Posted by Paul Ont on October 5, 2006, 9:02 am, in reply to "Re: Agave gracilipes" Kingston is at the Eastern end of Lake Ontario about a 1 1/2 drive south of Ottawa. And between Montreal and Toronto. It is rated as a USDA zone 5 area but zone 4 and historically even zone 3 temperatures have occured! The lake does moderate the climate while it remains unfrozen, but a lot of the lake will freeze except in mild winters (which are documented as increasing in numer).
I may have to try to get a copy of Gentry's book!
I've tried many subspecies of Agave utahensis (kababensis, eborispina) and they both died. The one that survived was a first year seedling grown from seed that I purchased from an online seed place (possibly banana-tree.com) I planted out 2 and 1 survived until an animal inadvertenly dug it up while using the cactus bed as a washroom! I have some pics on my webshots (of the utahensis) seedling that survived as well as my other sucessfully overwintered seed experiments! http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1371805228072511707ESJukN
I've talked to people in Ottawa who have sucessfully overwintered Agave utahensis as well (seed grown by Gardens north, gardensnorth.com) Average winter minimums in Kingston are about -28C, but have been gettting warmer in the past few winters. The agave parryi has survived about -28C to date, while the neomexicana survived the so-called 50 year winter a few years back (low to -32C (or more!))
Cheers,
Paul
Message Thread:
« Back to thread