alluadia minimum temperature

[Tina]

Hi all,
I have few Alluadia- montagnaci, dumosa, Ascendens that have always lived in my hot greenhouse ( 15C) they are a bit large and take up a lot of space and make a mess when they drop their leaves, do others grow these at lower temps ? and then keep dry during winter, my other greenhouses are 6-10C.

[esp]

Dave's Garden gives first hand reports of some of these taking frost ok (or ok-ish, depending on species) in the USA, so I'd have thought that a slightly cooler green house treatment would be fine: https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53187/, https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/61362/
Other Southern US sources seem to agree, e.g. https://www.smgrowers.com/products/plan ... nt_id=3603

No personal experience of them myself, apart from an inability to get seed to germinate!

[ralphrmartin]

I grew one for quite a few years in a greenhouse kept at 5C, but I'm not sure whether it was the cold that finished it off...

[Phil_SK]

I aim to keep my greenhouse at +1C, which means, in practice, that it can get to just below freezing. I try to bring into the house no more than one large tray of plants. My young Alluaudia procera has always come into the house until this winter when it's place was taken by something else. I noticed last week that it had suffered and was probably dead... but only just. It has gone a dry-dead, rather than mushy, and I'll be trying to rescue the bit at the bottom that looks almost? alive. I reckon 6C would be fine, for procera at least.

[Terry S.]

My Alluaudia ascendens has been growing with a minimum temperature of 8C for the last ten years and is now about 8 metres tall (I had to transfer it to Wisley!). A friend has a large specimen in a greenhouse heated to about 5C which has hit the glass and is running along it. Even under those conditions where the temperature in its immediate environment might be quite low at times, it is OK.

Knowing that it grows at low elevation in Madagascan thorn forest, one would expect it to need relatively high temperatures. This shows how it is difficult to relate conditions for plants in habitat to those needed in cultivation.

[Tina]

Thanks Terry
I thought they should be tough but wanted confirmation, I had seen the Daves garden note but I'd rather get details from a UK grower as these are old plants and I'd hate to kill them.
I managed that on a few Euphorbia I thought would be tougher, I have some cuttings now instead.