Re: Succulents for zone 7-answers for Christi

Unfortunately, I don't think any of the ones I have
mentioned are going to be successful anywhere it
freezes regularly.  I know that some of these have
been used out at the Ruth Bancroft garden in Walnut
Creek, but they do take protective measures to shelter
from excess rains and direct radiation frosts.  I have
also seen some of these plants used as half hardy
annuals or container plants to be brought under cover
in a coastal Washington state climate.  Your best bet
would to get ideas from nurseries such as Heronswood
or the outdoor gallery of Little and Lewis on
Bainbridge, or Sean Hogan's nursery there in Portland,
or what they are growing in the way of succulents at
the Denver Botanic Garden.

There are certainly succulents that are hardy to zone
7 conditions, such as certain Delospermum species,
some Aloes such as A. polyphylla, sempervivums and
many sedums.  I don't know of any Plectranthus species
that will take conditions below about 27~28F, although
they have come back from the roots for me at 25F in
some cases.  I would recommend using more summer
rainfall types of succulents from China/Japan for
their generally greater tolerance of cold and winter
rains, but they will mostly tend to also be winter
deciduous, probably not what you had in mind being
influenced by California succulent gardens.

Lest you be envious, I also regret that we can't
really grow the most tender, heat loving succulents
here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Ocotillo,
Adeniums, Saguaro cactus, true Palo Verde(Cercidium
floridum), are not great candidates for cool foggy
coastal gardens that never get much sustained heat. 
As one example, I persist in trying to grow outdoors
the Pencil Euphorbia/C. tirucallii 'Sticks on Fire',
which always seems to rot away at least half of each
summer's new growth over the winter, and this with
being completely protected from winter rain and up
against the sunniest south facing wall I can give it.

Good luck with your quest for succulents suitable to
your conditions...

David Feix


--- Ccopuntia@aol.com wrote:

> Greetings from the San Juan Islands!
> 
> David, your post got me to thinking about succulents
> as groundcover out here 
> on the islands off the coast of Washington state.  
> We are USDA Zone 8, but 
> often I hear from the locals, we are actually more
> like Zone 7.   Which (if any) 
> of the succulents you mentioned would you think
> might do well here?
> 
> Many thanks!    Christi
> 
> In a message dated 10/19/04 11:25:43 AM,
> davidfeix@yahoo.com writes:
> 
> 
> > If you are considering succulents as groundcovers,
> the
> > Lampranthus spectabilis is also very showy in
> bloom.
> > Drosanthemum works equally well, and a personal
> > favorite is the Blue Chalk Sticks/Senecio
> 
> > mandraliscae, which I also often use as a mass
> > groundcover, often along with the equally easy to
> grow
> > South African Plectranthus neochilus, a succulent
> > everblooming low growing groundcover.  Similar to
> the
> > Plectranthus, another mint family groundcover
> worth
> > looking for, is the succulent Coleus lanuginosa
> from
> > the highlands of Eithiopa. 
> > 
> 
> 



		
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