Trial and Error: Growing Cactus & Succulents in Florida

[Harriet]

Thought that maybe it would be a good idea to sacrifice my pride and to post my successes and failures over the next year. So many of the regular contributors on this site are experts and so many of the posts show their really good looking successes. Even their failures look better than my beginner babies.

So for those of us who are struggling to learn...

JANUARY:
Freakish weather all around the country did not exclude Central Florida. Not only did it reach record lows, but it stayed there for days on end. Most of my non-cactus plants can handle an overnight freeze, but not the long ones. So here is what my yard looks like at the end of January:

The good news is that the lump of freeze dried philodendron is going to be removed and replaced with Agave and cactus (really really cold hardy ones).

Even with a greenhouse and heater I lost plants to the cold ... a couple of Epiphyllum cuttings and parts of other tropicals that I thought the greenhouse would protect. Then there is a cereus forbesii monstrose v 'frozen mush', which I am not too sad about.

In my rock garden the saddest damage was to an Aloe arborescens that I had covered, but apparently not well enough.

And I have several agave that are apparently not as hardy as advertised, and have damage that I hope will be hidden in time.

But I have remained undaunted:

All of my experimental baggies with freshly sown seeds now have freshly growing seedlings in them. Amazing!

I have new babies from Corona Cactus:







I have an order for some really cool other cactus on the way, and I discovered that my Kalanchoe thrisifolia (sp?) is really a K. luciae.


Take that Mother Nature!

[dustin0352]

Nice new plants! Sucks about the freeze. I lost a few aswell. Hey you loose one, you buy two. Works for me lol.

[CoronaCactus]

Even the most masterfull and experienced have failed more than succeded!

Too bad about your losses, but it gets easier. I'd think we all lose atleast one plant each winter.

New plants look great all potted up!

[daiv]

Ugh! What a sad sight! I read your other posts about the losses, but the pictures really drive it home.

The new plants are looking just fine!

[Harriet]

It is pretty ugly isn't it? We have gotten a couple of inches of rain since the picture was taken, so the grass is beginning to get a better hint of green... But since we have been known to get some pretty bad frosts well into February it is just better to leave the dead stuff there to protect what's left of the plants. So, it's going to be an unfortunate looking couple of months...

I went out to speak encouragingly to what remains of my Aloe arborences today, and discovered that a flower spike I thought was "totaled" has perked up and looks like it is trying to thumb its nose at the freaky weather. Not all is lost!

[CelticRose]

The new plants look good.

Harriet, someone pointed out to me once that even the experienced growers have losses and failures -- they just don't post about them. Remember, people usually post about their best plants, not the ratty-looking ones.

[Harriet]

Thanks folks. I expect to have many more successes than failures over the next year, but sometimes I think I learn more from failures (mine or someone else's) than from successes. So there may be more ratty plants to learn from coming up...

[peterb]

As Peter Cook used to say in a skit about a restaurant called The Frog and Peach: "I feel I have learned from my mistakes, and could repeat them *exactly*."

I seem to be going through a steep learning curve having moved to Phoenix from Santa Fe. I lived in Santa Fe for nearly 2 decades and grew plants there for a long time. It's a challenging climate. But the switch here has been really challenging too.

There's always a plant or two, no matter where I live, that I want to learn how to grow. Often that involves killing it at least once in order to figure out how to grow it.

peterb

[Harriet]

Exactly!

[Tony]

oooh, what a hit!
O well, thats gardening.

[Harriet]

Sorry, not supposed to be a hit!

[Buck Hemenway]

So sorry Harriet. We all know what it's like to lose plants. I can see that your Aloe arborescens is goin to be just fine.

Our advice from a number os sources when we had a similar freeze three years ago was to wait until at least March before ripping out what appeared to be goners. I actually don't think that it did much good, but as in the case of the Aloe, the fried leaves protect the green ones underneath. We had melted Kalanchoes that survived because the black ugly frozen leaves had protected those underneath. Just in case there's more to come.

I also think that changing your entire garden over one event is too drastic. If this is a 100 year event, who amongst us is going to be around for the next? Using plants that are comfortable in New England may lead to other problems in the long hot humid summer.

[Harriet]

I know better than to use New England plants! I've been through a lot of freezes here, but none have been quite like this year's cold. In Central Florida there is a much bigger problem with plants that won't grow because of heat, than the ones we lose in 100 year freezes (And, I hope it is another 100 years...)

Those philodendrons have been in that place for 20+ years and I have been "over" them for a long time. The freeze is just an excuse to do what I have planned for a while now... replace them with Agave and opuntias and extending my rock garden a bit. (The philodendrons aren't dead, just freeze dried. They will be recycled to my sister's garden.)

I grossly exaggerated about planting cold hardy plants. I'll probably expand my searches for plants to include some that are hardy here and in a zone or two north of here, to plant in the ground. Nothing drastic.

[Harriet]

Today's Haul:

Echinopsis chamacereus?

Pachypodium idontknowwhatium. Leaves are dark green with a white stripe (vein) down the middle.



Sedum?? Those "rosettes" are somewhere between an inch and a half and two inches in diameter.

[Arjen]

echinopsis chamaecereus?

I'd say mammilaria elongata
the other two I don't know..