Question
Hello thank you for your wonderful page and for offering out your email to help cacti lovers in distress. My mother has some wonderful cacti and did not realize that the radiator in the outdoor building/potting shed had been turned down and thus  the cacti that survived last years winter ( worse than this) have frozen.The names of these cacti are Trichocereus spachianus,    the species of echinocereus and the cacti that is flat with yellow spots but i don't know the name of this one. The symptoms are all that an expert like you would expect. The limbs as it were have gone soft at the end, some have gone soft at the connecting point to the main body of the cacti and have fallen off,some are still hanging on, discoloration to some ,which is a shadowy area and drooping limbs to most.The worse ( crasula) have split stalks and they are dead as a door nail. Can anything be done to save the others before they die all together. We have the radiator working now in this area. Any tips would be appreciated thank you.Kind regards leesa

Answer
Dear Leesa,

Thank you for your kind words.  My only suggestion is to remove all the soft and droopy limbs to healthy tissue with a sterilized knife and dust with a fungicide.  The crassula really wouldn't survive a freeze. I would leave the cactus in the cool shed, absolutely don't water till March and then gradually start to water. As for the shadowy areas on the main body of the plants, I would watch closely for ANY change in appearance which would most likely indicate rot which would have to be removed and treated.

There is a chance to save some of the plants and it is good that they were dormant when this happened.  If they do survive and you have removed parts of the plants they will need to be repotted into smaller pots in the spring.

If you have any photos your can send them to me at [email protected] so I can get a better look.

Just for future reference, non-cactus succulents such as crassula need more warmth and should be brought into the house for the winter.

Hope this helps,

Maureen