Faucaria outdoor care

Hi all,

I'm wondering if someone might be able to give me a rundown on the care of Faucaria (tiger's jaw) outdoors. The only information I can find is for keeping them as house plants.

The house I just moved into had two Faucaria in the front yard planted by the previous resident. One looks ok, the other has looked bad since I moved in. Today I pulled it up and discovered that it had no roots. Not just that they were dead - but they had almost completely rotted away, leaving only a hollow skin. It looks like this happened 6+ months ago. I saved what growth points I could, but I'm not expecting much success.

If I can plant them outside again and for to care for the one plant still out there, how should I care for them? They are growing near dudleyas, which have a tendency to croak if you give them water during the summer. The area these plants are growing is not irrigated.

Thanks!!

Lots of info in the PlantFiles: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/352/

Thanks for the link - however it does not cover the issue I'm tackling, which is how to care for them outdoors in California. I need to know how tolerant they are of summer water, or if they can do without it. They are growing next to Dudleyas, which often die if given water in the summer. However, many South African succulents from the eastern side of the country not only tolerate, but thrive with some summer water. I live in an area that only receives rain October - May (and I really mean only... We do not get summer showers here at all).

I grew faucarias outdoors in Northern California (Redwood City). Mine were in very well-drained pots with a Western/afternoon sun exposure.

They can definitely take summer water. My various dudleya cultivars that I grow near Santa Cruz, California, are very content with summer water.

Not sure how valuable my input will be because I live in an area where I can only put my faucaria outside in summer. However I have been very successful in bringing them in and out for about 5 years now. They obviously are able to take a lot of water here in the summer because mine did wonderful all summer here this year and we got a LOT of rain. Perhaps the secret may be in frequent division as that is what happens to mine every fall when I have to bring it in. It usually expands enough over the summer that I have to bring in just a piece of it so it is constantly being rejuvenated.
Usually mine spends the summer in one of my many succulent pots but the one pictured below was my first attempt at actually planting it in the ground. This was at the edge of my pond where I put about 5-6" of a coarse succulent mix in a fold of the pond liner. As I said above it got well watered by Mother Nature all summer and a piece is currently living happily in a 3" pot on my basement window sill waiting to go back out in the summer.
Where I live in northwestern Ontario we currently have about 2' of snow and this morning it was -33C/-43C with the wind chill.
If you are interested, go to member list and punch in my code name. You will see I have 3 Garden Showcases. Click on the succulent one and you can get a bit of a glimpse of the amount of succulents I move in and out annually
Hope you can get some value out of this rambling
Keith

This message was edited Jan 13, 2017 10:56 AM