Succulents at Mead Botanical Garden

Three weeks ago, I joined the volunteer force for the Legacy Garden at Mead Botanical Garden in Winter Park, Florida. While this garden is being restored and tries to acquire species of plants either hybridized by Theodore Mead or named for him, there is quite a variety of plants in this area of the Garden. I found that I seem to have the most experience with cacti and succulents and have been rehabbing a small succulent bed at the entrance to the greenhouse. It's amazing to me that the plants have not rotted out in some cases as this part of Florida has a monsoon season going on right now. I think people made plant donations and they just got stuck in. I have weeded, repotted, rearranged and mulched with lava rock. It's taking shape. Oh, we also have two varieties of Stapelia in bloom in this area of the garden right now. It has been satisfying bringing this area back. It is scary to be the person with the most cactus and succulent experience. Anyone else volunteer at a botanical garden?
Martha

Yes, I work at the local park (technically a bot garden) so I have been doing my share of weeding, repotting, rearranging and mulching. :) Unfortunately we don't get any rain this time of year so there's also a fair amount of watering to get the plants through the summer.

It would be great to see what kind of plants you have there. I'm always curious to see what grows in different areas. We have a few native plants (which do fine without water, a big plus) and a lot of random succulents sprinkled in. The ones that tend to do the best here are the serious drought tolerant types (eg. agaves) and the ones from dry-summer areas (eg. Aeoniums).

I live in southern Indiana and we've had a very wet spring. In the past few years I nave had cactus and succulents out during the spring and summer and none of them have rotted. They can take a lot more water than you think. Not saying they won't, but just sharing my experience.

Some of these were badly potted. and Kalanchoe daigremontianum, Mother of Thousands, was growing everywhere. People kept asking me why I was ripping out such a "cute" plant. but it had taken over several of the succulent dish gardens and had spilled out of the bed and was growing little babies in the cracks in the brick path. I am pretty nearly to the end of the Kd. I repotted the other plants so they had better drainage and clipped back some of the shrubs to let in a little more sunshine. I will post a picture when I go back to work there on Tuesday.
It has been fun so far.
Martha

Famous last words! We have our share of succulent weeds here too. The most common ones are the ice plants (eg. Carpobrotus, Mesembryanthemum) but even the ordinary blue agaves can get out of hand shooting pups everywhere. One of the useful functions of a botanical garden is to identify which plants tend to be weedy, and avoid or contain them so that the non-weeds out there have a chance. :)

LOL You are right. Kd will never die. but I have a great start on it and this bed is not very large. I cleaned up all the succulent dish gardens and removed the giant parent plants and have banned anyone from saving them from the compost.
Martha

What cacti do you think/have seen growing well in these wetter conditions. Here in northern Uganda we get long dry seasons but also very wet spells for three or four months. I would love to grow some larger cacti. Small ones get lost in grass/ants.

I was thinking about trying Pachycerus. Do they grow well from seed (pretty much my only option here)? Ceistocactus grows well here.

Sorry I did not mean cleistocactus but Cereus hexagonus 'Lady of the night'

My success has been more with aloes. small ones that I brought from Massachusetts with me when we moved. There, they had all spent a Northeastern US winter indoors in a SE facing sunroom with a greenhouse window on the South side. I am still experimenting with things here in Florida. My neighbor two houses down has a magnificent Cereus peruviana which is currently in a bloom cycle right now, though you have to look at it at night or early in the morning to see the flowers. This plant is as tall as their one story house, about 20 ft or 6.09 m, with many branches and flowers. These pictures are from about 4 weeks ago and it has since put out many more blooms. I don't know about your climate. I am only just learning about the Florida climate. I know that because we are located between two significant oceans, that the summer climate is wetter than the winter but I have not yet spent a winter here. I hope this helps,
Martha

Wow cool! That is a really cool cereus. I see that it even has some spiralform branches. Wicked cool!

The owners that were here when we moved in back in March moved out last month. They said that this plant was already here when they moved in two years ago and they had to chop significant sized branches off of it that were growing into their windows. I wish I had a cutting. I am going to befriend the new owners and see if they will let me take one.
Martha

You definitely have to snag a piece of that! Even if you have to go on a night mission to get it. ;')

That is a very nice Cerus! Thank you.

So it looks like Cerus is the way to go for cacti for the wetter climates.