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Here I'm going to talk about selecting appropriate stock plants. I'm afraid this relates to the scientific classification of plants so there will be some technical words and hard to pronounce names. "Family" is a term for a large (usually) group of related plants. All cacti are the same family, as are all Orchids, all palms etc.. However there are some arguments about what plants should be included in some families. I'll be using the Latin names of genera (groups smaller than family) and species (very specific but some species have lower levels of classification). You can use a search engine to find out more about these.

It's important that the stock plant belongs to the same family as the scion. (There are a few exceptions, the most notable being grafts between Cactaceae and Dideriaceae.) For some reason only dicots can be grafted (so no grafted Aloes). If you don't know the type of succulent you want to use as a scion, then you have problems as sometimes similar looking plants belong to different families. Cactaceae can be readily identified by the felty patches (aerial's) which usually have spine radiating from them (Trichodiadema in the Aizoaceae family has similar looking structures on the leaves and some Euphorbias in the Euphorbiaceae family have spines radiating from horny shields). Other families can be harder to identify so you should probably find an expert.

These are commonly used stocks for various families:

Apocynaceae: Nerium oleander (not itself a succulent), Pachypodium lameri.

Ascelpiadaceae (now this is often lumped into the Apocynaceae but AFAIK no grafts have made between the two): Ceropegia woodii (use caudex but leave some vine on), Stapelia (large species like S. gigantea) and Hoodia.

Cactaceae: Borzicactus samaipatanus, Cereus, Echinopsis (old classification, moderately sized globular with white or pink flowers), Harrisia jusbertii, Hylocereus trigonus, Opuntia (grafts said to be short lived), Pereskiopsis (used for seedlings), Trichocereus (now often included in Echinopsis but these are large, cylindrical plants) with T. pachanoi being the favorite. Hylocereus trigonus is the 3 sided graft used commercially, usually for red Gymnocalyciums (they have to be grafted because they lack chlorophyll). It's prone to dying if it gets below 10C.

Crassulaceae: I've heard of Kalanchoe daigremontiana or K. delagonensis being used but I've never seen it done. Most this family are really easy to grow so they seldom need grafting.

Euphorbiaceae: Euphorbia, mostly E. cereformis or E. ingens or their relatives.

Portulaccaceae: Portulaccaria afra.

There's very little or no information abut grafting some dicot families with succulent members, most notably the Aizoaceae (which has many hard to grow members). Of course you could always experiment if you're willing to cut up some plants. Often the stock, at least will branch and continue growing if the graft fails. Also you can often root the top part you cut off the stock.

Learn more about this author, Richard Pearman.
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