Mid winter check up

It has been a strange winter so far; the coldest and snowiest December on record and then a very wet but warmer January.  The coldest temps are usually in February or March so sadly the worst may still be to come.  But as we seem to at least be having a slight respite for the worst of the weather I thought I would  have a quick check of the plants in the back. This table holds the smaller plants in the cold frame:

As you can see no real damage at all.  One plant had the first signs of some mold so that has been removed along with the end panel allow better ventilation.  The larger plants were mainly fine as well.

 I took a few leaves off one or two of the echeverias just to avoid them going moldy.  Strangely the aeoniums are still looking fine, these are usually the first to go, so not sure why they seem untouched.  Not that I am complaining about that one,  it is good to have some good news in a bad winter.  Sadly the young aloes are not doing so well and almost all have perished, whether in the cold frame or in other locations. You can just make out some in this group, and they are typical of all the baby aloe speciosa,  ferox and arborescens.

Everything else looks OK,  This group are right at the edge of the covered bit and got snowed on but don't look any worse for ware.  I am particularly please to see that one of my echeveria hybrids coped with this without problems hopefully it will stay this way.

I have been testing a few variegated agave parryis as well.  The normal form is one of the the better agaves at coping with UK winters but yo never know how the variegated version will cope.  I have a spare or two so thought I would test them, so far despite being a small plant it is looking promising.

I wish this was the end of winter report as I would be very happy with the few looses to date. Lets hope the second half is more forgiving than the first!