Andrea Afra

Andrea Afra, author of 'The Succulent Manual,' and creator of Sucs for You, has helped thousands of people across the world learn how to keep their succulents alive and thriving, even in challenging climates. A life-long resident of Houston, Texas, Andrea spent her best childhood days helping her grandparents in the garden on their farm. She fell hard for succulents over a decade ago, though the city's weather made it difficult to grow them outdoors, and there never seemed to be enough natural light inside to satisfy these sun-dependent plants. Yet her love for succulents was too great to give up on them which meant coping with the relentless heat and humidity of subtropical summers, rainy days and overcast skies that often hide the sun for a week or more, flooding, and hurricanes. The soggy gray winters bring freezes, hail, and the occasional snowfall. As a web and graphic designer by trade, with writing and nature photography as hobbies, she began to document her experiences with succulents and share the trials and triumphs on her website and social media under the name Sucs for You. Before long, others began reaching out to her for help, eager and desperate to save a favorite plant. Soon they were writing back with positive updates, thrilled to report how well their succulents were doing after they had acted on her advice. "People find true joy and solace in their plants. It feels really good to know I've helped someone save their succulent or feel confident about trying again if one dies," Andrea says. She started producing succulent care and demonstration videos, and while responding to countless requests for advice, began writing what would become the manuscript for The Succulent Manual. "I found myself repeating the same advice daily. The majority of people who need help live in climates with conditions that succulents don't really like, but they're following the care guidelines for places like California and other mild and dry environments. What works for a west coast succulent can kill the same variety in Florida or Ohio." It was clear there was a lack of information on the need to adjust the care routines for succulents based on one's climate, and it was costing people plants, money, and undue worry. With each person that thanked her for helping them rescue a plant, or feeling more sure about their requirements, Andrea felt more sure about her ability to write a comprehensive guide to succulent care that would account for the climatic nuances. With all of the conversations she's had with people from every continent and climate, "except Antarctica," she jokes, she became a human hub for succulent knowledge. "I've learned most of what I know by discussing and researching problems others have due to their locations, and I'm perfectly positioned to pass that information on to someone in a similar region, though it may be very different than my own." From propagation to planting succulents in the ground, your location is the first factor to success with succulents. And no matter how good you become with succulents, you're bound to lose one from time to time. "I still lose a plant on occasion. I'm still being challenged by the same foes and forces everyone else has in the garden," she says. "There's probably a snail eating something right now."