Hello from Albuquerque.

[JoyinAlb]

Hi, I’m new here. I’ve been a lurker for years, but now I’m interested in show and tell. To start off, I keep agaves and succulents. I am currently testing and torturing some to see what will live where. My zone is a 7b. I’m in the valley of the Sandia mountains, just a pinch below 5000ft. My front yard faces South and I have brick on the wall and steel pots, so I’m able to keep some zone 8 plants happy year round. I have A. Parryi truncata in the ground along with my giant blue A.Americanas and two handful hesperaloe parvifloras. I really want to replace them with the newer cultivar pink parade except I don’t care for the green foliage. I also have modern window boxes on my ranch house that are home to baby A. Blue Glows, A. Neomexicana, baby ovatifolias, big blues, and a.p. Truncata, King Nick and Queen Vic and a whole bunch of sedum, penstemon, tender and hardy Echeveria, aloe, crassula and sempervivum. My goal is to create a Native Southwest Modern Formal landscape. I’ve seen a handful of landscapes done this way, but that’s it. I’m also testing the “so called” hardiness of many of the plants. Like most of you I’m learning that “it just depends” & “location location location” are the keys. My succulent gardening experience is around four or five years old.
The attached photos are of my window box and the new baby blue graptopetalum paraguayense. It grows particularly well for me and self propagates readily and I want to fill my boxes with it. The yellow one on the left is two years old.
Do any of you keep tender succulents?

[nsp88]

...and a whole bunch of sedum, penstemon, tender and hardy Echeveria, aloe, crassula and sempervivum... I'm also testing the “so called” hardiness of many of the plants. Like most of you I’m learning that “it just depends” & “location location location” are the keys.

Do any of you keep tender succulents?

What have been some plants that you have had success with there, and what are some that haven't made it there?

I am sure you already know of it but just in case, you probably will enjoy this section of this forum:
https://agaveville.org/viewforum.php?f=64

Love your window boxes!

[JoyinAlb]

Thank you! I do too. I have lost Crassula campfire totally, Sedum Morganium (I brought it in before the whole thing could die) (funny enough, 30 was too much for S.Morganium but not for Aloe barbadensis, in fact it is still on my South porch with a few wilted leaves, but that's it, otherwise fine. Its been down to 13F here this year.) The senecio mandraliscae dies back to a sheltered position and pops out fine in the spring. Kalanchoe Flapjacks dies, every time. Its an annual lol. Sedum angelina is spot picky. It doesn't like my full sun, low water routine. It does better in part shade for me. I only water once a week. I soak my boxes until 'their cup runnith over' lol but thats it. In the winter they only get water when I'm in a tshirt. I assume that if I'm warm, that they are too. The surprising ones are Echeveria Afterglow, California Sedum, Echeveria Galaxy (the new Afterglow hybrid), Tachiveria Tasha, Fred Ives, Aloe Brevifolia, Agave Blue Glow, Echeveria Arctic Ice, Sedeveria Dark Elf, Echeveria Dusty Rose, Avavoides Rubra are all doing absolutely fine outside. They (the echeverias) have some sunburn from the low sun/ no water, so they aren't thriving but they aren't being babied.

[JoyinAlb]

This Joanna Gains design was the start of it all for me. I wanted that at my house.

[JoyinAlb]

These are some photos that I took of the trials on January 18, 2024. They are in a mix of potting soil, pea gravel, and sand. They get water once a week spring and fall, twice a week in the summer and none unless I'm warm outside in the winter. The average evening temps have been in the 20s & 30s. We had a handfull of nights in the teens. The coldest was 13.

[JoyinAlb]

This is what I have out there. This pot never gets full sun for more than an hour or two in the evening. It lives on the Northwest porch. I moved it to the South porch when the nights dipped to freezing.
Euphorbia trigona - hates the cold. Last year it died back to a sheltered position and regrew just fine.
Echeveria neon breakers - didn't treat it well during summer, so it's small and leggy, but living fine. A bit sun burned at the edges and dehydrated.
Graptoveria Titubans - the front died of frost around 25f but it is sheltering the base (so we will see)
Echeveria Ruby slippers - same as neon breakers. Still fuzzy and red tipped, looking fine. Loved being moved to the sunny spot.
Senecio radicans "string of bananas" - doesn't care if its cold. The plant looks the same. Only a little bit burned by the sudden move to 12 hours of sun.
Sedum morganianum - the white hanging thing. Died at 32f
sempervivum calcareum - looks great and doing fine.

[JoyinAlb]

This is Echeveria Sahara. Mostly shocked by the move to the full sun. She turned brown and dehydrated.
Behind her is Agave Blue Flame. I tucked it in the back to have the most sheltered position. It does not like it out there. Very burned, very dehydrated, with freeze damage.

[JoyinAlb]

These are unprotected totally besides the eave of the roof.
Agave Blue Glow - wrinkles a little in the winter. This is winter number two for them.
Agave King Nick (and all of its other names) with tons of pups
Echeveria Afterglow - shockingly fine. A little crispy on the edges, but the center leaves are still thick and full. Winter #1, not even 1 year old yet.
Senecio mandraliscae has frozen back to a sheltered position but it did that last year too and came back fine.
Graptosedum California Sunset is the penny sized pink one. It also died back to a sheltered position but puts out new rosettes spring of 2023. It doesn't have more now becuase I cut some off to take inside, just in case. It doesnt perform like its parent pictured to the right. Grapto paraguayense
There is also Hesperaloe Parviflora in there that I use like dracena for thriller in my planters. Dracena isn't hardy here and my goal is year round beauty. I don't want to lose 2/3 of my landscape during winter.

There is also some rosemary stuck in there for added insulation. I was pruning and just tossed it in there.
The fun plant that I almost left out is Cold hardy salvia greggii hot pink. Its the stick looking thing in the upper right. It looks amazing in the spring! And the small space and low water keeps it compact.

[JoyinAlb]

This is what it looked like in June.

[Meangreen94z]

Nice. Succulents are definitely trial and error for all but a select lucky few. I’ve found the results of others are a guide but never definitive. Theres lots of surprises out there.

[JoyinAlb]

New growth on the Senecio mandralasicae. I think the graptopetalum California sunset is dead. (The stick on the right.)

IMG_6781.jpeg (414.66 KiB) Viewed 800 times

The Senecio radicans is starting to flower.
I think the Euphorbia Trigona froze all the way this year.

IMG_6729.jpeg (455.97 KiB) Viewed 800 times

The Cereus jamacaru seems to be trucking along. It has some minor edge burn. I bought it as a Cuddly Cactus, two actually, from Sams club in 2022. I didn’t bring it in that winter, just to see what would happen. One died, but the other, the top froze and the bottom piece grew a branch and continued living. So this was winter #2 outside.

IMG_6771.jpeg (406.34 KiB) Viewed 800 times

[PlantLife74]

Hello and welcome. Beautiful window box garden you have! I also have an outdoor garden in Maryland with some Hens n Chicks, but its mostly pollinator perennials. Our cold, wet winters make it limiting what xeric plants we could grow outside. Hope you enjoy time here

[JoyinAlb]

Hello and welcome. Beautiful window box garden you have! I also have an outdoor garden in Maryland with some Hens n Chicks, but its mostly pollinator perennials. Our cold, wet winters make it limiting what xeric plants we could grow outside. Hope you enjoy time here

Thank you, thank you! I really love them too. I love playing with my plant babies. My husband said, “You said you wanted plants that you didn’t have to mess with? But you’re out here every weekend doing something to one of them.” I told him “That was before I learned about succulents. What I said was, I didn’t want to be a slave to a garden, like a lawn. Wanting to groom them is different than having to.”

I like pollinator perennials too. What is in your collection?

I have a couple handfulls of varieties of sempervivens too. One of my favorites is the arachnoideum. My daughter actually came to find me one day to tell me that she thinks a spider is living in my plant. Lol We had a chat. Last year Lowes was cutting all of their plants, I got a cart load of 4” pot Green wheel for $2ea. I was so proud of myself that day.

[PlantLife74]

I try to plant native to Mid-Atlantic when I can but I do have others as well. Milkweed, Coreopsis, Echinacea, Ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata). also have Joe-pye weed, Meadow sage, catmint, lavender and Clematis. I've included some photos from 2023 season. The bees were loving my garden

[JoyinAlb]

Lovely garden! Do you eat any of yours?
I want to add some pink showy milkweed to my garden, I just have to figure out the right spot for it. I’d also like to get the white Echinacea Fragrant Angel.