Hardy Succulents - Aizoaceae

Have you considered Faucaria, Mark? F. hoolea (dwarf tiger jaw) looks very similar (but it is lots of similar looking species).

Sorry, I lost the last e!
I am not very familiar with those plants either but when I visited S.A. I bought a small flora "Succulents of South Africa" at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
I know that Silverhill Seeds, South Africa http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/ sell seeds of hardy succulents.

I bought lots of seed from Silverhill years ago and had some nice and unusual S.A. plants for several years. The last has gone so maybe it is time to some buy seeds again!
Though I still have a yellow Delosperma  from another source. It survived the last hard winter but do not flower, the summers are not hot enough and it is too little sun where it sits. The slugs devour the buds anyway.

Mark, This being a plant from 8000ft I am not surprised that it tolerates frost. All the plants growing at that hights have to be frost insensitive especially during the night, even at summertime. A nice little ice plant.

Great photos guys!
I grow a few of these myself!
The two smaller ones are D. Basuticum and D. sphalmanthoides. They have never given me any worries and are very reliable.

First three D. sphalmanthoides
Second three D. Basuticum

Weiser wrote:

Great photos guys!
I grow a few of these myself!
The two smaller ones are D. Basuticum and D. sphalmanthoides. They have never given me any worries and are very reliable.

I can see that!
I have always dreamed of growing a floriferous vygie! Some survive for a couple of years but they never bloom like that!

Hoy
I loose them too but I usually have two or three growing in differant locations and one will always survive. Delosperma cooperi seeds around quite vigorously. I find it sprouting in some of the most unlikely and inconvenient places. I'd say right in the center of a patch of Opuntia, armed with two inch, sharp spines a little inconvenient.

Since I mentioned Delosperma cooperi here are a couple of shots.

John,
Here in Minnesota, and I would expect for Trond with his wet winters, Delospermas (and like genera) that can take the cold die easily from winter wet.  I don't expect that is a problem with you.

What is it that makes some die while others of the same species live in your climate?

Yes, Rick is right. It is the wet winters and the sudden change between mild/wet and cold/dry that kills.
Maybe that is changing. The weather forecast says cold, dry and sunny weather the next weeks. Very extraordinary, last year we had only two days with freezing temperatures in November. (Cold, that is -4C/25F; and sunny, that is only a few hours sunshine at this time of the year).

Rick
I don't know quite what takes some out. We get most of our moisture in the winter with a lot of freeze thaw cycles(almost every day). Average winter temperatures don't vary a lot how ever our snow cover varies widely from year to year. Last year we had a lot that stayed around for a couple of months. The year before what little we had didn't stay for more a couple of days in a row. The planting medium is the same through out the garden. The exposures to sun and wind are the same. So I have no ready answer.
Age of the plants may play into the answer. I have had the older woody/stringy centers of some mats die out but the rooted edges lived on. So if I were to give my best guess I would have to say older plants seem more vulnerable to die off due to moisture around the crown.

By the way, I know how hard it is to keep Delosperma alive in the northern latitudes. I gardened in Bismarck, ND for twenty years before moving to Reno. I do not envy your struggles. I never was able to keep them alive for even one winter. It was very frustrating for about three years then, I decided to just give up and live with the dream of growing them. Little did I know, I would get to fulfill that dream. :) Of course I still can't grow them all.  :(  

Mark
This is an alpine Delosperma that should work for you (maybe??) Delosperma nubigenum.
It has a hard time with my hot, low humidity, summers. It will scorch and look very tattered and abused. I have had them die if they are not given enough water. They always plump back up in the fall when the weather cools down.

I echo John's comments about D. nubigenum.  And for a delosperma, it flowers rather sparsely, or at least I have never gotten it to bloom spectacularly in the 10 years that I have grown it. I still have it, just because I still have it, but I won't cry a tear if it were to disappear in my collection.  You might find this pic of mine interesting in the Wiki image gallery:
http://nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=21&offset=20

MUCH better, and equally hardy is D. basuticum.  It grows tighter, is more adaptable to winter moisture, and puts on a great floral show every year.  Prettier flowers, too, in my opinion.

Delosperma basuticum

Lori
I agree! Disarray is a good description.

Last year I was involved in this same discussion on a cactus and succulent forum. I own two plants that in all respects  are the same species but they came to me labled as separate species. One as congestum the other as basuticum.  I decided to accept the opinion of a very experience collector and  currently use the name D. basuticum (but that could change  :rolleyes:).   

Do any of you grow Ruschia pulvinaris?
It forms a hard congested mat for me. I have never had it get damaged in my climate. I was wondering how hardy it is in wetter climates.

Weiser wrote:

Do any of you grow Ruschia pulvinaris?
It forms a hard congested mat for me. I have never had it get damaged in my climate. I was wondering how hardy it is in wetter climates.

I can't help you there. But it looks like a plant worth trying!
I have a place (at my summerhouse) where the climate is drier, the summers are warmer and the winters are but a little colder. All your colorful pictures have convinced me that I have to try many more of these plants!

Mark, your weather will be warmer the next week!

What gorgeous plants!  D. basuticum barely survives here outside but does fine in our alpine house where excess winter moisture can be minimized.  I grow several other Delosperma but keep them in my basement window over the winter.

I saw loads of Aizoaceae in South Africa but most were probably not hardy forms.  I didn't see any blooming in the Drakensberg but then I was not there at the peak blooming season.  I did see lots of blooming Helichrysum on the other hand.

I've had D. basuticum for 15 years, and it spreads around a bit each year, and it's seeded itself as well. I've grown D. cooperi for 5 years, and then it was gone after a miserable winter with at least two major thaws accompanied by rain and followed by sub-zero temps. That same year I lost R. pulvinaris as well.

For the past two years I've overwintered a Delosperma from Wrightman's he calls D. 'wolfgang.'  It's tiny and has a very small white flower, which is not really even noticeable in the open garden, but which would be quite at home in a trough.

A neighbor, who has a heated greenhouse, grows several mesembs in the areas around the greenhouse, and they grow beautifully and flower for weeks. I've tried a couple in my sunniest spots, but so far they've failed to make it over the winter. For me, the trick would be to get a nice sunny spot next to my foundation, with perfect drainage. I'll give it a shot this next spring and see if I can expand my Delosperma horizons.

The pictures were taken by Mark McDonough this past spring, and are also found in his 'Garden Visits' thread. The Delosperma was labeled incorrectly around 1998 when I first obtained this particular plant.

Delosperma cooperi hybrid ''Kelaidis" (aka "Mesa Verde"). One of my favorites!

Magnificent plant, many thanks for posting.

Mark I like the new red one from Panayoti. It has a lot more hot pink in the center. Nice!

You mentioned Delosperma dyeri 'Psdold', "Red Mountain" I guess I never knew it's original name. All I've ever heard it called is "Red Mountain" . I will have to add that to my labels.

Any way here is "Red Mountain" from my garden for comparison.

McDonough wrote:

cacti-like flowers,

Here are a few cati-like flowers. ;D

Weiser wrote:

Here are a few cati-like flowers. ;D

Impressive! And you grow all in your garden?

Is this a test, that you didn't name the photo subjects, John?

My, they are scrumptious!

Mark said ""cacti like flowers" I just couldn't resist. "I  bad!" :-[
Rick and Hoy
Yes I grow them all and many more. No it is not a test! ;)
Just click on my flikr link at the bottom of my posts. Then click on the "Cactaceae - Cactus Family" in the collections section, to see what I grow.

John, if I ever should find the way to your part of the world, do you welcome garden visitors?

Yes definitely.  ;D  I would be disappointed if you came this way and didn't stop by.
I even have a bed available and all the comforts of home.

My garden is open to anyone traveling through, and if you are staying in the area for a few days a few hikes into the wilds is not out of the question.

Weiser wrote:

Yes definitely.  ;D   I would be disappointed if you came this way and didn't stop by.
I even have a bed available and all the comforts of home.

My garden is open to anyone traveling through, and if you are staying in the area for a few days a few hikes into the wilds is not out of the question.

Thanks! ;D ;D 8)

Mark
I enjoyed looking at your link.

Have you seen Martin Tversted's photo sight?
http://public.fotki.com/Northern-Nursery/

Thought I'd post a few shots of Stomatium mustillnum. This is a night bloomer and very hardy for me.

Oh my, I've been growing a Delosperma sp. that is the source of a mind altering drug (and I don't think it's a good kind)!  I received seed from someone because a caudiciform delosperma intrigued me.  It's ridiculously easy to grow, but the flowers are worth nothing.  It blooms all summer, and I had been checking off and on, looking for a flower that might make a good photo, and never came across one. (!)

Ridiculously easy to germinate, too.  Even the seed pod is more interesting than the flower, and that's not saying much.  (in a 2.25 inch spuare pot)

Delosperma bosserianum

Yes, Delosperma bosserianum is a houseplant that summers outside for me.  I kinda tested its frost hardiness and these were the results:

1. Plants were expose one night to 23F(row 1), 32F(row 2) and never exposed to freezing(row 3).  Pic taken five days after.
2. About four weeks after exposure, and growing inside the house.  The middle three rows are all the "32F" exposed plants.

As you might expect, plants that were nipped by the frost, grew back more bushy.  They didn't seem to skip a beat from the cold temps, and in fact rebounded very quickly.

(edited for correct bosserianum spelling)

RickR wrote:

Oh my, I've been growing a Delosperma sp. that is the source of a mind altering drug (and I don't think it's a good kind)!  

There are quite a few psychotropic plants that we grow and don't know about. I can point to four off the top of my head that grow in my garden. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_psychedelic_plants
What bugs me is how the internet search engines first direct you to sights that promote their use. Especially when you do a general search for a Genus of plants. The prime example is to use the word "Salvia" when searching. I find it very frustrating!

Weiser wrote:

There are quite a few psychotropic plants that we grow and don't know about. I can point to four off the top of my head that grow in my garden.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_psychedelic_plants
What bugs me is how the internet search engines first direct you to sights that promote their use. Especially when you do a general search for a Genus of plants. The prime example is to use the word "Salvia" when searching. I find it very frustrating!

Of course, that is how I found out about D. bosserianum: I stumble upon it googling.  At the time, I did see that others of the genus also contained psychedelics .  It's interesting that the wiki page does not list bosserianum.  Maybe because there is no real scientific backing (?)

(edited for correct bosserianum spelling)