Welwitschia mirabilis

Welwitschia mirabilis 

In the image above you see this year's crop of Welwitschia mirabilis. These were sown on August 21:  as you can see, they don't waste any time getting started. Eight seeds were sown, six have germinated. Last year's crop was lost to an experiment: I had read that the frost resistance of Welwitschia was untested, so I left them outside during a light overnight freeze. They didn't like it! One was dead the next morning, and the others limped along during the rest of the winter, never recovering their former strength. One by one they died: the last one to die almost made it to the time of year when I would have put it out back into the sunshine.
I was going to try to get one established in a very protected cold frame which is nestled against the house wall. But now I'm having second thoughts.