winterhardy/frosthardy exotics - experience Solved

[Julie]

The incredible flat shrinking cactus!

I really like that sink garden.

[MikeT]

6 days after the 2005 pics above
[attachment 1790 snow.jpg]

[MikeT]

Tray of Opuntias in seasonal display
[attachment 1791 snow_opuntias.jpg]

[MikeT]

Fritz, this ties in with your other thread. Seedling Opuntia imbricata, it's spent the last few years in the open. The 2005 & 2007 pictures show how slowly the plants grow. This one is several years old, though greenhouse culture would have produced something much bigger in that time
[attachment 1792 Opuntia_imbricata.jpg]

[MikeT]

A recently acquired Opuntia, fending for itself now on the garage roof. Is it imbricata? Any other suggestions? It was upright before the cold weather. Many opuntias seem to flop over in the cold, but revive in the summer. They look wrinkled, as if dehydrated, even though the soil is wet. I presume that by concentrating tissue fluid, and reducing volume the plant is more resistant to freezing and to cell damage from ice crystals. Some like compressa seem to flop over, then stay flat the next year but grow new pads upright, then those pads in turn flop the next winter
[attachment 1793 Opuntia_sp.JPG]

[fritz]

thank you so much for all the infos with the pics.


merci fritz