Those few days it goes down to the mid 30s, if you don't cover them, they may survive but will look badly. Can you plant in the ground? Ground tends to stay warmer doing those cold nights. If left out all year, I'll stay with the all green hard leaf types. Best to look around your area and see what works for others. Here I keep mine in all winter and soil mix is critical. Possible to use a good potting mix with 50% grit or perlite for good drainage.

I'd have mine in containers and move them in and out as the temps dictate. Otherwise, i believe the nursery I bought them from grow them outdoors year round under a shade cloth. I am considering putting them in the ground, but it's just hard picking a good spot. looking for proper light exposure, remembering if the area is hit with hard winds and rain, not to mention making sure the dogs aren't too destructive with sans.... But I am scoping possible outdoor living areas for them.

As for soil mix, I have all sorts of media to work with, but I may just use peat, compost, orchid bark, and pumice. all the places I've seen them growing here, outside homes, sold in stores, or even the local nurseries, have them in a heavy peat/perlite mix. grows year round in the same spot. The only difference i've seen is much less water in the winter. You almost don't need to water when we aren't in drought mode... Rains enough for them. Thanks for the tips!!

Sorry, but if you said well draining, high peat mix, those 2 don't really go together.

High peat content will be water retentive, the OPPOSITE of fast draining; same is true of compost. The components you're mentioning are good for growing vegetable gardens & maybe flower beds. They are least desirable when growing succulents, especially in containers.

For succulents in general & Sans. in particular, I'd stay far away from peat as it can clog roots, impede drainage & accelerate rot.

A former San Diego friend used to plant his succulents outside amending the native Sans Diego clayish soil w/ lots of pumice. I'd start there if I were you & completely avoid the more organic components you've mentioned, they will not serve your plants well.

Imontestella, ah, yeah, my mistake!

If it goes in the ground, I would use a LOT of this orchid bark material I have along with pumice. However, in larger containers, with our normal weather, I think it can do well in a peat mix, and with my watering habits, over watering shouldn't be a problem. Hahaha

I spoke to someone at the nursery again today, and they grow all of those sans in a peat perlite mix outdoors year-round. They seem to grow well, considering I've seen people growing the easier to grow varieties in our horrendous clay soil, with probably little amending. While I don't want to ignore your advice, I do want to keep in mind our weather is dry and warm/hot most of the year, so a non moisture rententive soil would kill the plant if I forgot to water it... (which I will).

I may settle with gravel, pumice, bark, and a little peat. Like 4:2:1:1 (or half peat) ratio of Pumice, crushed Gravel/pebbles/lava rock, Bark, Peat. (For potted, which I may do for now.) Throw in some slow release fertilizer (maybe?)

It's just hard to gauge when everyone has different growing climates... for planting in the ground, I have a mix I learned from my former boss that we made for palms and cacti, it contains sand, perlite, peat, growmulch, lots of rock and gravel, and the native soil. Cacti and succulents do well, even when wet for long periods of time during the wet season.

Again, not trying to passover advice, just kinda rationalizing/ordering my mind with what I can remember. Thank you for the help!

I was thinking the same thing for you Christian. Interesting that you brought up area and different potting mixes. My sister lives in FL and when I got her into Sans, I told her to use the cactus mix/perlite 50/50 like I use. After growing a while, she was complaining to me that she had to water almost daily with my mix, otherwise the Sans got dessicated, and it was getting to be a burden. So I'm guessing it is much the same, probably worse for your climate. So a slightly water retentive soil might be the way to go with you. Keep us posted!

vitorama, Yeah, I unpotted some today, mason's congo, hallii, and cylindrica, looks like there wasn't nearly as much perlite as i thought. It had some sand (I think?) and perlite, but was mostly decomposing peat. Not nearly enough drainage. Gonna look at the mix closer when I re-pot the moonlight tomorrow.

Some of the old rhizome on the cylindrica was showing signs of rot. Cleaned em up with water, sprayed a little physan 20. Then I put it into peat and (small) orchid bark with a fair amount of pumice, gravel, and LECA pellets. Was going to use orchiata bark, but that stuff is pricey... Save em for my picky orchids and hoya.

But it definitely should drain well, and stay moist enough for it not to desiccate. They all have some beautiful rhizomes with new growth pushing out! Sorry no pics, it's dark out already... =p

Only point I can make is when I buy excellently growing sans at the big box stores, they are in a petty mix and growing great. If left in that state in my growing conditions here, they would rot. Also find them in the clearance racks after a week in that state here. A friend in Australia (in another web site) showed Sans. Hahnii growing in a creek. I figured as long as it's warm it makes all the difference. This is after I told him water kills sans. Still learning so keep us posted.

I think the biggest thing is oxygen and constant flow of water for roots to be okay. Like when people use water culture or hydroponics.

Also, got myself a 'Black Gold'!

Was debating between that and "Black Moon" (Is there even a difference?)

Last one I'm slowly gonna search for (for now), is 'Whitney'. The dark green and silver-green stripes are gorgeous!

Got all the kids potted up! The consistency of my mix reminds me of standard cactus mix i used for all my crassula. Probably gonna stick with this mix so long as I have the material to spare. (LECA pellets are pretty expensive)

I've never heard of Black Moon. It sounds like one of the many made up names. Your Black Gold is not called that either, it is called S. t. 'Compacta'. There is a 'Black Gold' but it is like a regular laurentii only extremely dark, almost black with very dark cross banding. I know that doesn't make sense that Black Gold has no Gold, but that is the correct name, if you care about nomenclature.

if you can wait until Spring(in NJ), I'll have a Whitney for you if you'll pay postage. Just let me know.

Oh that'd be awesome! I'm in no rush. I've got some hoya cuttings to care for as it is, so I don't need new plants just this second. Thanks so much!

And yeah, names are weird, especially when people start throwing them around. But black gold and black moon looked basically the same.

I also have some spare Whitney and the reverse Eve. Also Moonshine. Bantel's Sensation is going to be divided up and got some of them to go. Message me anyone who's interested.

Stush