Succulent carnage, part 1 of 3 - the frozen front...

I had first planned to do a post documenting all the damage to my succulent plant collection resulting from the devastating freeze of early December 2013, but as I photographed all the damaged plants I decided that it just might be better to split this up over a few days (and a few beers) :)  So I will start today with the front of the house, an area with some old and some new succulents.  I will follow with a report on the Cactus Farm, where I am growing out several landscape succulents, and finally show the damage to the east slope behind our house.

As you may recall from my last post documenting cold damage to the citrus orchard, we had warm weather with highs 15 to 20 degrees F above normal (70-80 F) in November, followed by plummeting temperatures beginning in early December.  This event included several inches of snow, but the weather reverted almost immediately to the abnormally warm and bone dry pattern that has dominated our winter thus far.  This has baffled meteorologists as such a large and persistent blocking system is very rare.  In fact we have not had another frost since our Arctic blast and that is very unusual indeed.

So like the citrus, the succulents had no chance to gradually harden off, and for this reason I have damage and death to plants that are normally very hardy.  The coldest spots in the yard were briefly 24-27, but there were several nights in the high 20's.  I did not cover some of the plants that are known to be hardy into the low 20's or teens, and I paid dearly.

Deep breath....and here goes:

Good old century plant (Agave americana) looks as impressive as ever and is in active growth as we speak.  The gray americana and the 'marginata' were already here when we bought the house, and they have grown well and begun to pup.  Call it the weed of the Agave genus, but this species has something to be said for it when it looks this good after such rotten weather.

Agave franzosinii with a little damage to the lower leaves

Other Agaves didn't fare so well.  My 10 octopus agaves (Agave vilmoriniana) in the front yard were all damaged, and some appear to be rotting.  It is hard for me to predict which will make it, though, so I am letting them be for a while.  I am not used to growing succulents in a climate like this, having grown up in the perfection of Sunset Zones 23 and 24 (USDA Zone 10b).  I am now solidly in the cold half of USDA Zone 9b, and perhaps it is really 9a (Sunset Zone 9).

Not so bad...

Bad...

Awful!!

Ok...Agave deserti

 Aloes fared quite poorly, but I am happy that one of my favorites, torch aloe (Aloe arborescens) seems to be okay in this climate, especially the mature plants.  Once the plants grow large enough to create their characteristic clumps the insides should be able to handle the next freeze much better.  Small plants will occasionally need to be covered for a few years.  A real bummer was the loss of my new snake aloe (Aloe broomii) which turned black and went crispy immediately.

Crispy critter...definitely not hardy this time.

Aloe arborescens with no hope

The big A. arborescens that I have been keeping since I was a kid - is there hope?

Yes, hope is at the base

And at the top too!

Aloe 'Hercules' - dead or alive?  Not hardy to 23F this time...

On to cacti.  Cereus peruvianus, or whatever it is currently being called can be quite hardy.  All mine that were in the open were damaged.  These were cuttings taken from beloved plants that I left behind when I moved away from LA in 2007.  At least one of these plants had just produced two new columns at the base, and most of the others had recently flowered.  None of them were ready for the sudden cold.   Not sure if they will make it.

Not so good

Worse

And we have a loser :(

Nopalea (Nopalea (Opuntia) cochenillifera) did poorly, as it was also actively growing.  Some more hardened specimens in the back yard did a bit better.

Believe it or not this was an erect and green Nopalea plant on Dec 1

Below is the base of another Nopalea.  I have had this clone since I was 11 years old.  In the 1980's my Grandpa decided to take advantage of a USDA "government cheese" program for seniors.  Surplus grocery store food was regularly delivered as part of the program and once they brought Grandpa a bag of Nopalea pads along with cheese and bread.  He thought it was funny and of course I planted some.  Luckily I have several other plants of this clone that were kept safe from the freeze.

Government surplus Nopalea...mush!

Opuntia brasilensis, down but not out

Beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris) looked the same as always, never changes in winter or summer.  Someday it will bloom.

The stars of the cactus world were the Trichocereus/Echinopsis group, all of which handled the cold beautifully.  I see that I will need to focus on this group more in the future.

Golden torch cactus (Trichocereus spachianus)

Trichocereus werdermannianus

The Ferocactus is fine

This little ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata) was buried in snow.  WOW what a survivor!

They are hardier than I thought

Yucca rigida lookin' good

Graptopetalum paraguayense is always a winner!

Another winner thus far was the resin spurge (Euphorbia resinifera), a plant that will likely become a star player in the landscape around the house.  So, the freeze wasn't a complete loss and I did learn quite a bit.  Hopefully this year's terrible weather is not going to be a recurring event.  In the next post I will visit the Cactus Farm (where I am growing large landscape succulents), and in another post, the backyard.