My location is normally very mild, with -3C being an exceptional low during winter. I won't mention the bad year, its still to raw and painful to dwell on the losses sustained. Let's just day it was a damned sight colder than normal.
The problem isn't the cold, it's the combined conditions of both wet and shade that will cause many succulents to turn to a gooey mush. Very few things in the garden smell worse than the exhumed corpse of a rotting Agave.
So, to avoid this I plant them out around April/May and dig them up again come September or early October.
Planting them in the soil, which provides relatively rich conditions causes these plants to grow lush and full, a look I enjoy for the planting schemes I envision. But with such rank growth also comes a loss of frost hardiness so up they need to come.
A dry day is necessary before work can commence as you don't want them being potted up while sodden. Dry roots are the key for successful winter storage. Terracotta pots are best as they won't hold on to moisture, and the recently acquisition of thirty or so antique Irish pots came in handy at this point. They were bought off Gumtree without a clue as to what I'd use them for but the price and their rustic beauty meant that it was too good an opportunity to pass them up.
When dug up and some of the soil shaken from their roots they were potted into almost pure grit, which will hopefully make it easier to keep them dry until spring.
Hail stones when I was away on holidays damaged the leaves of many of succulents, leaving them with unsightly brown marks, like on the Aeonium 'Compton Carousel' below. But they'll grow out of this again by next year.
They're all safely tucked up in my cold greenhouse, so providing things don't get too cold this winter all should be good come spring.
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