And clear blue sky. In the south-east we have only seen occassional glimses of the sun in the last fortnight.

I live in hope.

Will do a follow-up post when I know.

Having read of other members keeping their E. Coccineus outside overwinter and seen photos of it covered in snow, I have left mine out. This year it has endured very little sun, frequent rain, cold and now snow. Am I pushing my luck?

At the other end of the scale:

Your E.Obesa would be better planted in a compost mix similar to the one Ian suggests. Ideally it should be given a winter rest with temperatures down to about to about 10C, it will take lower but not below zero C. During the rest period it should be kept dry. If you cannot keep it cool then provide...

This Opuntia was given to me like that about 5 years ago. It is now in a 5" square BEF pot.

Dave, The flora which grows on peat bogs is very specialized and gets destroyed. This is one argument against the industry.

I have no problem with using spagnum peat when appropriate but I do not like misleading selling:-

Earlier this year I bought 3 bags of A.J.Bowers J.I.which was so wet it was like trying to seive mud - i.e. impossible. Next I bought some Westland's J.I. then on reading the small print on the back of the bag saw that it contains 50% peat. Hardly J.I.!!

Never heard that before. Boiling any plant material for 10 minutes sounds like a pretty good way of rendering it serile and not likely to grow. Only my opinion - maybe I'll learn something new today.