Sempervivum

Nice ones :) I just have some tiny seedlings ..

Looking good Mark and Rick;
Mark, really love the heuffelii, haven't tried any here yet....
We had another 15cm or so of snow wed night/thurs morning, and some more flurries last night.. semps are bare again already, though some other beds are still deep.. last night was -11C or so -quite impressive that these plants are already showing signs of life!

Finally managed to get some fairly accurate pics of some dark semps, they can be tricky to photograph! These are all from my plants received from Europe as  'lost-label', and planted in a new bed last fall after a couple of years in community pots..

They are dark  ;D Of course it varies through the year, depending on conditions, and I'm wondering if it varies even on a smaller scale- after a day of scattered light showers, and more rain overnight, they seem slightly less dark today, though I didn't have time to really look.. next I have to capture some of the really red ones!

I like the pink ones :) You are just a little ahead of me- I have an arach in bud, along with ciliosum..

Trond, no heat stress here either, and no drought the last couple of years! Its pouring now, again, but supposed to be dry for a few days after this, and we may even hit 30C by monday- if so, it would be the first time this year...
My semps have kept good colour all year in these last few cool years- I haven't been back here for a warm dry summer yet- not sure if we will ever have one again  ;D My dark reds are still very dark, and several are coming into flower now..

Rick, my S ciliosum, which flowered on something like 7 or more stalks last year (on fewer square inches than that) later in the season also produced some very short flower stems, below the still flowering tall stems; I figured those new ones just didn't have the energy anymore to be taller! amazingly, that clump of ciliosum totally filled in around those dead rosettes so you can't even see any gaps, and is flowering again this year on about 4 stems, impressive plants for monocarpics!

Mark, I like the brownish ones too, I have one tiny no name which is quite brown in spring, though less so in its summer colour...

Most of my semps also change colour, though it may be a less extreme change- my semp bed still has lots of stron gcolour (I'll try to take some new pics today, then maybe some more next week after we are supposed to actually have some warm sunny weather).. there is also, for some, a strong change in form- ciliosum and arachnoideum don't change much- they stay tightly closed all year here, but others go from tightly closed to quite open....

My challenge is the opposite of yours- I have to think hard about what plants to give the few mostly fully exposed sites I have, and try to acquire plants which are okay with only a half day of sun, or better yet, dappled sun! I doubt heat stress is a factor for many plants here- even on the warmest days my nights are mostly cool- we have days of 28-30C forecast sunday to tues (82-86F and by far the warmest we've had this year) and the warmest nights are 10C/50F..  Today is only supposed to get to 13C/55F and tonight down to 2C/35F.. guess those coloured semps are in no danger...lol

cohan wrote:

My challenge is the opposite of yours- I have to think hard about what plants to give the few mostly fully exposed sites I have, and try to acquire plants which are okay with only a half day of sun, or better yet, dappled sun!

Don't sweat it too much.... they're not fussy plants and will grow pretty well anywhere.  I have some semps under trees where they don't get as much light as they might wish for, however, they do cover the ground and look decorative, nonetheless.

Lori wrote:

cohan wrote:

My challenge is the opposite of yours- I have to think hard about what plants to give the few mostly fully exposed sites I have, and try to acquire plants which are okay with only a half day of sun, or better yet, dappled sun!

Don't sweat it too much.... they're not fussy plants and will grow pretty well anywhere.  I have some semps under trees where they don't get as much light as they might wish for, however, they do cover the ground and look decorative, nonetheless.

I wasn't thinking so much about the Semps, which are mostly growing like gangbusters  ;D and because they are among my faves they are getting some of the best spots- right in front of the house where they can be appreciated the whole time they are not  covered with snow!More so some other things that I might like to grow that I worry about enough light for, oh well! One can always try, and no site can grow everything  :) I do, though, on seedlists, lean to things that say north or east slopes, or under shrubberies, forest clearings (a term that describes most of my gardening area!) or at least amongst other forbs and grasses.. a lot of semps in nature have those semi-sheltered spots too- with grasses around, edges of trees etc..

Sempervivum thompsonianum, or so it was said to be:

Some semps from today, these are mostly from the same batch received several years ago as lost label, and planted in ground last year

And another batch..

Thanks, Trond- that's not all of them, either! But I know compared to the real collectors, I have very few.. Some of them are quite prolific, too- I started with two small batches of tiny offsets I was sent several years ago, and I now have two new rock beds with mainly  semps in them, and still have many leftovers in pots! I can already imagine the first bed, planted last year, will have little empty space between the plants in another year or two...

And the serious collectors of course tend to be very focussed- I could never settle on one category of plants, let alone a genus  ;D

Hoy wrote:

I can never be serious either; not to talk about focussed ;D

What were we talking about?  ;D

Sempervivum 'Rhodenicum'; photo taken Oct 04, 2012, our heaviest frost so far this year, -5 to -9C; this is in my new named Semp and Alpine rock garden, in front of the house..

LOL- that's why I usually label my photos with every plant clearly visible in them- but I thought that one was far enough back to ignore! its a Polemonium boreale seedling.. I'll show some better pics in another thread...

A few more shots from a few days ago.. these are all planted in my new named semps etc bed in front of the house

1 Jovibarba (globifera) allioni Gorges Superieures de Cians, Fr

2 Jovibarba (globifera) hirta Belianske Tatry, Slovakia

3 Sempervivum x pomellii Chastel sur Murat, Fr

4 Sempervivum marmoreum erythraeum Pirin, Bulgaria

5 Sempervivum marmoreum erythraeum Pirin, Bulgaria

That is a nice Jovi, Rick :)

Trond, sorry to hear, that's a tough situation, esp since you are not there full time :(

If he lives and farms there full time, it seems like maybe he does not consider part time residents with only display gardens very important..