Re: coming out

Thank you all for the emails and advice, I may even have it sorted now.  I thought I would try to cancel out the negative message with a better 'Hello' and bore you all with a kind of introduction.  At least you will be warned to hit the delete button when my name appears! 
 
I live and work in the southeast of England, allegedly the hottest and driest part of the country with an average of 20" of rainfall annually.  Frosts are moderate but not usually severe with an average of -6C (20F?).  These facts gave me the bizarre notion that I should try to grow as many cacti and succulents outside as the climate permits.
 
I will go off on a slight tangent here for a moment. There is no historical precedent whatsoever for growing cacti and succulents outside at all in the UK.   Maybe a handful of opuntias outside at Kew gardens, a few agaves in the mildest southwestern areas but really that is about it.  If you suggest growing cacti outside to an English 'cactus collector', he will look at you with a mixture of pity, suspicion and fear - cacti belong in little, square, neatly labelled pots arranged in neat rows in greenhouses, not outside where they will die as soon as it gets cold.  So says the received wisdom.
 
I don't come from a formal horticultural background; arriving naive and free of preconceptions it seemed logical to try and grow the ultimate drought resistent plants in an area with restricted rainfall.  I went about finding which plants were most likely to succeed, not an easy task over given the lack of information and encouragement (they will die you are wasting your time etc), and over the past two or three years have discovered that many will: all this despite the fact that it has rained constantly ever since I tamped the soil around my first agave.....  I have also discovered that there are individuals doing similar things in isolation scattered about the country; it is somehow reassuring to think that an affliction is shared. 
 
Apart from the succulent fixation I try to grow as broad a range of other exotic looking plants as I can including palms, banana(s), treeferns, bamboos, gingers etc. and this is I suppose about the sum total of my life.  I eat, sleep and breathe exotic plants and look forward to the opportunity of picking everyone's brains in the near future.  All with, it must be said, a large helping of climate envy.
 
regards to all
 
Paul
 
 
 
Paul Spracklin
42 Greenwood Avenue
South Benfleet
Essex
SS7 1LD
England
tel +44 (0) 1268 757666
fax +44 (0) 1268 795646
website: www.oasisdesigns.co.uk
discussion forum: www.ukoasis.fsnet.co.uk
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