is there any cactus that could survive 6a and 5b zone in london ontario. what the hardiest cactus for our zone that we can make it survive all winter. daves garden Smooth Mountain Prickly Pear atleast tells me 5b and lower! like 4a There are yuccas growing in our area hardy cactus should survive too. prickly bear is the one I want. check out daves garden plant files search cactus and you will find it. and it tells me that there are 128 cactus for 6a and 5b.
Well I have nine agaves that survive every winter the hardiest ones out there. opuntia sites only tell you zoned 5 or 4 and can go far north as sudbury. london is much warmer though. I got yuccas and agaves In my xeriscape garden but cactus are much harder to find but Opuntia should be the best to find. thanks rima I needed that cactus name so I could tell the guy at the nursery the right one. He wont know prickly pear.
Opuntia ficus-indica (what Dave's Garden calls Smooth Mountain Pricklypear) is a subtropical species and extremely unlikely to survive in London. However there are a number of other pricklypear species that should survive if given good drainage conditions. These include (in order of hardiness sort of) Opuntia humifusa, Opuntia polyacantha, Opuntia erinacea, Opuntia basilaris, Opuntia santa-rita. I grew and flowered them all ouside in Massachusetts (zone 5). Tracy
I always give my agaves and yuccas very good drainage but there is problem tempratures on the 14 trend on the weather network said -16C for 12 days close to march and 2 day of -20C but it has to warm up by then if it does happen we will break a record for being the coldest february on record and it looks bad so it wont survive that. one cactus I know about opuntia species but it had survived 4 winters but are these tempratures fatal? but the agaves I have can survive -29C never reached it.
Hi I am in Zone 6, in Western Ny near Dunkirk ( Just about actoss the lake from London) I am growing many varieties of cactus in my "desert" and will be opening up some really large new areas this spring. There are a lot of hardey varieties. Try a search for High Country Gardens. As we have a public gardens and are near you could visit
Hi there Londoner.. I am originally from St.Thomas (very close to you). You should be able to grow a number of cacti & succulents in the London area. There are many Opunitias and Echinocereus whihc should grow for you as long as you provide excellent drainage & full sun. Check out the Ottawa & Area Cactus Club for their lists of hardy plants. Canandale Nurseries in St. Thomas did carry several species of hardy cactus--you may want to check with them. Wrightman Alpines is also a good source of this type of plant material. Good Luck!!!
