We have a yard loaded with cacti and agaves, and although they are suited to this climate, they didn't come out of this recent freeze in such good shape. We had a cold snap (a couple of weeks at least) that was below freezing at night and close to freezing sometimes even at noon (coldest extended temps for a decade... following the hottest summer on record. Hello climate change.). MrB explained that what happens to the cacti and succulents is that the leaves (or ears or what have you) are loaded with water, and when the water freezes the poor things just wilt and collapse. So sad. I hate it when the yard beauties get so distressed. They aren't dead. Well... this aloe vera looks close, but it might make it...
Spent the afternoon (of a gorgeous 60° cool sunny day) bagging all the poor, unfortunate prickly pear ears. Tomorrow we saw agave leaves off the bottoms. It's pretty tough yard work. There will be blood.
Think of it as a Spring haircut, all you distressed succulents.
5 comments:
It's hard to actually kill aloe. It'll come back.
i brought all my suculents inside..i forgot one year and kilted my aloe...once frozen they very rarely can come back..the one i couldnt bring in i wapped with burlap..so far so good.
I am so sorry for your losses. I found my one Kalenchoe with a few mushy white leaves due to one night of freeze (only to 32 degrees). The rest of the plant looks OK. It is my fav plant of all times! Hope it will be OK. Hoping your aloe is gonna be OK too!
We have a rather brutal policy not to cover up stuff or otherwise protect it from weather, "if it doesn't survive here, it shouldn't be here." Harsh, but it's the gardener's (MrB's) way of maintaining a Central Texas native yard. Go native or go away, Botanical Darwinism.
We pay the price sometimes (like this weekend with all the work). I hate losing stuff but I agree with him in theory so I go along with it.
Definitely blame climate change! Its been weird here too, warmer than usual. Normally its -20-40C, but its been hovering around zero lately.
Post a Comment