ABC Wednesday 4 - E is for...


...Echeveria
Here's how not to look after your tender plants like the above Echeveria during the winter - leave them outside to fend for themselves. True, I'd been lulled into a false sense of security as they'd survived unscathed for several winters, but that doesn't excuse my not rushing out to rescue them as soon as a severe frost was forecast. Luckily I'd potted up some offsets last summer and so far (touch wood) they've survived round the corner where they're westerly facing and snuggled right next to the house. There's just enough left for me to start over again. The pictured healthy plant is about the same size as the one I bought originally, so I know some TLC and only a season or two will mean I'll soon have a potful of them again on my patio. They're tucked up in the cold frame now, just in case. It seems my Echeverias are in good company - a lot of the gardens tended by the National Trust here in the south-west have reported damage to their trees (weight of snow) and tender plants (severe frost) this week. As many as 60% of their tender plants have been lost.

How are your plants doing? Perhaps the alternative title for this post should be Bring Out Your Dead ;) Hmm, another meme to while away the rest of February perhaps?

At ABC Wednesday you'll find loads more to Enjoy today!

Comments

  1. EG CameraGirl17 February 2009 at 22:59

    I really like echeveria. Yours may not look their best...but they'll look wonderful in a couple of months.

    MY ABC Wednesday post is at
    More of Me - EG

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous17 February 2009 at 23:11

    I like too.
    It makes me think about a French artist Michel-Adrien Etcheverry
    Vrai nom : Michel Adrien Etcheverry.

    Né à Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) le 16 décembre 1919.

    Décédé à Paris (20ème) le 30 mars 1999.





    Michel Etcheverry entre à l'Ecole Normale de Saint-André-de-Cubzac pour devenir instituteur. Noble profession qu'il exerce peu de temps à Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens car il bifurque bien vite vers le théâtre au Conservatoire de Bordeaux d'abord et en montant à Paris ensuite. Il y suit les cours d'art dramatique de Maurice Escande et ceux dispensés au Conservatoire par André Brunot et René Simon.



    Au concours de 1947, il remporte un second prix de comédie classique dans les rôles de Don Sallustre (Ruy Blas) et de Shylock (Le marchand de Venise).

    A ce moment, comme régisseur et comme comédien, il appartient déjà à la troupe de Louis Jouvet à qui, la vie durant, il vouera une admiration et une reconnaissance sans bornes.



    Il entre à la Comédie Française en 1961. Il y reste vingt ans comme interprète et en signant de nombreuses mises en scène, entre autres : Monsieur le Trouhadec saisi par la débauche de Jules Romains; Les fausses confidences de Marivaux et Un caprice d'Alfred de Musset.

    Nommé sociétaire honoraire le 1er janvier 1984, il revient encore de temps en temps sur la prestigieuse scène, notamment pour Lorenzaccio d'Alfred de Musset et Un bon patriote ? de John Osborne.



    Au Théâtre Montparnasse, il triomphe durant deux saisons dans le rôle du père dans Le journal d'Anne Frank de Frances Goodrich et Albert Hackett.



    Puissant comédien de théâtre, il ne peut qu'intéresser le grand écran. Hélas, les rôles qu'on lui propose sont tous en deçà de son véritable talent.



    Possédait-il le physique de circonstance ? Toujours est-il qu'il endossa de nombreuses fois la soutane de prêtre : Le fils de Caroline chérie; La jeune folle; Mathias Sandorf; Madame du Barry, etc.



    Plus sérieusement, retenons son rôle d'inquisiteur dans La voie lactée de Luis Buñuel, celui du président de la Haute Cour de Justice dans I comme Icare, un suspense habilement conçu et rythmé par l'excellent Henri Verneuil et enfin, celui plus récent, dans Une femme française où il retrouve son ancienne partenaire du Français : Geneviève Casile.



    Homme cultivé, agnostique, mystique, on se souvient qu'après le décès de son épouse, il se retira des vanités du monde en faisant une retraite assez prolongée à l'abbaye de Saint-Benoît.



    Il décéda à l'Hôpital Tenon de Paris.





    FILMOGRAPHIE



    1950 Sans laisser d'adresse, de Jean-Paul Le Chanois, avec Danièle Delorme.

    1951 Agence matrimoniale, de Jean-Paul Le Chanois, avec Bernard Blier.

    Nez de cuir, d'Yves Allégret, avec Jean Marais.

    1952 Le rideau rouge, d'André Barsacq, avec Michel Simon.

    La jeune folle, d'Yves Allégret, avec Danièle Delorme.

    Ouvert contre X, de Richard Pottier, avec Yves Deniaud.

    La pocharde, de Georges Combret, avec Pierre Brasseur.

    1953 Raspoutine, de Georges Combret, avec Pierre Brasseur.

    Mam'zelle Nitouche, d'Yves Allégret, avec Fernandel.

    1954 Le fils de Caroline chérie, de Jean Devaivre, avec Jean-Claude Pascal.

    Madame du Barry, de Christian-Jaque, avec Martine Carol.

    La Tour de Nesle, d'Abel Gance, avec Pierre Brasseur.

    La Castiglione, de Georges Combret, avec Yvonne de Carlo.

    1955 L'affaire des poisons, de Henri Decoin, avec Danielle Darrieux.

    Les aristocrates, de Denys de La Patellière, avec Pierre Fresnay.

    Chantage, de Guy Lefranc, avec Raymond Pellegrin.

    Paris-canaille, de Pierre Gaspard-Huit, avec Dany Robin.

    Vous pigez ?, de Pierre Chevalier, avec Eddie Constantine.

    Plus de whisky pour Callaghan, de Willy Rozier, avec Tony Wright.

    Toute la ville accuse, de Claude Boissol, avec Jean Marais.

    La sorcière, d'André Michel, avec Marina Vlady.

    1956 Elisa, de Roger Richebé, avec Dany Carrel.

    Honoré de Marseille, de Maurice Régamey, avec Fernandel.

    Michel Strogoff, de Carmine Gallone, avec Curd Jürgens.

    Notre-Dame de Paris, de Jean Delannoy, avec Gina Lollobrigida.

    Le salaire du péché, de Denys de La Patellière, avec Danielle Darrieux.

    C'est arrivé à Aden, de Michel Boisrond, avec Dany Robin.

    1957 C'est la faute d'Adam, de Jacqueline Audry, avec Dany Robin.

    Le désert de Pigalle, de Léo Joannon, avec Annie Girardot.

    Fumée blonde, de Robert Vernay, avec Sophie Desmarets.

    1958 Les jeux dangereux, de Pierre Chenal, avec Pascale Audret.

    Prisons de femmes, de Maurice Cloche, avec Danièle Delorme.

    1959 Les yeux sans visage, de Georges Franju, avec Pierre Brasseur.

    Julie la rousse, de Claude Boissol, avec Pascale Petit.

    La nuit des espions, de et avec Robert Hossein.

    Recours en grâce, de Laslo Benedek, avec Raf Vallone.

    Signé Arsène Lupin, d'Yves Robert, avec Robert Lamoureux.

    Un témoin dans la ville, d'Edouard Molinaro, avec Lino Ventura.

    Y'en a marre, d'Yvan Govar, avec Dominique Wilms.

    1960 Le panier à crabes, de Joseph Lisbona, avec Anne Tonietti.

    Le passage du Rhin, d'André Cayatte, avec Charles Aznavour.

    Vers l'extase, de René Wheeler, avec Giani Esposito.

    1961 Les amours célèbres, sketch "Agnès Bernauer", de Michel Boisrond, avec Brigitte Bardot.

    Le petit garçon de l'ascenseur, de Pierre Granier-Deferre, avec Louis Seigner.

    Le puits aux trois vérités, de François Villiers, avec Michèle Morgan.

    Les nouveaux aristocrates, de Francis Rigaud, avec Maria Mauban.

    1962 Mathias Sandorf, de Georges Lampin, avec Louis Jourdan.

    1965 Paris brûle-t-il ?, de René Clément, participation.

    Le tigre se parfume à la dynamite, de Claude Chabrol, avec Roger Hanin.

    1967 La prisonnière, de Henri-Georges Clouzot, avec Elisabeth Wiener.

    1968 La voie lactée, de Luis Buñuel, avec Delphine Seyrig.

    1978 Perceval le Gallois, d'Eric Rohmer, avec André Dussolier.

    1979 I comme Icare, de Henri Verneuil, avec Yves Montand.

    1985 Tangos, l'exil de Gardel, de Fernando E. Solanas, avec Marie Laforêt.

    1993 L'écrivain public, de Jean-Pierre Amiguet, avec Robin Renucci.

    1994 Une femme française, de Régis Wargnier, avec Emmanuelle Béart.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sheila17 February 2009 at 23:23

    One of my favorite plants!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anna17 February 2009 at 23:43

    Oh dear VP :( At least you had the foresight to pot up some offsets. I could kick myself for not bringing an astelia under cover - it is looking very sad ! It was a slender leaved one that I had hankered after for some time, and then amazingly found at our local Homebase last year. Sad to read about the loss of so many tender plants in the south west. Some of the plants must have been very well established.

    ReplyDelete
  5. photowannabe18 February 2009 at 01:52

    Nice plant and a good warning about what will happen if the poor things aren't cared for.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mrs Mac18 February 2009 at 04:14

    Oooo I wondered what those were called!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tumblewords:18 February 2009 at 05:18

    I brought mine inside and they are doing well - I'm hoping they'll make the transition to the outdoors with no problem. Nice post!

    ReplyDelete
  8. TYRA Hallsénius Lindhe18 February 2009 at 09:11

    Great choice VP for E. I love the
    Echeveria. It's amazing that they can survive the winter outside...

    Tyra

    I found it quite hard to find veggies and flowers on E. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Elizabeth Musgrave18 February 2009 at 09:22

    This is a lovely plant. I like your "Bring out your dead"! I won't know about other stuff for a while yet but it does look like all my pelargoniums, kept going for about three years until now, have decisively turned up their toes.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nutty Gnome18 February 2009 at 09:37

    I've got a few slightly dead looking plants (?!) but, being the eternal optimist that I am, I'm hoping that the covering of snow kept them warm rather than killed them off! So I'm ignoring them at the moment (and not just because it's chucking it down today!) to see if they'll get their acts together and recover!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gail18 February 2009 at 13:05

    Good Afternoon VP, this is a good E post and great plant! Potted rosemary and bay leaf are my two tender plants...I bring them in when it gets below 24 F. The bayleaf is over 5 foot tall and the rosemaries require two people to move! I won't know for a few more weeks what I've lost that is half hardy in the garden~~
    gail

    ReplyDelete
  12. Victoria Summerley18 February 2009 at 14:37

    The echeverias are OK, touch wood, but the chlorophytums have had it (luckily I took offshoots of those). The tree ferns seem to have pulled through but I can't tell what's happened to the bananas and cannas until they sprout (or don't sprout!) One of the biggest problems is the phormiums. They don't mind the cold, but the weight of the snow has bent the leaves, so they're flopping about all over the place. And of course, once the leaves have got a crease in them, they won't straighten again. I foresee hours of hard labour cutting them all off...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rose18 February 2009 at 16:38

    My mother used to have some echeveria and kept offering some to me. Unfortunately, I waited too long--she lost them during a severe cold winter a few years ago.
    Glad you potted some up to save a few plants before the cold got all of them.

    I don't know if anything in my garden was lost this winter or not; we'll see when spring finally gets here what comes up.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Juliet18 February 2009 at 18:22

    I thought my brand new Fuchsia was dead (it's hardy but is in a pot, & though I covered it with a fleece jacket I found great chunks of ice all over the fleece, and the Fuchsia had gone all grey and manky-looking). However, it now has some tiny green bits just above the soil so I'm hoping it has survived after all. Not sure about everything else - I don't have anything really tender, but I sometimes loose plants to the winter wet.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous18 February 2009 at 19:30

    I leave my hens and chicks outside all winter and they still cluck come Spring. My Knock-Out roses are showing signs of life and I've got some perennials peeking their heads out. That's it for me as I still have tons to plant in these new gardens.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous18 February 2009 at 22:06

    I'm quite good at looking after plants in pots but it's the slightly tender ones in borders that I tend to forget about. Still, I try to look on a dead plant as a buying opportunity - which does not entirely remove the feelings of guilt!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Aunt Debbi/kurts mom19 February 2009 at 03:45

    my echiveria and hen and chick are doing fine. You must have gotten really cold. I am sure they will bounce back.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous19 February 2009 at 08:04

    I think you're not the only one in Europe who lost some plants due to the cold this winter (that followed some really mild ones).
    My Rosemary, a shrub that isn't so tender although it has a mediterranean origine has suffered severe damage, and I think I lost my Myrthus.
    My mother-in-law has/had a Camellia in her garden for years, but now it has gone...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous19 February 2009 at 10:32

    Those look like the plants we call 'houseleeks'. I had a ton of them, growing in various places like in the crook of a dead tree trunk. And yes, one winter I lost them all. I love them - and they remind me of my grandmother who had some growing on her roof.

    ReplyDelete
  20. VP20 February 2009 at 20:47

    ABCers - I'll see you over at your place...

    Sheila - I love them too. Thank goodness I potted some offsets up last year because the pot was overcrowded

    Elizabethm - shame about your pelargoniums. I suspect most of us will lose something this year.

    Nutty Gnome - I do hope your plants recover. I've got some lik ethat too and have the same hope!

    Gail - I have rosemary and bay too. Luckily I have both by nice warm walls, so they pull through OK. The rosemary even kept flowering through all our recent snow and ice! Just as well as the bees were out this week and at least had some nice rosemary waiting for them.

    Victoria - my tree ferns are looking most sorry for themselves. And my Phormium's cut to ribbons :(

    Juliet - winter wet's usually the problem round here too. Sounds like your fuchsia's OK though

    FGG - I got all excited yesterday because I could see some tiny pink Dicentra shoots - spring's really on it's way now, yay!

    EG - I like your attitude ;)

    Anne - you got me all worried about my myrtle just now as I usually have to trim back the frost bitten shoots come the spring. I think it's OK touch wood.

    Jay - they're similar to houseleeks (aka Sedums) but are much more tender. Houseleeks tend to be as tough as old boots in my experience.

    ReplyDelete

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