It's almost universally accepted that your succulents need to dry out between waterings, yet I water mine on the same schedule as I do plants like coleus, streptocarpella, and impatiens, and they're all wonderfully healthy. Most would consider my not waiting until my succulents are dry to water to be apostasy, with the added sin of watering on a set schedule to be certain sealing of my plants' fate. Even in winter when my plants are under lights, I water the succulents on the same schedule as all the rest of my plants. Maybe we should look at WHY I can water my succulents when there is still plenty of moisture left in the soil. The reason is, I use a medium that doesn't support a layer of saturated soil at the bottom of the pot. That's the key. Succulents suffer drought stress just as a coleus or impatiens might. They might tolerate drought a little better, and the signals that indicate they are suffering from a lack of water might not be as readily visible in succulents as in more herbaceous plants, but they DO suffer drought stress. Because we know that with certainty, it's logical to think that the plant would rather NOT dry out before it gets its next drink. So why is it so commonly thought they (succulents)SHOULD dry out between waterings? The reason is, most growers use soils that are so extremely water-retentive that extreme measures need to be taken to guard against that water retention. PROBABILITY dictates that unless you allow water-retentive soils to become nearly completely dry before watering plants in them, that over-watering and its accompanying problems will result. IOW, it's better to allow the soil to become drier than the plant would like and allow the influence of some drought stress to come to play, than it is to take a chance that you might be watering too soon, and in doing so ensuring the plant will suffer the impaired root function associated with over-watering - or perhaps even a case of root rot. We can see that the idea you need to allow succulents to dry down to completely dry, or nearly so, is based on the supposition that your soil choice automatically makes watering before your plant absolutely NEEDS water a risky undertaking; but what if you're using a soil that remains well-aerated from the top of the pot to the bottom, no matter how often you water? Wouldn't THAT stand the idea that succulents need to dry out between waterings on its head? It does; and because I use a soil that doesn't support perched water (no part of the soil, even at the bottom of the container, is ever saturated) I can water succulents as often as I like without concern that root function will be diminished or fear I'm setting the stage for root rot. Al

Speaking of disagreement, I count to ten whenever someone uses hardiness zones as a reference point for houseplant care. I too, am in zone 5, which merely tells me what the average minimum temperatures are outdoors in winter. That is what the zones were originally designated for, and as far as I am concerned, their only real use is for choosing appropriate outdoor plants. Zones say nothing about latitude and available light (there is a zone 7 in both Alaska and Texas, and a Zone 4 in both Maine and New Mexico, for extreme examples), or anything else having to do with indoor care. Even if you are looking for a last frost date, in preparation for putting houseplants outdoors, these are often the same across zones. One of the more memorable discussions I read online was started by a person who was astonished that her friend who lived in Zone 7 Virginia had the same last frost date as she, who lived in Zone 5 Kansas. That said, it just so happens that coincidentally, I have the perfect situation available for an experiment. I had a wandering jew that I found was doing rather poorly, due to a combination of not being in ideal light, and lax watering. Last week, I was just going to toss the whole thing out. But being a goofy, sentimental plant person, I couldn't manage to do so completely. ;-) So I took a few tip cuttings, which have already begun rooting. I cut off all the remaining leggy vines, and tossed them out. This left me with pot of soil with a few inch long stems. I was going to throw this out and clean the pot out for future use, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If anyone is interested, I will hold onto to the pot, place it in a reasonably sunny spot, and see how it does. I will also takes photos of the process.

Thank you, Maria... at least now we're not all wondering, even though we all pretty much knew that they weren't really hardy to zone 5, and that they aren't really something from Hadeco. Still, it's nice to get factual information straight from the horses mouth, as it were! Once the original copyright or registration runs out on a product, it's ownership and name are up for grabs. I wonder how long the growers that grabbed these were waiting around, drooling for the original patent to expire? Many, many years ago I bought a bunch of bulbs from Breck's... I knew they wouldn't be top-sized bulbs, but I didn't mind waiting a couple of years for them to grow. I must say... I did get my money's worth... they were all beautiful flowers, and by the second year they were in, they really put on a nice show! However... this was years and years ago, when Breck's was more reputable and owned by someone else... I would not place an order with them now and expect their ads to be true... any company that spends that much in advertising and has that glossy and pretty of a catalog isn't putting their profits back into the company or the products they sell. As my experience and learned knowledge of gardening and plants has grown over the years, I know what zones most perennials and bulbs and plants are normally rated for... so, when I pick up a catalog and see a plant listed for a zone I know is not probable, I take it with a grain of salt and note which company the catalog is from... Bumping zones of plants in catalogs has been a sales ploy for a long time... once you have a general understanding of perennial gardening, and you begin to do some cultural reading on the subject, you begin to remember which plants are rated for what zones... The bottom line is... this kind of thing is exactly what you'd expect from a company such as Breck's... and all the other companies of the same caliber will very quickly jump on the bandwagon and offer the same thing, claiming that it will survive in a zone 5 garden... we all know it won't. I suspect most of us knew that already...

That's probably a Lady Margaret, or possibly the similar Red Inca. Officially, they're only hardy up to zone 9, but I'm trying a cutting out in zone 8b. The short answer is no, it will not survive zone 5 winters. The longer answer is that almost no passiflora will survive in zone 5. There are some populations of incarnata native to the Ohio River valley that may be able to stick it out, and some lutea of northern lattitude provenance should come back in the spring. But Lady Margaret will not. On the bright side, it's an easy one to grow in a pot...