Whinter test 2003: Individual participant card
Nr. 037   Uve Schriefer
Germany  ~  Barsinghausen (Near Hannover)

My name is Uwe Schriefer and I live in the northern of Germany (Barsinghausen, near Hannover,). I got a greenhouse without heating for the cultivation of mostly Mexican plants (like Astrophytum, Ariocarpus, Thelocactus, Lophophora) during the summer period. First frosty nights in October and last frosty nights in April where defended by using an electrical heater. In winter, from early November till  late March, these plants have to stay in our winter garden where they have to wait for the next spring at a temperature range from about 6 to 12°C (depending from the sunshine). But there is still an other group of plants like Echinocereus, Escobaria and Opuntia that stay in the unheated greenhouse during the whole winter. The lowest temperature in the last winter (January), that was the coldest winter since 96/97 in this region, fall off about  -15°C. During this time the plants have to be completely dry and they thanked this treatment in the next spring with rich blooming.
The location of our garden and the greenhouse (9°27´E, 52°19´N) is exactly on the border from the North German Lowlands to the so called South Lower Saxon Mountains (Deister). The weather in winter is characterised by fast changes from cold and dry (continental) to wet and relative warm (Atlantic) periods. Snow don't exists very long but there are very often frosty periods without a snow blanket on the ground. The daily maximum and daily minimum temperatures of the last winter and the average climate from the weather station Hannover/Langenhagen (about 30 km in the northeast) where shown in the following figures on left.