscope! So make sure to check new growth for deformities to catch them before they get out of hand. We noticed some oddly shaped leaves on this Echeveria subsessilis variegata, and sure enough, upon further inspection we found some Mealybugs. 

We hope this post has been helpful to you! Shoot us an email or leave a comment here if you have any questions and make sure to follow along with us on Instagram @needlesandleaves.

Happy Planting,

Tawni + Krista 

(This blog post contains some Amazon affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of those links we get a small commission. We only link to products we have used, loved and think you would benefit from.)

Needles + Leaves 2.0

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly two and half years since our last blog post! How on earth did that happen?! Well, there are a lot of reasons, but mostly we've had some amazing opportunities to grow Needles + Leaves in other areas.  From creating our hearts out for local craft shows, teaching workshops, doing custom business installations, opening our online succulent retail store, and raising the six kids we have between the two of us, we've had our hands pretty full! All that being said, we unintentionally put adding to this space on the back burner for way too long! 

Needles + Leaves succulent booth at the Carlsbad Street Faire Spring 2018

Looking back, we wish we would have treated this blog more like a journal so that you could have come along with us on all of our succulent adventures as they happened. Plant shopping, coming up with new DIY ideas, exploring cute Instagramable (that's a word now, right?) cafés, setting up shop at craft shows, and building our home nursery, are just a few of the things we should have been documenting. 

So, what's changed? Why start now? Well, over the past couple of months a lot has changed for us. We went from spending nearly everyday together, to living about two hours apart. The move was pretty unexpected and a little devastating at first. We closed our shop and we both cried. (Which is shocking if you know me!) We figured that was the end of that.  We had some people offer to buy the business, but the more we thought about it, the more we could't imagine Needles + Leaves existing without us! I mean, we ARE Needles + Leaves! We started brainstorming on how to make it work from a distance. We came to the conclusion that a two hour drive would definitely make running a business together more challenging, but not impossible. 

Krista taking inventory at our home nursery.

A big part of our plan to keep Needles + Leaves alive is placing a bigger focus on the blog, which is how this whole venture started for us anyways! As much as we love going through the creative process together,  blogging is something we can do together but separate. 

We are so excited to be officially re-openeing our shop in the coming days!  We love being able to bring you the most beautiful succulents Southern California has to offer.  We are always amazed to see where our customers live around the country, from down the street to New York City! We get so much joy from sharing our beautiful plants with you all. 

Please check back in to see what we are up to in the coming weeks and months! We can't wait to begin sharing projects and information with you again!

Happy Planting!

Tawni + Krista