Ralf's cold hardy cacti - season 2015

[Ralf]

I'm back after a long abstinence.
Today I've used the seldom sunshine this winter and took some pictures of my cold hard cacti. Until now we had only twice some snow. On the next day it was melted. The temperatures are the whole time above freezing. It is a realy unusual winter this year. Not really cold but very wet.

[carlo]

look good Ralf,

did you in already have/had a real winter?,or still soft weather like in holland?


-carlo

[daiv]

Hey Ralf, good to get an update. We're having a soft winter here too, but we are also terribly dry! Good thing for your roof on your outdoor bed!

[iann]

Same here, warm and wet. Your outdoor plants look better than mine though.

[Peterthecactusguy]

we have also had a strange AZ winter. IT started out wet, we got almost 4 inches of rain in the late fall/early winter, now it's been VERY warm and very dry.

Interesting to see what will happen in spring.

[Arjen]

ralph, they look great, especially considering the weather
have you been keeping them covered?

winter here is much the same, except that we didn't have any snow at all this year
just lots and lots of rain...

[Tony]

Winter? What winter?

Garden looks great Ralf!

[Ralf]

Carlo, usually we've a cold winter with temps down to about -20°C (-4F) and many snow here at my place. This winter is soft and rainy with a high humidity. The reason is the strong west stream with humid air this winter.
The past weekend we had temps around -7°C (19F) for the first time this winter.

Arjen the flowerbed is still covered with the usual rain shelter till about April.

[hegar]

Hello Ralf,
I too have been absent for quite some time. No cacti flowering and everything is quiet around here.
We have had two times thus far this winter when I decided to cover my plants. I do this whenever the temperature drops into the low 20 degree F range.
I am amazed, that your plants are doing so well planted in the open in Germany. The challenge seems to be to keep them more or less dry during the cold months of winter and it looks like you have that problem solved with the overhang.
Thank you for posting the genera and species of the cacti that survive outdoors at your location. I may add a few of these plants to my own collection now.

Harald

[Ralf]

It's time for an update because something happened in the past weeks.
Last weekend I removed the rain shelter and during the last week the plants got their first (rain) water.

First some pics from April 22th.

Echinocereus coccineus SB128

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Echinocereus coccineus SB850

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Echinocereus oklahomensis HK1844 (Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. baileyi)

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Echinocereus viridiflorus

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Escobaria vivipara Sulphur, Murray Co., OK

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Opuntia fragilis 'Freiberg'

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Opuntia hystricina

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Opuntia hystricina 'Muenchen'

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Opuntia rutila 'mini'

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[Ralf]

Pics from yesterday. It's clearly to see that the plants start to fill itself with water. Also the first Echinocereus have signs of buds.
Till now I've found only one plant it don't survive the past winter. In detail the really two cold weeks in mid February.

Echinocereus coccineus SB128

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Echinocereus oklahomensis HK1844 (Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. baileyi)

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Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. baileyi

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Echinocereus viridiflorus

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[hoteidoc]

Congrats on the survival rate, Ralf! Always love to see your "definition" of "well-drained soil". Amazingly all "mine" survived a very wet Winter & much more coarse gravel will be added before next Winter.
Peter

[Ralf]

Thanks Peter!
Without a rain protection the survival rate would be nearly zero! All this success based on years of trying and observation. Not every year had such a low number of dead plants. However it is really challenging for me to have some free growing plants around me and they reward me with their numerous flowers.

[RayC]

Looks great Ralf. Plants look much happier then mine do (grown without any protection).

[Ralf]

I hope to have the first open flowers soon. A couple pics from May 1st.

Echinocereus coccineus SB128

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Echinocereus oklahomensis HK1844 (Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. baileyi)

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Echinocereus viridiflorus - never hadn't so much buds on this tiny plant

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Escobaria missouriensis Finney County, KS - with its beautiful reddish fruits, meanwhile the first buds are visible

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Opuntia aurea

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Opuntia fragilis var. denudata 'Prag' - a hybrid

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Opuntia fragilis 'Freiberg' - a hybrid - I counted on one segment 12 buds!

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Opuntia rutila 'mini' - a not so large growing forma

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