We love crafts at the Radix office. If you peaked at our back office you would see it looks like a craft room at the moment. This Monday our very own Judy Solis and Diane Barrett taught us and our friends how to create these beautiful pumpkin and succulent arrangements. We hear they are being called “Pumpculents.”
It was so fun and easy that we decided to share how to make these at home!
You Will Need:
- Pumpkins (once you do one you will want to do more!) of any shape and size.
- Hot glue gun with extra glue sticks
- Multi-purpose spray adhesive
- A bag of Spanish moss or Spaghnum moss (Ace or Michaels has it)
- Succulent cuttings
- Wooden skewers
- BONUS: decorative accents like pinecones, seedpods, acorns, etc.
Step 1
First cut the pumpkin’s stem short but do not pierce the pumpkin itself. You are going to keep the pumpkin whole so that it will last you into next year.
Step 2
Grab a bundle of moss and break it up a little. The moss is going to be the bed for your succulent arrangement and the cuttings will even root into the moss and grow.
Place the moss on top of the pumpkin and test out where you want to permanently stick it.
Once you made the perfect bed of moss and found where you want to place it, turn the moss over and spray it generously with multi-purpose adhesive.
You need to do this outside because of the fumes. Then spray the top to the pumpkin a little before turning the moss back over and firmly pressing it down on the pumpkin.
Step 3
Your pumpkin is now ready to be transformed into a work of art! Grab your glue gun and pick out a variety of succulent cuttings. All you need to do is liberally apply hot glue to the stem or bottom of the succulent and place it where you like. Use a skewer or end of a pencil to help hold it down to prevent burning your finger with glue.
Judy suggested starting off with your “thriller,” a show stopping, larger cutting and then fill in the design around it.
She also taught us the key to a nice arrangement is to have a “Thriller, Filler and Spiller.” For example have one thrilling area, fill in the arrangement and make sure to have a few succulents spill over the moss. This helps create depth.
Don’t worry though, no matter what you do these pumpkins turn out beautiful!
Show Off Your Work!
Can you believe you can create such a beautiful arrangement in three easy steps?
They make great centerpieces, gifts and porch art. If you post your pumpkin succulent arrangement on Facebook, please tag us @radixre. We would love to see your creations.
After Care
Water your Pumpculent once a week using a spray bottle to soak the moss. Succulents don’t need much care, but they can die from over love. Make sure to carefully tip over your arrangement to drain excess water so your succulents thrive! Excess water can speed up the decomposing process.
When you are done enjoying your Pumpculent don’t throw it away, instead plant the succulents. You can either carefully remove each succulent and plant them or you can cut off the top of the pumpkin and plant your arrangement in one piece.
