Sempervivum

[McDonough]

Just made a new semp planter, this task taken not because of a design need, but more from an action to salvage some good semps that were sitting and suffering in small pots that haven't been replanted in 6-7 years!  The new planter is a very wide but shallow plastic (clay-emulating) dish, which is partially sunk into the ground. Six semps and one Jovibarba were planted, their colors long faded in the late summer doldrums, but I look to next spring and early summer to see the fruits of my effort.  Just so you know, the conspicuous plant labels will be removed as soon as I draw a map of the planter.  The stone used is native stuff unearthed whenever I dig into our so-called soil, and the stone chips are the same stone that I break up with a hammer to use as a top dressing.

The following were planted.
Refer to photo #2 (overhead view) for the following descriptions:

11 o'clock - S. 'Pacific Devils Food'- nice chocolate color but a difficult grower

12 o'clock - J. heuffelii 'Gold Bug' - ooh, at its peak, a rich golden yellow with red tips, small. One of the best.

 1 o'clock - hard to see, a smidgeon of S. arachnoideum 'Album', but hopefully it'll regain a foothold here.

 3 o'clock - S. 'Brock' - a medium size but imposing red, it has its showy season earlier in the year.

 4 o'clock - S. arachnoideum 'Yukon Snow' - one of the whitest webbiest cobwebby types, nice.

 6 o'clock - S. pittonii, a tight growing species with small rosettes & some dark leaf tips. Yellow flowers. Nice.

8-9 o'clock - S. 'More Honey', when at its peak of color, this yellowish amber one is excellent.

[RickR]

A very nice end product.  I hope you were wearing eye protection when making those chips!

And there is your labeled map here on the forum too...

[Lori S.]

Looking good, Mark!  Perhaps that's what I should do with a couple of my less successful troughs?

[Hoy]

Interesting planting, Mark.
I once saw semps planted on old roof tiles hung on the wall! (The Norwegian name is "takløk" litterally "roof-onion"!)

[McDonough]

Here is the object of my next semp planting, a rusty yet still functional old wheelbarrow.  While it has some cracks to provide a bit of drainage, I shall be drilling additional drainage holes. Still not sure of the landscape scenario and placement of this object d'art, but I'm working on it, and hope to find a location and get it planted in a week or so.  Will upload pics once planted.

[Booker]

... And so easy to move if you ever decide to relocate ,,, to north central Alaska!   

[McDonough]

Sempervivum plantings can of course go hand in hand with other hardy Crassulaceae such as Orostachys.  Check out the following link for 10 photos of Orostachys species blooming in Peter George's garden in the fall.
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=373.msg4641#msg4641

[McDonough]

My recently re-planted Sempervivum pittonii plants are hunkering down for winter, but suddenly changed color, now a blue-green color with red tips, rather nice.

[Hoy]

The rocks you have used are very similar to the rocks I just dug out here. I am going to make a new step and have to remove the old one made of all kind of stones and rocks. But that kind of "rubbish" is always useful.

[McDonough]

The small rocks or "gravel" is the same rock as the larger rocks, just smashed with a hammer to get the finer gravel as a top dressing (yes Rick, with eye protection).  I still haven't planted my "wheelbarrow planter" yet, but as I work to lift some sod and expand my gardens slightly, there's always lots more of this rock in the so-called soil here, and I save that rock for planters.  This semp is in the same large planter shown in my photos above.

[McDonough]

Today I worked on a wheelbarrow sempervivum planter.  It will "live" in a hollowed out part of a hillside, the whole area to have sod removed (too difficult to mow the steep hillside) and the ground "sculpted" with paths and bermed planting beds.  The first step was to remove sod and excavate soil at the base of the hillside up to 1' (30 cm) deep or more, to lessen the incline somewhat.  The unexcavated edges around it will be broadened, and further rock features and plantings will soften the excavation.  A layer of gravel will eventually be laid around the wheelbarrow setting.

1-2  Sod removed, area excavated, excavated rocks temporarily tossed into wheelbarrow.  Wheelbarrow positioned.
      (note: additional drainage holes were drilled in the metal well of the wheelbarrow)

3-4  Wheelbarrow heaped with sand/loam mix.  The fun part, arrange native stone in pleasing formations and plant pockets.
      (note:  the planter is heavy, but still can be moved.  However, the intent is to leave it in place.)

5-10 Wheelbarrow is planted, and top-dressed with the same rock that was hand-crushed; our native rock crushes easily with a hammer, with eye-protection of course.  I like the fact when crushing the rock, one can purposely make various grades of chippings, large to small, and even some fine particles.  When planting this late in the season, the semps are mostly already hunkered down and ready for winter, and only showing green, so not overly showy at the moment.  Also, there are more pockets that need planting; I was running out of daylight.

When I place the rock, I like mixing rock sizes, and I try to create some noticeable height to the planter (see side view).  I also like to have some rocks extend out and over the planter edge.

There will be no labels in this planter, I created a map instead.  But I will also use a digital photo marked up with plant names as my guide.  Some of the semp plants are ones for which the labels either disappeared or wore off.

[McKenney]

Several years ago I saw for the first time the sempervivum called 'Fame Montrose'. Since then I have acquired two plants, one from a commercial source and one from a friend. I've wondered about the name since first seeing the plant. In particular, what is the significance of the 'Montrose' part.

Today I read on-line something which gives me more reason to wonder. I've learned that this cultivar is prone to sport spontaneously back and forth between normal plants and plants which have the truncated, tubular leaves which characterize 'Fame Montrose'.

Was there/is there a cultivar called 'Fame'? Here's why I'm asking:  in the old days teratological (deformed) forms of plants and animals were sometimes described as monstrous.

So is 'Fame Montrose' a misreading of 'Fame Monstrous'?

And if not, can anyone shed some light on the significance of 'Montrose' in the name?

Here's a link to an image of one of my plants:

http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2011/04/sempervivum-fame-montrose.html

Jim McKenney

[Weiser]

When dealing with Cacti the term  "Monstrous" deals with abnormal, distorted and disfigured growth of the body, not the apex. A mutant growth form often resembling a club-like shape in cylindrical or columnar cacti and a wavy body shape in cacti that have pads. "Monstrose" and "Monstrosus" are botanical terms used to describe these growth forms.  The general terms, both words mean; like a monster.

[Lori S.]

Hmmm, this topic reminds me of Sempervivum 'Oddity', which is another along the same lines:
 

[RickR]

Sorry, nothing to add here, except ... nice web site, and welcome to the NARGS forum, Jim!

I never cared for Oddity, but Montrose Fame is much nicer.