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Aeonium 'Zwartkop':- over-wintering.

Having moved to the south Dorset coast I thought I could at last grow an Aeonium.  I was disappointed to learn that I needed to protect it over the winter.   I placed the pot in the north facing window of an unheated bedroom at the end of October. It has been shedding leaves ever since and now is an almost bare 20" specimen and two of the four stems appear to be rotting at the top!

 

PLEASE HELP! 

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  • chickychicky Posts: 10,409

    I overwinter mine in a cold GH - maybe indoors is too warm?

    mine has been fine the last two mild winters, but dropped all its leaves and looked sad in the cold one the year before.  However it grew new leaves the next spring, and is now going from strength to strength, so all is not lost yet - although the rotting doesn't sound good.  Is there anywhere outside you could keep it?

  • I over winter mine in a g/h just above frost, I have had mine for a long time and they come through the winter ok.

    Water very sparingly and take cuttings next year, as Verdun says really easy to do.

    If you haven't got a g/h I wouldn't think a North facing window would of been warm enough .

  • You don't have any white bits on it do you? Mine all suffer terribly from mealy bug, which will eventually kill the plant and is difficult to get rid of.

    Even healthy aeoniums drop their lower leaves throughout the year.

  • imageAarrggg!!!  It's got white bits on the few remaining leaves, some of which look nibbled, and there are hundreds of black speckles on the window sill.  There are some new tiny green bits on the upper stems.  I'm not watering it and although the light level may not be ideal I think the temperature is no worse than a frost free greenhouse.

    I took a cutting from a piece that broke off when I bought in the early summer but it hasn't shown any new growth.  It's been in a sunny window and still is.  I'm inclined to leave it there.  Is that O.K.?

    Many thanks for your advice so far.

  • mine grew long and leggy on a kitchen windowsill.

    so it got moved to my unheated greenhouse , when i cut it down to

    3" high. I thought it was killed until this summer when it sprouted new 

    heads.

    indestructable image

  • The black speckles don't sound like mealy bug, which stay on the plant and produce a sticky, furry type mess. Anyway, it's a good move to have taken a cutting but as Verdun says, they take some time to strike. Mine are grown on a conservatory which can get down to 12 degrees at nightime, so yours should be fine. They live in the same conservatory over Summer as well, where the temperature rises to 30 degrees regularly so I think they are quite forgiving.

    Saying that, mine do succumb to mealy bug so maybe they are not in the perfect spot!

  • image

     

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