In message . 20,
Victoria Clare writes
Well, it's mid-January, and my self-seeded annual mesembryanthemum is
looking very slightly unhappy in the mists and fogs, but is still
ginormous, and showing no signs of giving up the ghost.

Is it the one commonly sold as "ice plant" or one of the others?
The mesemb family covers an incredibly wide range of species.

I thought these plants were supposed to be quite tender!

Has anyone else had them self-seed? Did the seedlings make it through the
winter and flower in the spring?

This one is taking up pretty much the whole of a wall basket that last
summer accommodated about 10 of its relatives!

There is at least one purple flowered mesemb that has naturalised on the
cliffs of SW England. But it has smoother more triangular leaves than
the common "ice plant". I'd be a bit surprised if that survived a UK
winter, but an unusually tough specimen might. I have one still hanging
on in N Yorks!

I have grown plants like cacti that are nominally even more tender
outside and lost them only in the hardest of winters. Good drainage and
some protection from frost and rain up against a S facing wall are key
to success.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown