I'm noticing a lot of memorial threads after the winter that was (or shall we call it the winter that shall go down in infamy...)
Spring comes a bit later up here, and I am only just now starting to see how badly things went for me.
Anyway, losses in the last few months:
Definitely dead:
1 X Astrophytum asterias
1 X Turbincarpus pseudomacrochele var minima
1 X Pachypodium brevicaule
1 X Larryleachia picta
Many Uebellmannia seedlings
2 X Aeonium percarneum
Many Mammillaria blossfeldiana seedlings (with the last one on the way out)
3 X Astrophytum caputmedusae seedlings (all my stock)
2 X Aeonium 'Cyclops'
3 X Eriosyce sandillon seedlings
1 X Obregonia denegri (Vale my Avatar...)
4 X Crassula portulacea minima (all in the one container)
3 X Echeveria laui
1 X Mammillaria hernandezi
1 X Dudlyea brittoni
1 X Euphorbia bupleurifolia
3 X Dorstenia foetida
1 X Agave montana
Look like they are done for:
1 x Chamaecereus 'Fire Chief'
1 x Gymnocalycium bayrianum
Lost roots but making cuttings:
1 x Monadenium ritchei ssp ritchei has now become 4
Got boiled in midsummer, but I had been blotting out the memory
Every single Lithops I own.
The good news is my local nursery just got in stock from a local specialty grower, so I have some shopping to do...
Those for whom the bell tolls
Those for whom the bell tolls
Last edited by cruaux on Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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In a word (or two), El Nino.peterb wrote:I don't mean to be morbid, but I'm interested in details. How did they variously meet their fate?
peterb
Most of the losses are from excessive moisture in combination with frigid COLD. Many of them were in a cold frame that went down to 16F one night, then it rained for 7 days straight, then temperatures hit 98 inside the cold frame the day after the rain stopped (recorded on a temperature sensor I have built into the cold frame, and for the record, OUCH, I didn't anticipate that sort of solar heating), sadly while I was away from home and could not do anything.
The E. bupleurifolia, Larryleachia and Pachy. brevicaule dried out and shrivelled under lights and on a heating mat (didn't water them enough )
The Monadenium didn't have enough time to dry out from the last watering of the Autumn, and rotted the roots in mid-winter. It had 5 branches, and 4 of the 5 have survived to reroot.
The seedlings succumbed over time to the various disasters that can befall seedlings trying to transition to a more independent, less frequently watered existence.
The lithops didn't get hardened off, then I went and put them in full sun next to a reflective wall. Oops, won't be doing that again soon.
On the upside, I ordered some ridiculously fragile plants from Miles Anderson today, to make myself feel a bit better...
(How hard can Pseudolithos cubiformis really be... )