here in So. Cal. A bunch of my Xeric plants are fine but my succulants and my pencil plant are not doing well. My aloes wilted, they are floppy. I brought them in but I had hoped to plant them in the ground. Wrong. Any of you having similar probs?
We are having a freeze problem
I just made a rock/desert garden about 2-3 months ago. And I planted my pencil cactus out too. We have already had 32 degree weather and will get more this next week. Ahhh, I see we are in the same zone, different coast.
My cactus and succulents didn't seem concerned about any of this, but as I said, they have been tucked safely in the ground for a while now. Unfortunately, I don't even know what zones any of mine will tolerate, barely remember plant names.
I am not absolutely sure, but maybe you should leave them in their pots for now, put them up against the house away from the winds and maybe make a little tent for them on the coldest of nights. Calif. humidity is pretty low isn't it?
I'm posting a photo simply because I can't help myself. My finger hasn't been working too well on the point and shoot, but when I get a little remedial training I will do better. Here's part of my desert. They are small, but I know this is the sleep year, looking forward to the creep and leap years. I did not do anything to protect these plants in the first cold snaps.
They are in their pots and in my house. I had them on my porch that is wind blocked but the temps plummeted down to the low teens which is not common for this time, in the fall. It happens here and there in later months but they say it will be a very cold winter here, atleast they predicted. I don`t know what to do with the plants for next year. My neighbor has his in the ground, I should check on his. Thanks for the Pix, they look just fine. Mine are similar in size and I have some of those varieties too. I too don`t know the names of my cactus and some succs because half of them were not labeled.
You might try posting over on the Cacti & Succulent forum and see what they have to say. Have you had rain and/or have you watered them much recently? I've heard that even for ones that should be hardy in your zone, if they have cold + wet they won't do too well. They can handle one or the other, but not the combination. If that's what happened then the only thing I can think of is bring them in somewhere that will be warmer and drier for a while and see if they recover.
yep, you got it right, I had just watered them when it hit. Crap. They are in now
Hopefully if you keep them dry and warm for a bit they should recover--since they weren't cold and wet for a long time I would think there's a good chance they could recover (unless they are really small or were suffering already before the cold/wet)
they aren`t turning black yet but my one aloe is oozing a bit. Most of them are fine. All the cactus are fine.