Planting Succulents with Connie Gliadon

Much of this beauty can be attributed to the succulents that flourish in drier climates. Minnesota native Connie (Milan) Gliadon found out just how bewitching succulents are on a trip to San Diego nearly a decade ago. “I wasn’t really aware of what succulents were,” she says. “I saw a bunch of different succulents, mostly the floret/rosette ones that drew my eye. There was just something so captivating. There’s just something about the colors with succulents that you don’t find in anything else.” Gliadon quickly developed a passion for the plants and began growing them at her house in the Twin Cities. As her collection grew, she says her then-fiancé, now husband, questioned where she was going with this new hobby, and she responded by saying she didn’t have a specific plan; she just liked them. “And he said, ‘OK, well you’re taking up every counter in the house,’” she says with a laugh. Eventually, she started making arrangements with her succulents. “It was a great creative outlet for me. I’ve always loved flowers and plants, and I’ve always had kind of a green thumb,” she says. One of these creations was a “succulent taco,” a hard-shell taco filled with miniature succulents, an arrangement that took the internet by storm. Gliadon has always kept plants, but the hobby grew after succulents came into the picture. “There are plants on every windowsill; there are plants hanging from curtain rods; our dining room is filled with plants,” she says, adding that she even brings some of the tropical plants from outdoor summer planters inside since she can’t bear to see them die. When asked how many plants she currently has in her home, Gliadon laughed and said she had no idea, estimating the number to easily be in the hundreds. About seven years ago, she began making custom arrangements for people in the Minneapolis area, and her Instagram page started soon after. For Gliadon, succulents were a new landscape of learning. Aside from the beautiful colors and textures of the many different types of plants, there was a learning curve for keeping them that p