madgardener wrote:
Well, I was sitting in the livingroom the other night, and was
looking at the cart where I have some of the cacti and a few plants
sitting it out in front of a southern window until I can once again
put them outside for full appreciation for sun, rain, etc, when I
decided for some reason to look closer at my huge golden barrel
cactus I'd purchased a year and a half ago. It had survived thru
the first winter after I bought it in replacement to the smaller
one, and loved the spring, summer and fall outside despite the
massive rainy weather we had last year. Moved it inside to the
livingroom (where my house is warm and dry due to heat pump), it
got winter southern exposure and slight watering every three weeks
in a well draining pot that I made sure never had standing water on
it. Walked over to it and poked it carefully with a chop-stick and
sure enough, my subtle feelings were dead on.............it was
dead, the spines were just fooling me into thinking it was still
whole. I've killed yet another large specimen. Cereus, is it
because ALL these cacti need cooler, dryer temps? Emphasis on the
cooler......the house was consistantly 76-78 degrees, and dry.
snip

Why on earth do you keep your house so warm? Don't you have a room with
some light and a door to close it off for the winter? I have 2 cacti,
don't know the names but they do fine in a South window. We keep the
house at 68 during the day and 65 at night.

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Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

Why on earth do you keep your house so warm?

because I can? Because I get cold, and this is despite my layers of
clothing? Because my husband doesn't mind, he just wears shorts when he's
home? Or the probable answer............because the cat's like it warm and
miss our heated waterbed..................


Don't you have a room with
some light and a door to close it off for the winter?

Nope. I have a northern room that somehow Squire has turned into a "pantry"
that has a large but not large enough northern window. Yes, the vent can be
closed as it is above the totally unheated tool room that lies below that
USED to be the garage........But it never freezes down there because of the
bricko block walls, and the fact that the back of the house is underground
and temperatures maintain 56o underground. And before you ask.........yes,
the toolroom might be perfect (even the inner room that houses the furnace
and assorted things that need throwing away yesterday) and even the room off
THAT one that is off the open carport and sits underground completely and
has a huge front window that faces north and I could just hang lights there
and put tables and they'd love it, long as I let them have
dark..........................that room is the coldest. Doesn't freeze
because despite that I said the carport was "open" it is open in pieces.
The addition they built over it is over the top, with a large opening that
faces east but has northern exposures when the winds blow. Then there is
the place where there COULD be a rather neat but huge window that sits
directly center of the north part of the carport where there are huge
concrete supports and a lower bricko block wall that is about four foot
tall. There is then a door sized opening that goes out the "back" of the
carport and to the back terrace that the house sits on that is just wide
enough for some mischief by some garden fairies once I get rid of that
insidious black walnut tree. These openings make the carport drafty, REALLY
cold as it faces north and east, and it's backside is kinda underground.
But with the inner "tool room" (apparently that really WAS a tool room the
previous owner built after he removed the room sized boulder out from under
the house first when he decided to build the room onto the house later on,
you should SEE this boulder! He moved it himself without a bobcat or gas
powered machine, just man power and leverage tools. It was round enough he
worked it out across and to the edge of the first drop off of the land, and
he just rolled it over and it sits there still.....I'd LOVE to have a crane
to lift that puppie outa it's spot and put somewhere obvious and obnoxious
(like the middle of the end of the shared driveway EG so it was defining
the property line....and then plant that puppy up with sempervivums and
sedums LOL

I have 2 cacti,
don't know the names but they do fine in a South window. We keep the
house at 68 during the day and 65 at night.

Well, that's perfect for cacti and most succulents, but lately I've seemed
to like a warmer house. I'm sure I'll adjust once the budget tightens. g
Ain't you glad you ain't dealing with me at the thermostat!
madgardener

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5