In this era of do-it-yourself projects, producing plants by taking cuttings and creating a hypertufa planter for them to grow in is at the top of the list for money savings for the home gardener ...

Hypertufa, an imitation of tufa, will produce easy-to-make containers that look like weathered stone pots.

Use boxes – or bowls, for round planters instead of troughs – made of such materials as cardboard, styrofoam, or plastic.For a free-form outer surface, pile the hypertufa mix at least two ...

Hypertufa planters provide great drainage. They are especially good for plants that require good drainage, including succulents like jade plant, sedums, alpine garden plants and many cacti.

Making the pots is simple; you’ll need rubber gloves, a dust mask, molds, and a can of spray oil, plus equal measures of peat moss, perlite (or vermiculite), and Portland cement.

A hypertufa planter consists of equal-parts combination of perlite, sphagnum moss and Portland cement. You can use the mixture in any type mold with a bit of imagination.

There also will be hypertufa planters for sale. Hypertufa is a mixture of Portland cement, perlite and peatmoss, moistened with water and molded into planters.

It can be made in any shape. Hypertufa troughs make attractive planters for alpine plants, bonsai, and miniature conifers. Glover will explain the process of making the troughs.

Besides hens-and-chicks, other plants suitable for hypertufa planters include cerastium, thyme, carnation, rock cress, dwarf crested iris, and, of course, saxifrages, whose very name means "broken ...