Every summer, succulent forums and social media groups fill with the same panicked question: “My aeonium is dropping all its leaves, the rosettes are closing up, and it looks like it’s dying — what’s wrong?” The answer, almost always, is: nothing. Your aeonium is dormant. It is doing exactly what 40 million years of evolution… Continue reading Aeonium Dormancy
Category: Non classé
Aloe vera varieties: what exists, what doesn’t and what you actually bought
Search for “aloe vera varieties” and you will find websites listing five, ten, even twenty “types of Aloe vera” — Aloe vera var. chinensis, Aloe barbadensis, the “spotted” variety, the “blue” variety, the “medicinal” variety. It sounds like there is an entire catalogue of Aloe vera cultivars to choose from, the way there are hundreds of rose or tomato varieties. There isn’t.… Continue reading Aloe vera varieties: what exists, what doesn’t and what you actually bought
Types of aloes: 20 species every grower should know
The genus Aloe and its close relatives — the alooid group — contain over seven hundred species, ranging from rosettes small enough to fit in a teacup to trees that tower eighteen metres above the African savanna. If you have only ever grown Aloe vera, you have barely scratched the surface of one of the most diverse and… Continue reading Types of aloes: 20 species every grower should know
Cold Hardy Cycads: 5 Species That Survive Real Winters
Cycads look like they belong in the tropics — and most people assume they cannot survive frost. In reality, several species tolerate cold that would kill a bougainvillea, an olive tree or even some palms. The five species in this article are not just frost-tolerant — they are genuinely cold-hardy cycads that can be grown… Continue reading Cold Hardy Cycads: 5 Species That Survive Real Winters
Watering Cycads: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
More cycads die from watering mistakes than from cold, pests or disease combined. The irony is that cycads are among the most drought-tolerant plants you can grow — they survived mass extinctions, ice ages and continental drift — yet they are killed with remarkable regularity by gardeners who water too much, at the wrong time,… Continue reading Watering Cycads: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
My Cycas revoluta Has Cold Damage, Why? Assessment, Recovery, and Winter Protection
Despite its tropical appearance, Cycas revoluta is one of the hardiest cycads in cultivation. Mature, established specimens in well-drained soil can survive brief exposures to temperatures as low as −8 to −10 °C (USDA zone 8a/8b) — a toughness that has made this species a landscape staple from the French Riviera to the American Southeast. Yet frost… Continue reading My Cycas revoluta Has Cold Damage, Why? Assessment, Recovery, and Winter Protection
My Cycas revoluta Has Scale Insects, Why? Identifying and Controlling Cycad Scale
If your Cycas revoluta is covered in a white, crusty coating on the undersides of its fronds — or if the plant looks increasingly pale, stunted, and sickly despite correct watering and feeding — the culprit is almost certainly cycad aulacaspis scale, Aulacaspis yasumatsui. This tiny armoured insect has become the single greatest pest threat to cultivated cycads… Continue reading My Cycas revoluta Has Scale Insects, Why? Identifying and Controlling Cycad Scale
My Cycas revoluta Is Turning Yellow, Why? A Diagnostic Guide
Few sights alarm a cycad grower more than golden-yellow fronds appearing on a plant that should be uniformly deep green. Yet yellowing leaves on Cycas revoluta — the sago palm — is one of the most common problems reported by both indoor and outdoor growers worldwide, from southern Japan to Florida, the Mediterranean coast, and well beyond.… Continue reading My Cycas revoluta Is Turning Yellow, Why? A Diagnostic Guide