Androsace spinulifera

[Doreen]

Catching up on posting some pre-Christmas photos. This is Androsace spinulifera, grown from seed sown in 2002. I grow it in a very gritty mix with a thick collar of grit around the neck, and as I don't have a greenhouse it's left outside in all weathers all year round. I give it part shade in the summer otherwise it begins to flag. After flowering the large summer leaves die back until eventually there's nothing left in the pot but a cluster of winter resting buds, looking like Brussels sprouts but with a spiny tip to the leaves - hence the specific name.   

[Lori S.]

Beautiful plant, Doreen!  I grew this from seed a couple of years ago, and sure hope mine look like yours someday!

[RickR]

Does yours have those cool-sounding winter buds, too, Lori?
- (Why is that such an attraction for me?) 

[Doreen]

Lori: Don't see why it shouldn't - it doesn't seem as demanding as most other androsaces. Saying that, in the past I've had a couple of false starts growing it from seed, with some misguided person sending in what looked like shepherds purses under this name, so fingers crossed you've got the real thing!

Rick: Just for you and any other Brussels-sprouts-lovers out there, here's a pic of a single-rosetted seedling in its winter avatar!

[RickR]

That is so cool, Doreen!  

It's like a Jovibarba allionii, with the ciliation of Sempervivum octopodes, and the old leaves of Orostachys spinosa, all rolled into one!  (And shrunk way way down...)



                                  

                                                                  

[Lori S.]

Does yours have those cool-sounding winter buds, too, Lori?

I don't think mine are old enough to be anywhere near as well developed as Doreen's... and I won't be able to check until the weekend when I'm home in daylight (though at least the snow has melted off, which helps)!  Certainly reminiscent in form to the species you show, Rick.  
And I've been able to confirm they're not shepherd's purse, which is good news...  

[RickR]

Ya know, Lori, when I was a kid and we would take vacations up to our cabin in the summer, Dad would be driving in the night and we'd get back home in the wee hours of the morning.   I always had to get a flashlight and see how things had grown in the garden while we were away....

(Just kidding.  I don't do that anymore.)



.....usually 

[Toole]

Lovely plant Doreen and beautifully photographed but somehow the effect diminished for me when you associated it with Brussel sprouts --yuk!
 

Cheers Dave.

[Hoy]

Ya know, Lori, when I was a kid and we would take vacations up to our cabin in the summer, Dad would be driving in the night and we'd get back home in the wee hours of the morning.   I always had to get a flashlight and see how things had grown in the garden while we were away....

(Just kidding.  I don't do that anymore.)



.....usually 

But I still do - usually!

[Doreen]

Rick: you're obviously a connoisseur of spiny Brussels sprouts (unlike our Dave!) And re your checking out the overnight growth by flashlight, my old neighbour used to accuse me of sleep-walking, as I shuffled down my long seedbench gazing intently at a row of apparently lifeless pots of grit. Nice to be reassured other people have the same affliction!

Lori: Glad you haven't got the impostor! I think if your plant is anything like mine, it will start off slowly then after 3 years or so, start getting into gear and increasing nicely. Of course then you see a photo of a darker-coloured form which you can't possibly live without ....