This question arrived yesterday on one of our Face Book pages.
Our answer: “We hardly have ‘frost’. Just a bit of ripe a few
times per year (gone before 8AM). Quite a few succulents can
have -3 to 4 degrees Celcius during a few hours; we even know of
a cactus (San Pedro) that survived minus 20 C and snow in
Yorkshire UK. But if somebody tells you that cacti grow
virtually everywhere in South Africa (as a nursery man once told
in the TV-program Top Billing) we can assure you that this is
nonsense for in a large part of this country ‘Black Frost’
occurs. Majority of succulent plants including cacti don’t
survive ‘black frost’ but it is interesting to see which
succulent plants survive in those areas. “Black Frost” is when
suddenly in a very short time the temperature goes down to
several degrees Celcius below zero. Thanks for this question.
The answer also explains why we always ask our customers about
their local environment including the occurance of ‘black
frost’. This to avoid dissapointments.” And word spr