Avocado Green Firecracker Succulent

Nature wall art encompasses any wall object that references the natural world — botanical forms, landscape photography, pressed plant matter, ceramic interpretations of living things. Ceramic works particularly well for botanical nature wall art because it is made from the same material as the natural world — clay, which is earth — and fired into a permanent form. The Avocado Green Firecracker Succulent is kiln-fired ceramic in the form of a succulent. The Atlanta Botanical Garden carries it. It is nature wall art made of nature.

Bohemian wall decor is characterized by handmade objects, organic forms, layered textures, and the suggestion that the collection was assembled over time rather than purchased at once. A handmade ceramic succulent from a studio that has been making ceramic flowers in Toronto since 1999, shown at the Chelsea Flower Show for 13 consecutive years, stocked in botanical gardens from Atlanta to Buffalo — this qualifies. The avocado green glaze is the color that bohemian rooms were using before the word bohemian was applied to home decor.

The woman with specific taste will have already rejected most gift categories. A handmade ceramic wall flower from a studio that is stocked in the Atlanta Botanical Garden and has been shown at Chelsea for 13 years falls outside the categories she has rejected. The Avocado Green Firecracker Succulent is the firecracker form in avocado green — unusual enough to be memorable, specific enough to have been chosen, and permanent enough to still be on the wall when the occasion that prompted it has been long forgotten. Ships gift-ready. Hangs in 90 seconds.

The Firecracker succulent is a cultivar known for its long, narrow leaves radiating outward from a central point, creating a starburst or explosion shape rather than the cupped rosette of more familiar succulent forms. The name refers to the radiating geometry. In ceramic, this form translates as an architectural star shape with surface detail in each individual leaf. The avocado green glaze sits across all the radiating leaves consistently but fires slightly differently on each based on the angle to the kiln, which is why no two pieces are identical.

The Avocado Green Firecracker Succulent is a specific gift for a nurse who has walls and preferences about what is on them. It ships in a Chive gift box, arrives ready to give, requires nothing from the recipient beyond finding a wall. It is not a generic gift — it is a handmade ceramic wall flower from a studio stocked in botanical gardens across North America, in a specific avocado green glaze, in the form of a firecracker succulent. Nurses who have walls with art on them tend to have opinions about what goes on them. This is the kind of object those opinions tend to end up on.

Avocado green is warm yellow-green — it reads as earthy in rooms with warm tones and as botanical in rooms with cooler palettes. In a kitchen with warm wood tones it anchors the organic elements together. In a bedroom with white walls it reads as the considered decision that makes the wall look finished. In a bathroom it adds the botanical presence that succulents would provide if the room had better light. The Atlanta Botanical Garden carries the collection it comes from. Botanical gardens know what avocado green looks like in context.

The Avocado Green Firecracker Succulent ships in a Chive gift box that arrives looking like a gift. It requires no additional wrapping. For Christmas specifically it occupies the category of gifts that are not seasonal — the avocado green is not a Christmas color, the succulent form is not a Christmas form, and the result is a Christmas gift that will be on the recipient's wall in July looking exactly as correct as it did when it arrived in December. The Atlanta Botanical Garden stocks it. The wall it ends up on will be better for having it.

The Avocado Green Firecracker Succulent was fired in a kiln at temperatures considerably higher than any combustion the word firecracker implies — ceramic firing temperatures typically exceed 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point most things have been resolved. The result was a ceramic wall flower that emerged from the kiln in avocado green, in a radiating form that earned its name from geometry rather than combustion. It has not been on fire since leaving the kiln. We consider this a satisfactory outcome.