Sempervivum

The following photo shows a sempervivum patch in the garden, illustrating two mistakes.

1.  Alliums and semps don't mix!  Allium seeds drop between the rosettes, a perfect home for seeds to germinate, and one ends up with this visual chaos, and it is near impossible to extract bulb seedlings.  The allium in this case is A. flavum ssp. tauricum.

2.  Most of the semp patch is a cultivar labelled 'Bronco'.  I bought most of my semps in the days when reliable nursery sources for them existed, often nurseries run by semp hybridizers themselves, or nurseries with direct connection with such semp hybridizers.  A couple years ago I bought a young plant labelled S. 'Bronco' at a plant sale, so I planted next to what I labelled as 'Bronco', but as you can see in the lower left corner of the patch, it is a different color semp, so is either one the true cultivar?  It is a decade or more since the stars of Sempervivum hybridizing ended their activities, so getting true-to-name cultivars is more challenging than ever.

*Update:  just dug out an Microsoft Access database I created to help track Sempervivum cultivars, and I find this for S. 'Bronco':
Hybridizer: Martin Haberer, 1977 "dark green lvs well edged & tipped dark purple", my plant purchased from Squaw Mountain (no longer in business)... so maybe the greener one in the lower left is the real McCoy?

Update #2:  took a fresh photo, and in just a couple weeks, the greener rosettes colored up red similar to the main patch.  Checking my label, I see that I bought the semp in 2005, a Sunny Border plant. I think I goofed up, when I planted the two cultivars together, thinking they were the same, one is 'Bronco' and one is 'Brock'.  In the top photo, clearly the greener rosettes are larger and with more leaves in each rosette.

Thanks everyone for helping to confirm IDs on my two semps.  Looks like some of you are semp fans too!  I updated my 'Bronco' photo with a new photo today, and the sneaky feeling that I goofed up, and planted a similar named cultivar ('Brock') with my 'Bronco'.  These plants are truly chameleon plants, you'd almost need to photograph them monthly, to get a sense about what they look like at any give time.  And then, change their environs slightly (soil, exposure, etc) and they'll grow and color differently too.

Skulski wrote:

Hoy wrote:

I am deeply impressed by all of you taking care of all the labels!

I don't like seeing exposed labels in the garden, so I don't keep them at all.  I just make maps, and keep a master list.

I agree with that sentiment Lori, but I'm afraid I do have a "label graveyard" going on here.  I used to make maps, but they get out of date, and I can lose my maps as well, then I need a map to find my maps :o ;D

RickR wrote:

I also used to map gardens.  Now I keep a list of the plants I have in each garden as well as a master list, as well as labels (usually hidden) with the plants.  Keeping track of my plants, with provenance and other pertinent notes was the reason for me getting my first computer.  Understanding the rudiments of the Excel program was one of the first things I learned.

Rick, it sounds like you have "covered the bases" using all of the above techniques.  Having digital photo records certainly helps too.  One thing I always try to do, is make two labels (maybe even three) for each plant, one in front and one in back of a plant.

Trond, I also have problems with flocks of noisy NOISY blackbirds, who sometimes have label-pulling parties >:(  So, I try to plunge my labels deep, so just the tip shows, less likely to be pulled out by birds, and I always use two labels.  I know some gardeners who would put in a normal label but then also "bury" a second label just to one side of a plant, always in the same direction relative to the normal viewing of that plant.  The interesting thing about deep "seating" or burying labels, is that they aren't exposed to bright light and pencil labeling remains legible for decades.

Sempervivum 'Bronco' versus 'Brock'.  I think I have both, planted together as shown in my photos above, but I just found both cultivars pictured at Mountain Crest Gardens (they have a good assortment of Semps and Jovibarbas for sale).  Now I'm fairly sure which is which in my little semp patch.

Bronco:
http://mountaincrestgardens.com/popup_image.php?pID=78

Brock:
http://mountaincrestgardens.com/popup_image.php?pID=77

http://mountaincrestgardens.com

I believe one day I shall take up hybridizing sempervivums, maybe a fun hobby when I retire.  Only once I tried my hand at hybridizing, here's a photo showing my cross between two species, S. zeleborii x pittonii.  You can see some variation in the rosettes.  Since the seed is as small as dust particles, my seedling flat was perhaps 1000 seedlings or more, the problem is how to handle picking out and growing on so many tiny seedlings.  So, I took the lazy approach, and potted up 3 or 4 big clumps of seedlings, and only the strongest would survive in their fight for space and light.  Not a very scientific approach, but interesting to observe the results.

Why did I pick those two species, well... because they were growing close to each other and flowering at the same time ;D

If I could only grow one Sempervivum, it would probably be S. ciliosum var. borisii.  It grows ultra tight and hummocky, and always fresh looking.  In late fall and winter, the low flat-topped rosettes are densely packed, and those ciliate tufts at the end of each leaf make little points of light on the rosettes.  The first photo is taken in mid October, and I think I like it best in its winter guise.  Depending on conditions, spring color can take on rich pink coloration.

The second photo shows the plant in mid June, where the rosettes open up and the silver frosting of cilia catches sunlight to make the rosettes glimmer.  So far as sempervivum blooms go, some are tall and awkward, weirdly interesting, or ugly depending on your take on such things. But with S. ciliosum, the flowers are held in more compact heads and are an appealing chartreuse yellow color.  Since the flowering rosette dies after flowering,  this species fortunately rarely flowers, so no worries about overly abundant flowering to ruin an otherwise fine semp clump.

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.

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...

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...

Hoy wrote:

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. :(

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 wrote:

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" :D  I do like the tectorum forms very much; classic rosettes.

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. :D

Nold wrote:

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Maggi; thanks for the possibilities on the Fame names... I wonder if there is indeed both a 'Fame Montrose' and a 'Fame Monstrose'?
'Fame Montrose'
http://www.sbohio.com/Photos.php?view=preview&category=16&image=130
'Fame Monstrose'  (other monstrose forms, looking very different from each other, go under the same name, see one more below).
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/wood11/Sempervivums/April2008146Sm...
It's been so many years since Nicholas Moore's and David Ford's profuse introductions of delightful semp cultivars, I fear that some of the ensuing confusion may never be straightened out.

Jim, glad to see you over here on NARGS Forum... it's been relatively quite on Alpine-L, and very quite (surprisingly) on Pizza-L ;D, so I'm glad to made the jump to forumville.

Jeremy, your semp planting is picture prefect, exactly the way semps show off best, stitching together rocks with the neat and colorful rosettes!  Inspiring. Maybe bring some to the plant and seedlings sales at NE NARGS meetings ;)  Now that I'm back to work (although at a rather reduced salary), I'm burning up with plant-buying fever, but still must reign in these impulses, although semps are so inexpensive that I might just place an order with Squaw Mountain.

Regarding Sempervivum ciliosum var. borisii, in the Sempervivum & Jovibarba Handbook by Peter Mitchell describes var. borisii "Found growing at Pancerevo, Bulgaria... differs from the species in having much longer hairs making the rosettes appear almost white, more so when grown fully exposed".

Recommend varieties that are attractive spreaders:  there are so many, including species like erythraeum, pittonii, zeleborii, many others.  For a unique color, there is nothing quite like S. 'Nouveau Pastel' which in summer turns a caramel milk chocolate color, and it has tight, neat spreading habit (see photo of it in my round planter, earlier in this topic).  Remind me, and I'll bring a couple rosettes for you at a chapter meeting.  If one likes the ciliate types, like S. ciliosum var. borisii, there are a whole series of hybrids with it that are really choice, here's a few:

Semp 'Raspberry Ice'
http://www.sedumphotos.net/v/semps-nr/Sempervivum+Raspberry+Ice.jpg.html
Semp. 'Georgette'
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/Crazy_Gardener/sempervivums/014.jpg
Semp. 'Ginnie's Delight'
http://www.sedumphotos.net/v/semps-fm/Sempervivum+Ginnie_s+Delight.jpg.html
Semp 'Shirley's Joy'
http://www.sedumphotos.net/v/semps-sz/Sempervivum+Shirleys+Joy.jpg.html
Semp 'Silver Thaw'
http://www.sedumphotos.net/v/semps-sz/Sempervivum+Silver+Thaw.jpg.html

And, a couple more 'Fame' photos:
Semp 'Fame' (1)
http://www.sedumphotos.net/v/semps-fm/Sempervivum+Fame+_1_.jpg.html
...listed as Semp 'Fame' (2) (a thickened leaf monstrose form), can also be seen in the previous photo.  This looks very different than the quilled-leaf form that Jim McKenney shows.
http://www.sedumphotos.net/v/semps-fm/Sempervivum+Fame+_2_.jpg.html

Spring color is starting to show on some of the semps.  Last summer I planted a low dish-shaped planter with sempervivums and our native stone (go back to page 3 of this thread), essentially rescuing some semps and jovibarbas that were nearly lost to neglect and becoming swamped in moss.  The transplanted rosettes were all undersized, but already they are looking much better.

On the left is Jovibarba heuffelii 'Gold Bug', one of the more unusual and bright colored cultivars.  On the right is another view showing 'Gold Bug' at the top, S. zeleborii on the right, and in the forefront is S. 'More Honey', an apt name for a lovely compact cultivar that goes through many color phases.