Stapelia/Aeoniums

[Patrick]

After learning from the Crassula Ovata thread that people don't water their's in the winter and that it helps flowering, I am wondering about a few others that I have religiously watered every few weeks through the winter. Aeonium Schwarzkop, Stapelia Hirsuta and Kalanchoe Daigremontianum. They are all in my unheated porch where the minimum temp is about 6 or 7c but is mostly about double that. What do you suggest?

[Vic]

If it works for you Patrick then don't change it. Cacti can generally be treated all the same ie. keep them dry but succulents are a different ballgame and require various cultivation methods due to their different growing seasons and tend to indicate when they are thirsty by shrivelling excessively. Aeoniums are generally winter growers but in their native habitats the temps never become that low, saying that the few I used to have were kept dry but I've never got serious about growing them.

[Liz M]

Patrick, Aeoniums as Vic says are winter growers and as a result need to be kept frost-free and damp. If you don't water them they won't grow and there is no chance that they will flower in spring. Keeping them in your porch at those temperatures is fine, how much sunlight do they get? They will need some. Kalanchoes have flowered for me in winter and I have not watered them but kept them cool. Stapelia I have kept very slightly damp and resumed watering in March or April, they then flower later in summer.