Question of the Week Answer
If you answered D, you are correct!
Ice plants were first collected by Thomas Cooper (1815 – 1913), a plant collector sent to South Africa in 1859 by a wealthy English insurance broker and succulent collector W. W. Saunders. The plants are a group of about 180 species of mostly southeastern African succulent perennials belonging to the interesting Aizoaceae family. Species are found in the summer rainfall areas of the continent from the seacoast to the tops of forested mountains.
The plants are easy to grow in a sunny rock garden site, but keeping them alive over winter is another matter. They are perfectly winter hardy, surviving winter temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, but winter-wet conditions are not to their liking. In cold, but low rainfall areas such as Denver, ice plant thrives in a normally well-drained rock garden site. However, in Arkansas it is hard to keep them through the winter. Constructing a super lean, fast draining soil should work to keep the plants alive during the winter, but to get the plants to grow in our summer heat more water may be needed than you would think necessary for this drought tolerant species.
Source: BLM, University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture
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