Greetings from eastern NC

[laurenpaultaylor]

So, I might have gone a little crazy with this hobby...
I've been growing succulents since before vet school, so over 15 years now. I have no idea how many I have, hundreds for sure. My husband built a 2nd greenhouse for me last summer. I told myself it would take me the rest of my life to fill it up, but now I'm not so sure.
I love all tropical plants, but succulents are my favorite. The stranger, the better!
My biggest problem growing them here is the humidity & amount of rain we get. A lot of succulents that are cold hardy enough to grow outside here won't survive our wet winters, and a lot of my tropical ones have to stay in the greenhouse year-round because the humidity causes fungal infections. The really picky ones live in my guest room under grow lights year-round.
Here are a couple of pics of my greenhouses.

[Meangreen94z]

Nice, looks like plenty of room to grow.

[laurenpaultaylor]

Yes! I'll start moving my plants back in it over the next few weeks. Then I'll really know how many I acquired this summer. I'm jealous of all of you who can grow in the ground. Our winters are so wet that it's even hard to grow some cold hardy succulents without raised beds & heavily amended soil.

[abborean]

Here's the south side of our house in Pender County five miles south of Burgaw, SE NC. You should be able to grow a lot of interesting species outdoors with minor adjustments to your land. Since you like succulents I'd recommend ghost plant, Graptopetalum paraguayensis. Another interesting outdoor succulent is Orostachys japonica. I drill holes in rocks and drop these in where they grow great.

[nsp88]

...I'd recommend ghost plant, Graptopetalum paraguayensis. Another interesting outdoor succulent is Orostachys japonica. I drill holes in rocks and drop these in where they grow great.

I'm glad you posted this! I've been looking into more cold hardy succulents and somehow missed ghost plant. Also, last night I saw someone offering a cluster of them for $2 on a plant purge group on FB, so I grabbed some.

Orostachys japonica was on my list, but am having a hard time finding seeds or anything. I don't know how hard it is to harvest the seeds from them, but if you ever want to try to collect some I'd like to buy/trade for them.

Lastly, do you drill the hole through the rock entirely or just partway through? I have some Texas holey rock from an old cichlid aquarium. Wondering if I could use those.

[abborean]

I have drilled all the way through and partially. Have also used naturally occurring cavitied rocks like your aquarium rock.
Once you have Orostachys japonica you'll have plenty more. It forms clumps. It's called schizophrenic plant locally because it looks like an aloe in the summer and a sempervivum in the winter.

[nsp88]

I have drilled all the way through and partially. Have also used naturally occurring cavitied rocks like your aquarium rock.
Once you have Orostachys japonica you'll have plenty more. It forms clumps. It's called schizophrenic plant locally because it looks like an aloe in the summer and a sempervivum in the winter.

Just ordered some seeds. Hopefully I will have some success with them. Looking at photos it is wild how different they look at different timea

[mickthecactus]

Excuse my ignorance but where is eastern NC?

[Gee.S]

Excuse my ignorance but where is eastern NC?

NC = North Carolina. Near the middle of the Atlantic U.S. coast, in between Washington DC and Florida.

[mickthecactus]

Ta.

[Paul S]

Thanks an English abbreviation for 'Thank You'

[Gee.S]

Thanks an English abbreviation for 'Thank You'

Ahhhh. I was wondering...