Deborah, yeah, your weather is probably a lot like the weather here, ridiculously humid all the time, way too hot most of the time. Way too moist for about all c/s, and some supposedly don't like the humidity, but without anything to measure against but pics, I couldn't point to a plant and say, "this is the effect of too much humidity." Maybe it just takes them longer to dry out, IDK. Oh well, right? People in AZ have leafy tropicals, the grass is always greener - or we just want it all.
I had surprisingly good results with most of the little plants in a mini garden that had to stay outside all winter. Never occurred to me any of them could survive, but about half did! The most protection I could offer was that they were under porch roof, against an old not-well-sealed window, covered with a sheet on the coldest nights. When it got really cold a couple nights (teens,) I put a big tub of water under it, kind of a dark khaki color so the idea was that it hopefully absorbed heat all afternoon while the sun was shining on it. No idea which factor contributed what, if any, percent of survival enabling. The more I read about filling dark-colored vessels with water, the more excited I get about trying more of that.
Yes and no about the porch. There is one, but it's in the process of being replaced and is unusable this summer. It also faces East and there are a some trees blocking almost all of the light at the south end. It will be good for morning light-sters though. Anyone who lives where it might rain every afternoon for a week will have better luck with any potted plant that's out of the rain somehow.
I'm going to make some type of plant area around my potting area. It has a roof and since the exposure is from the west, the shadow is over the potting bench if the roof isn't over the bench. That leaves a lot of open space under the roof for plants, where the sun starts getting under mid-day. The lady we were renting this house to until moving back into it had put up a fence around that area for her little dogs. DH was mumbling about trimming around a fence we won't use, I decided to leave the posts but remove the fence, so I can hang pots all along the top rail. (And nothing in the way of mowing.) That gets a lot of them into the sun and off of the ground, and is probably a severely redneck thing to do, but that's who we are and what we do. Use what we have in whatever possibly unconventional way is useful. ...and so now I have a bunch of fence that I can cut and roll into cylinders, to use for trellises/plant towers. I'm not that good at making this all look as cute as some others would/could, but I have fun with it.
). Do you have one at your current house? My C & S are kept on my front stoop under the eaves to keep them from drowning/rotting, as well. Our weather is not very conducive to growing these plants, but I keep insisting on trying to do it, as I'm so fascinated with them. Thanks to you folks and the info you share, I'm learning how to make it work. Last winter, the succulents that I kept in the garage under lights fared better than those in the house. So, I'm going to get a better light setup for them and keep all, except the most tender, in the garage. I also need to find out which are winter growers and keep them inside.
