Christmas Flowers

Hi Scotsgran, You did have a bargin didn't you I was thinking of getting some of those,are they hard to keep? :)

Some of them are not hardy here but having said that as long as I can take them in again in the winter they should be fine. Most sempervivums are happy outdoors all year round but the echeveria may not survive our cold winters. The bergeranthus looks like it might already be on its last legs but I was attracted to it because it has quite sharp triangular leaves. They all do need good drainage and not too much water. They will survive a bit of neglect if you go on holiday during the summer. I'm planning a raised bed to put them in. They do not like to be watered from above indoors nor do they like water to be left on their leaves so I water them from below. The advice I have read says let them dry out thoroughly before repotting. Knock away all the old soil and cut away any damaged roots before putting them in fresh cactus type compost. If you read Hywels blog about the differences between cactus and succulents that would seem like good advice. I think the ones I got are probably the hardier and more common types at the prices they were marked up at. They are all in 4" pots and I would think they will spread quite quickly because there are lots of babies on them.

I went looking in the A-Z goypedia at the foot of the page under S and Succulents and from there I wandered on in to the internet and came across this very interesting site in Australia. It gives good advice re which zones Australians live in I think if we used their definition of a cool zone we would be seeing the kind of information we need for growing in Scotland. Maybe also Devon. Take a look, perhaps you would consider the temperate zone more like yours weather wise. http://www.echeverias.com/index.html

It's nice to have flowers as a gift. Men don't seem to get given flowers :o((
I am envious of your Echeverias ..,

My husband has a friend who is always pleased to see us and he showed me how to use the side shoots, from the carnartions I took him, to make new plants. He too said it was the first time anyone had given him flowers and so ladies and gents please note, your male friends will welcome the gift with open arms. When the Echeveria babies grow I can send you some of them if you like, unless the sooner they are transplanted the better. I'll take your advice on when the best time is to plant them. I think I'm right in saying I just break them off and they don't have to be replanted straight away (they will survive a day in the post). These should be named friendship flowers as all of the succulents in the garden are bits I have been given from friends plants. My mother always said sweet peas were friendship flowers because the more you gave away the more flowers grew.

Lovely blog Scotsgran and I love what your mother said about the sweet peas, I never thought of it like that before.

you got some nice gifts SG, & some nice bargains too..:o)

Great bargains Sheila...I saw these on the shelves - I went along looking for some bargain - everything I wanted was not reduced :(

Thank you everybody. I hope you too get some bargains at the GC.