Sempervivum

[McDonough]

A sempervivum planter: color transitions

Hey semp fans, I've had a low bowl shaped plastic container planted with 3 semps for the past 4-5 years, and it sits on the lower step of my deck year round, where I get to view it continuously. The amazing thing about semps, is to watch their foliar color transformation, and rosette transformations through the months.

The 3 plants are:
Sempervivum ciliosum var. borisii - upper left, one of the best ever species.
Jovibarba heuffelii 'Torrid Zone' - upper right, a superb descriptively named Bill Nixon hybrid.
Sempervivum 'Nouveau Pastel' - a 1956 hybrid from Nicholas Moore, one of the most unique, a true semp chameleon.

For the winter, the semps "hunker down" and retreat into a compressed winter mode, showing lots of dried remains of past leaves acting as a "ruff" around each rosette.  In spring they grow out of the winter mode and start expanding, taking on vivid colors.  In Photo 1, the rosettes still show old dead leaves around each rosette.  Just a few days later, with abnormal heat and sun here in New England spring 2010, suddenly the rosettes awaken and start taking on some color and rosette expansion (photo 2).  Photo 3 shows strong coloring and rosette growth, the amazing chameleon S. 'Nouveau Pastel' is a luscious toffee color, and 'Torrid Zone' is... hot torrid red with inviting green centers.  Photo 3a is a side view showing that 'Nouveau Pastel' is one of those semps that forms tall one-sided "reaching" rosettes... 'Torrid Zone' also reaches upwards.  In photo 4 taken the end of July, we arrive at the color apex, with some flowering happening (thank goodness not much though)... 'Torrid Zone' is hotter red than ever after losing the cool green center, and 'Nouveau Pastel' is getting so crowded that it accentuates coffee brown centers.

Some semp species and hybrids put out "chicks" on long stolons, and this can be difficult to deal with.  These three semp/jovs were selected because of their dense clumping habit with chicks close to the parent.

[Todd Boland]

Great colour contrast Mark!  Semps are such great plants for pots and troughs....I have about 25 selections at the moment.  I poke them here and there anyplace I want a little contrast in colour and form.

[McDonough]

Two superbly grown sempervivums displayed at UK plant shows:

Sempervivum 'Lion King', skillfully planted with natural stones.
Photo by Peter Maguire, SRGC UK member, at the Edinburgh and the Lothians Show 2010
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5303.0;attach=210166;image

Sempervivum ciliosum var. galicicum, displayed at the London Show 2010, looks like a Rebutia.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5303.0;attach=210220;image

[Hoy]

The second semp looks almost like a Mammilaria!
I grow mine in rock crevices or at the roof (houseleek you know - takløk (roofleek or rather -onion) in Norwegian).

[McDonough]

The second semp looks almost like a Mammilaria!

Probably because a good number of the rosettes of S. ciliosum var. galacicum in that photo are on the verge of flowering, so they morph into those odd looking "vertical" rosettes.  That clump might not look so good after that many rosettes die.

[McDonough]

Finally found two photos of my semps, back in the year 2001, seen growing in pots woefully too small for long-term, but the intent was to create new garden beds for my 200 semps in the shorter term, but this never happened, most of the plants slowly suffered and dwindled away over the years.  The photos taken in July, show that many take on their brightest colors in midsummer.

I was also made aware of a URL of a German sempervivum nursery web site, where you can see good photos of over 300 semp cultivars, then many more of semp and Jovibarba species.  I use Google translate in my Internet Explorer 8.0 browser, which really helps.

http://www.semper-vivum.de/sempervivum

[Hoy]

Here's some of my "wild" semps.

[McDonough]

Here's some of my "wild" semps.

Trond, you "wild semps" look very natural among rocks.  Since I have lost the labels on some of my semps, I too now have "wild semps"   I do like the tectorum forms very much; classic rosettes.

[Lori S.]

Here's an oddity on what is already an oddity... Sempervivum 'Oddity', that is, with a rosette that seems to lack chlorophyll.  Bizarre!

[Weiser]

Hi guys!

I grow about twentyfive cultivars all unnamed. They suffer here during the summer months but recover in the fall and early winter. I have been moving starts to shady sights with better results,   but haven't taken the time to move all of the older clumps. I have been toying with the idea  of planting some at the bases of my cholla cactus. I think they would get enough shade from the branches to keep them from turning pale and losing leaves in our hot summer months. 

[Hoy]

Hi guys!

I grow about twentyfive cultivars all unnamed. They suffer here during the summer months but recover in the fall and early winter. I have been moving starts to shady sights with better results,   but haven't taken the time to move all of the older clumps. I have been toying with the idea  of planting some at the bases of my cholla cactus. I think they would get enough shade from the branches to keep them from turning pale and losing leaves in our hot summer months. 

Fortunately I don't need to bring mine into shade although it is a bit dry here in June.

[McDonough]

Trond, a most becoming handsome shot of your flowering semp; shorter more compact stems than many, in proportion to the rosettes, with harmonious colors.  Your photo reminds me why I love sempervivum, plants of simple pleasure.

[Nold]

I like Trond's semp too. There are about fifty, maybe more, here. Little ones, medium ones, big ones. I bought so many this spring (again at Timberline, where there are rows upon rows of them) that some haven't been planted yet. I grow them in containers, mostly. Shallow Mexican clay dishes.
They're hybridizing and seeding around like crazy. The seedlings invaded one trough and the very lazy gardener here paid no attention until it was too late.
They cook in full sun in Denver, but they take the heat in stride.

[McDonough]

I like Trond's semp too. There are about fifty, maybe more, here. Little ones, medium ones, big ones. I bought so many this spring (again at Timberline, where there are rows upon rows of them) that some haven't been planted yet. I grow them in containers, mostly. Shallow Mexican clay dishes.
They're hybridizing and seeding around like crazy. The seedlings invaded one trough and the very lazy gardener here paid no attention until it was too late.
They cook in full sun in Denver, but they take the heat in stride.

Funny, I never thought about Sempervivums "cooking" in the sun and heat... I don't treat them as regular desert succulents as they are alpines after all, but I noticed today that a semp in a planter showed its inner leaves to be "fried" and scorched on this 99 F day, so I moved it out of the blazing sun and into some shade... it whispered a sigh of relief.

[Hoy]

I never grow my semps in containers as I have lots of natural cracks in the rock here. (Most of the semps I grow at our summerhouse.) They never get sun scorched either but now it is becoming quite dry so they roll themselves into small balls. We are still waiting for the warm weather we read in the papers that everybody else have (except Todd maybe!).