Welcome to my first Blog and lets talk about overwintering your plants

Hi Guys 😀 

Welcome to my first Blog on this website 😀 

Winter is very nearly upon us and we have already had a few chilly nights here in Belfast in N.Ireland, Luckily I have just finished bringing in the last of the Cacti and Succulents that are not cold hardy from the Polytunnel into the house to overwinter them.

If you are like me and live in the Northern hemisphere and you grow cacti and succulents either outdoors or in a  greenhouse or polytunnel then you will need to protect any of your plants that can not tolerate the cold temperatures we get here on this side of the planet.

During the Autumn and Winter months I heat my polytunnel at a minimum Winter temperature of 5 Celsius / 31 Fahrenheit and I have a thermostat control that switches on if the temperature drops below 5 c / 41f inside the polytunnel, this allows us to keep a large proportion of our cacti and succulents safe over the Winter to overwinter them during their Winter rest period, but also still warm enough for the Winter growing Cacti and Succulents such as the South African Succulents and the Schlumbergera cacti commonly known as the Thanksgiving and Christmas Cacti that still continue to grow and flower during the Winter.

cacti, cactus plants, desert plants of avalon, Succulents, succulent plants,
The Cacti and Succulent Plants that are all going to be left overwintering in the Polytunnel, these plants will be kept at a minimum temperature of 5 Celsius / 41 Fahrenheit, I have a thermostatic heater that switches on if the temperature in the polytunnel drops below that.
Christmas cactus, thanksgiving cactus, schlumbergera truncata, pink flowering schlumbergera,
Some Cacti still continue to grow and flower during the Winter for example Schlumbergera commonly known as ‘The Christmas Cactus’ and the Thanksgiving cactus’

 

There are so many different cacti and succulents and they all vary so much in their minimum Winter temperatures and also the minimum temperatures vary so much depending on where they are growing, for example cacti that are being overwintered cool and dry in a dry arid climate with low humidity can survive much lower temperatures, and some of the desert cacti like Opuntia and Rebutia can even survive temperatures that are below freezing compared to the same types of cacti that are being overwintered cool and dry but are in a humidity high country such as where I live here in Ireland and UK.

 

Most of the Cacti and Succulents like to be overwintered cool and dry and bright ideally at a temperature between 5 – 10 Celsius /  41 -50 Fahrenheit, this encourages them to stop growing and they get to rest over the winter and also encourages blooming in the Spring and Summer of the following year.

If you want to learn more about Overwintering Cacti and Succulents then you can read the Article I have wrote for the growing tips on this website HERE

I have made a couple of videos on my You Tube Channel Desert Plants of Avalon on How to Overwinter your cacti and Succulents and also How to Overwinter your Cacti and Succulent seedlings during their first year and both of these videos are below : 

 

I filmed a series of fun video vlogs for my You Tube channel Desert Plants of Avalon when I was bringing in the Cacti and Succulents to overwinter from the polytunnel into the house, and in these video vlogs I share lots of information about each cactus and succulent and about their individual minimum winter temperatures, check the video below if you want to see the first part of my Overwintering video Vlog

I hope you enjoyed my first Blog on this website and stay tuned for many more to come 😀

Sending you all lots of LOVE and PLANT POWER from across the Emerald Isle 😀 

 

 

 

9 thoughts on “Welcome to my first Blog and lets talk about overwintering your plants

  1. Very good Lyn good way to put it as some people might think videos go too fast xx lots of love Ben ?

  2. I discovered you about a year ago on You Tube. I am a Master Gardener with Central Washington University Extension in Washington state. Your videos have inspired to increase my own succulent and cacti collection. I have several outdoor pots of succulents and wasn’t sure what to do with them for the winter. I’m thinking I will bring them indoors to my sunny south side unheated enclosed porch for the winter. Not sure if my cactus will be OK on the porch or if I should bring them inside the house. I may just put a heater on the porch. What do you think?

    1. Hi Mickey, thank you so much I am so happy to read that my videos have inspired you to increase your collection of cacti and succulents 😀 A sunny south side unheated porch sounds ideal for overwintering your cacti and succulents and I would bring both the cacti and your succulents into the porch to protect them from the elements and if the temperature drops below 5c / 41F I would definitely install a heater in there 😀 sending lots of love and plant power from Ireland to Washington XXXXX

    1. Hi Lisa 😀 Thank you so much it was amazing to meet you and it was a fantastic weekend and I am so looking forward to meeting you again, have a wonderful week here in Ireland and sending lots of love and happiness to you and Paul and Jimmy Boy XXXXXX <3

  3. Hi Lynn:

    I watch your videos on YouTube religiously and love them all. I have many of the same cacti that you have. However, I do have specific genera that I love and have in my collection: Rebutia, Sulcorebutia, Gymnocalycium, Astrophytum and Echinopsis hybrids. I overwinter my Rebutia and Sulcorebutia in an unheated bedroom closet in total darkness, with temps usually between 48-50F. I have many of my Echinocereus in the closet as well. Since they are now dormant and not growing they do not need light. Thanks for this Blog, I will follow it closely. All the best to you Lynn (and Hans).

    1. Hi Patrick 😀 Thank you so much for sharing your info on overwintering your cacti, thats brilliant that you have great success with overwintering them in total darkness, I am often getting asked advice on this and because I have no experience myself with overwintering them in darkness I am so happy to hear from other growers like yourself with the different ways of overwintering cacti with this method and its such a success 😀 and I am always learning so much from other growers, especially with light levels in Winter as this is one of the biggest stress for me and I know others 😀 thanks again for sharing this Patrick and sending much love and plant power to you for a wonderful week ahead, XXXXX Lyn

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