As long as it doest get hot (over 95f) for extended periods you should fine, just let soil dry between watering

Wintergrowers behave as such in S Africa or SoCal.

In New England winter sucks no matter what you do. I am convinced that many or most of these plants will end up growing during our summer because if not, they won't be growing much at all. There is more activity in the spring and fall, but I see lots of growth from my "summer dormant" plants during the summer, as you have demonstrated with your photos.

There is plenty of time to sleep in the winter. That suits me just fine. My garage does not have sunny 75F days in the winter.

x

x -

You are correct...winter does suck! Long live our heatwave!

T

Hellow X,
you hit the nail on the head when discussing our cold nasty winters in New England!
Tom,
I would kill to experience what you call winter. I am sure it still sucks but we get temps here that go below zero. Especially in January and February. These two months are the hardest for me to keep my plants happy. By this time, they are really itching to go back outdoors!
I wanted to find out what plant was in the 6th pic. Leaves remind me of geranium.
Andrew

Andrew -

...correct, that would be a Pelargonium cotyledonis. Only grows on St. Helena Island...and MA ;-)...

T

Tom - I'm afraid I'm not going to be any help to you whatsoever, but I just had to say that I just love your plants. I can't stop looking at them. Even my dog joined me to browse through them and usually she's only interested in trying to eat them.

Ooh. And I agree with winter if you're not in a mild climate. SUCKS! Here in Alberta, Canada we consider ourselves lucky if we don't hit -40C. I actually just had a small hailstorm yesterday, in the middle of summer. Wish Mother Nature would get her head straight.

Yikes! Hailstorms! They must have moved north...the last few summers we were victimized by them pretty regularly. Nothing make you feel more helpless than a hailstorm and lots of plants that you care about. What do you do?

We are just getting heat - heat - and more heat so far this summer...the hail is probably waiting in the wings...

Tom

Tom,

Can you name your nice plants (love the Othonna and the Pelargoniums) in their entirety?

Thanks much.

NP (snuck in an abbreviation there, too!)...in order of appearance:

Pachycormis discolor
Fouquieria columnaris
Othonna euphorbioides
Euphorbia californica
Pachypodium namaquanum
Pelargonium cotyledonis

triple pic - Othonna euphorbioides, Othonna arbuscula, Othonna herrei

second triple pic - pelargonium triste, dioscorea elephantipes, tylecodon paniculatus

...is that all of them?

T

No help here either. This year has been so weird, things that bloom in January are blooming now, the crocosmia are blooming like crazy and usually they bloom in March.

Your plants are awesome and I just love your pots!
Tally HO!

I have 2 Pachy namaquanum, both dropped their leaves in May. Now one of them is leafing out. It is so hot, it doesn't know what to do.

The most difficult months for me are March and April...days are getting longer, sun is getting stronger, but not quite warm enough outside. This coming spring I plan to get a pop-up greenhouse with a heater to help jumpstart my tropical plants, just for those 2+ months.

x

x -

Please tell me more about this pop-up greenhouse...got a link?

BTW, have your namaquanum ever flowered? Mine doesn't even think about it...

T

no flowers yet...

I've been eye-ing this one

T,

Your P. n. isn't mature enough yet to flower. I've only seen one in San Diego in flower - fell in love with its purple flowers there and then.

When I had them, in an 3-open-sided greenhouse, they were out of leaf February and March but wanted to grow the rest of the time. It was the most-unwinter-growing-winter-grower I've seen.

cactusmcharris - How mature must they be to flower?

x - that is a nice little pop-up greenie...they have a whole bunch on that site. Are you leaning toward that one because of its size? How will you heat it?

Thanks.

T

I like the height. I can stick some of my Ensete and Brugmansia in there. A small electric heater should suffice to warm it up in there just enough.

Tom,

His large (3-gallon pot) was planted in a larger pot, and it seemed to be out of leaf one month a year. I'd guess it was about 2' tall but very thick (6" of so).

My largest namaquanum started flowering when it reached 20" in hieght, two others have flowered occasionally at 15".