Oh sweetie -- everyone has losses. I have more than 80 succulents (half of them Sansevierias) on my lanai -- and I can't tell you how many I have lost because of experimenting with soil and mixes, incorrect watering, plopping them in the sun without acclimating them first etc. It seems you have a lot of cacti, more than other succulents. Don't get discouraged.

I live in Florida where it's pleasant most of the year and boiling hot in the summer, so my climate is different from many peoples. I have no idea about peroxide -- but one commercially available product I have bought steadily is Bayer 3-in-1 and have used it successfully on outdoor shrubs as well as potted plants. Don't know if you can get it where you live. But if so -- I have used it in a spray bottle and sprayed all over, and also used it to DRENCH the soil of plants, and it has always worked. Kills mealies, ants, just about anything. Don't give up...you will turn it around and eventually will grow more than you lose. Just don't think you're the only one with losses. You are not.

I liked this quote so much I saved it:

"I remember years ago when I was into growing orchids, an orchid grower said to me that a beginner grower hasn't killed anything, an intermediate grower doesn't admit to having killed anything, and an experienced grower talks about the plants he/she has killed."

--stupidlazydog

I now admire people who can talk about all of their losses. I was definitely in the intermediate mindset over the winter. Over the years, I hadn't lost much to rot, and I lost a few plants to underwatering. But when I really thought about it, I lost more plants than I was willing to admit. Fortunately, though, I haven't had any bug problems. With more plants outside this year, we'll see if that holds.

I lost more plants bought at Home Depot this year than I did the previous few years with established plants and propagations, before knew HD sold them. An Echeveria 'Chroma', which was high on my list when I was enamored with ...verias, literally fell apart. Then the same with a Pachyphytum, and a few Crassula tetragonas lost their leaves. Nice thing about those is I saved leaves. I got a plant from a generous person here that fell over and died on me. I lost a couple of cactus seedlings that I had been growing for 9 months, and found out that two grown cactus simply hadn't had enough water and were dead without me knowing it. Frustrating but worth it overall.

I think the Mam. leuthi grafted will grow for the people who graft them and nobody else. I think mine lasted about 4 months. A rabbit ate all the green parts of my (then) nice trichodiadema densum. I now have a flat top 1" diameter caudex that I really hope will put out green branches again. I have lost plants in any manner possible over the years. I can say that varmints account for most of the kills now that I have learned how most of the plants grow. I still have some problems with winter dormant plants and the rain as I don't have a greenhouse.

Thank you Jeff, that was a nice thing to say(or write). It 's good to know that others have had similar issues with me so I don't feel like such a loser,lol. I think the worst is when you lose a favorite plant like you with your Chroma.

Aloebot, I was thinking of getting another luethi. You saved me money and heartache. I don't know exactly what went wrong with my Trichodiadema.Did I underwater it or did I overwater it?No idea,but it is a sad and dry sight.

I have lost many a plant over the years. When people have complimented the me on growing a plant, my husband has been known to mutter "they haven't seen the ones you kill". I think it happens to all of us.

You just try to figure out what went wrong and what to change, sometimes with success and sometimes not. For some reason I've been struggling with Adeniums lately, and can't figure out why. Drainage... check. Sun... check. Warmth... check. Still they haven't been growing well. Right now I'm trying a couple of different potting mixes. I've now decided that it's sink or swim time, and at the end of the summer, if they're still not growing well, it's off with their heads!

My year of spring death was 2016---spring was incredibly erratic with temps and rainfall. If I was not using pure pumice or gritty mixes, I'm sure I would've lost more. As it was, half of my adeniums succumbed, my 5-year old Sarcocaulon herrei (that confused me until I looked at my notes---i'd forgotten what an extreme xerophyte it was) and my Euphorbia susannae.

I have both Trichodiadema densum and T. bulbosum. The T. densum is more mesemb in sensibilities than T. bulbosum which is more---well, weed. The densum was probably too wet too long? Like all my mesembs, I have it in a soil/pumice mix and treat it like the succulent it is.

But this year, I have only one casualty and I have NO clue why, either---my Pachypodium brevicaule that I got as a present. I suspect I should have watered it during winter (which I did not do last winter and it was fine). But that sucked because I know for sure it was a habitat-collected plant. The least I could've done was to keep the thing alive after it's been ripped from the wild.

So, yeah. I'll not be replacing that one.

I think the problem with some Pachypodiums over the winter is that they can lose roots due to lack of water and then, when watering is started back up in the spring, they rot. I had that happen to a makayense some years back. I now water mine a bit, maybe once a month, in the winter, and that seems to work.

I did have a brevicaule that grew really well for a number of years, until I decided I wanted it in a particular pot. I knew that the pot was too large but I stupidly I used it anyway and, yep, I killed the plant. I have another now (as well as a small seedling and couple of grafted ones) that was a present, and probably also a habitat plant.I pay close attention to that one. So far, so good.

Learning about growing is an on-going process. Hopefully, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Last year I decided to repot most of mine because it had been years and over potted and then over watered,lost a few and one that I had for 35 years.

Sad thing is that I know better.

"Sad thing is that I know better."

Exactly! I knew at the time I was doing wrong, but did it anyway. Been kicking myself ever since.

They say age brings wisdom, but maybe not in my case... I'm really trotting out the cliches today :-)

The road to a green thumb is paved with the corpses of dead plants. I always tell people to not worry about it too much because I have killed more plants than they will likely ever own.

I hope this doesn't get me in trouble, but I'm glad that I don't think plants are beings that are equal with people, or even animals, because then I'd feel like a murderer. I feel bad enough when I kill a plant that I really like, especially if it was given to me. kingd's situation sounds so awful. I have to think about the truly important things to get perspective in those times. They are in fact living things, and nature is important as a whole, and I have a hard time even throwing away leaves, but they're just things, and things we learn from to make other things thrive.

If this comment causes any trouble, I can delete it.

Hi Jeff.I don't know why you would think that.Of course they are living things,but I would not grieve for their loss as I would for a person.But since gardening in general is something that pleases me,relaxes me and makes me happy I feel sad when something dies.Especially when it's something rare and had it for years.

Don't delete it,we are just having a conversation.

To answer your question about mealies: are your plants inside or outside? If outside and there are ants around, there will always be mealies and I just gave up. If I see a plant that is struggling and it is not busy flowering, I treat with imidaclodaprid. I don't like to disturb roots and I wouldnt soak the plants in anything. If it isn't currently flowering you won't kill any pollinators, only sap-sucking insects.

My record for killing something in the fastest time is 3 days. I bought fenestraria and made the mistake of watering it after I got home because it was dry. Next time I got fenestraria I didnt water it for a week and so far so good. We live and learn

niksouthafrica,thank you for answering my question.My plants are outside but in a balcony.I don't have ants.I was thinking about treating all my plants with a systemic intecticide to make sure they are all pest free.I shouldn't let anything bloom after that,right?

Yes. Systemic Insecticides last for about 3 months so no flowers for that time is a good idea and at least then your plants will be clean. Thereafter, quarantine all your new plants thoroughly to make sure that you don't reinfect the originals again

Oh,that is so sad.I have two young ariocarpus and I'm checking them everyday.Those slow growing with taproots are so tricky.I will replace most of my losses in time,too.

I think I have lost like 10 in the last year...maybe a couple more then that with 3 more on the downhill slide. I’ve stopped counting. I have no idea why as others are thriving. It happens. Most of them Adenium. Once they are gone I won’t be replacing them with another Adenium.

At some point if I’ve followed all of the rules & advice for me it’s survival of the fittest. I know I’ve done all I could do and the best that I could do and at some point the plant has to “decide”, so to speak, if it wants to live.

If they don’t make it then it frees up space for me to acquire more plants & try something else.