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SUCCULENT SIDELINE
John Bailey Owen
After a friend suggested that John Bailey
en atch Adventure Time, he knew
he wanted to write for animation. Mission
accomplished. Most recently, he spent four
years as a staff writer (as well as story editor and
co-producer) on The Owl House. He's also in the
succulent business. But unlike those hobbyists
jumping on the bandwagon of propagating
plants from cuttings, he starts from seed.
It's a passion that dates back to high school when he
attended the Philadelphia Flower Show. He thought he
would see people battling it out over who had grown the
craziest-looking flower. Instead, it was mostly themed
displays. Still, he took a wander around, and that's when
he discovered "some succulents that looked like exposed
brains. Lithops! That's more what I was looking for," he says.
From then on, he started growing succulents, but it wasn't
until he moved to Los Angeles that he went "insane with
them." He says he grows succulents from seeds because "it
gets you the most interesting plants. Someone sends you
a tiny envelope, and soon you can have a specimen that
grows on a single hill in Namibia. Nurseries can't provide
that kind of variety, and most of their specimens have been
propagated by division, which is just pulling apart one
plant to make it into multiple plants. So they all look the
same. But every seed can grow into an individual with its
own traits."
en loes atchin his plants chane ro teeny tiny
babies to big weirdos," but this means he ends up with
more plants than even he wants. As a result, he started
Good Pup Plants. All of the specimens he sells are
grown from seed, have well-developed root
systems, and are shipped bare-rooted with
a side of special soil.
johnbaileyowen@gmail.com
Etsy.com/shop/GoodPupsPlants
Instagram.com/johnbaileyowen
Cylindrophyllum
Calamiforme
"Blood-tipped finger-
leaves and flowers that look
like old mops," says Owen.
"What's not to love? $20
Copiapoa
Tenuissima
Monstruosa
Owen describes
this as "a nice soft
little cactus with an
unusual mutation." $15
