Sempervivum

[Jan Tholhuijsen]

Sempervivum an undervalued plant. There are hundreds of different cultivars and in a trough, in the full sun it is a pleasure to see. They are easy to propagate, by taking rosettes and simply putting them in a different place. I have come to appreciate them more and more.

Juniperus communis 'Compressa'
Orostachys thyrsiflora
Sedum pilosum
Sempervivum armenum
Sempervivum arachnoideum 'Christel'
Sempervivum CH Walliske Alpy Saas Fee
Sempervivum 'Borotin'



Sempervivum 'Sprite'
Sempervivum 'Wollaus'
Sempervivum arachnoideum subsp. doellianum
Sempervivum pumipumilum var. techensis
Sempervivum 'Lilac Time'
Sempervivum 'Voodoo'
Sempervivum x barbulatum Schott
Sempervivum montanum 'Rubrum'
Sempervivum pumilum 'Album'
Sempervivum Wild collected -Col du Rosalend-
Sempervivum montanum ssp. stiriacum



Sempervivum 'Seerosenstern'
Sempervivum 'Picos de Europa'
Sempervivum arachnoideum ssp arachnoideum 'Graubunden'
Sempervivum wild coll. -Gyadikvank arinenia-
Sempervivum -wild coll -Col du Pourtalet-
Sempervivum montanum cf heterophyllum
Sempervivum erythcalum 'Rila Pass'
Sempervivum cantabricum
Sempervivum tectorum var. boutignyanum

[Maggi Young]

Striking examples of how  good these plants will look in a trough, Jan.

[ashley]

That's a nice collection of sempervivums Jan.  Your troughs look great too

[TheOnionMan]

Jan, glad you started this topic, was thinking about starting a Sempervivum topic myself. Now that I took early retirement at 62 (I'm soon to be 64 in June), I have time to return to one of my true loves, hardy succulents, of which Sempervivum is prime. In the past 31 years at my current location in New England, USA (specifically the State of Massachusetts), I lost most of my Sempervivum collection, had about 200 cultivars.  So I'm jumpstarting a new collection with intent to hybridize, ordering approx 160-170 species/cultivars between 6 different specialty semp vendors.  My final order of 25 more cultivars arrives this coming week.

If one speaks German, there are some excellent Sempervivum reference web sites, for English, the best is the Sempervivum and Jovibarba Forum on National Gardening Association (NGA, a huge USA based assemblages of 102 forums).  The semp forum is intrinsically tied to two databases, an extensive Sempervivum database, and a separate Jovibarba database (was started before Jovibarba genus was absorbed into Sempervivum). The members are from around the globe, but some benefits such as plant swapping are restricted to USA only, where one can create plant "have" and "want" lists automatically in the database.

Your mountainous Sempervivum planters are awesome!  I'm in process of creating a "Sempervivumry" (dedicated Semp garden), so draw inspiration from troughs such as yours, and drawing from the taxonomic naming references built into the Semp & Jov forum on NGA.  Take a look at the Sempervivum Database here:
https://garden.org/plants/group/sempervivum/

If you'd like to join, use this link (no cost):
http://garden.org/users/join/AntMan01/

As I rebuild my collection, I take in the orders and pot them up, until I build my dedicated sempervivumry landscape area, it's fun watching the new semps settle in, and start taking on color and rosette shape transition.

[Jan Tholhuijsen]

Hello Mark.
Thank you for your response.
My interest was awakened when I visited the garden of Jan Soucek in the Czech Republic.
He has a very large collection of sempervivums. Has written a book about it, but in the Czech language.
I am not a connoisseur, they are just beautiful grateful and most are easy plants. Although there are also difficult plants in between.

Here is my list of sempervivums that I have. 5 are dead. (dood)  https://drive.google.com/file/d/13I3i7197IRBUu25BxnGDldLMLl4iiCII/view?usp=sharing

Jan Soucek  facebook profile is https://www.facebook.com/honza.soucek.94
The garden page is https://www.facebook.com/honza.soucek.94/media_set?set=a.975965735773627.1073741945.100000806295582&type=3

 The czech database (also in English) is  https://tinyurl.com/bioLib-sempervivum

Photos are part of the garden of Jan Soucek of the sempervivum.

[Graham Catlow]

Hi I wonder if anyone can identify this sempevivum for me. As you can see from the photo the label has broken and left me with only part of the specific name (ending in 'cum').
The length of the specific name is clearly shorter than the word Sempervivum and to my calculation is probably missing six letters.

[Graham Catlow]

Its caucasicum 

[Graham Catlow]

Some of my more established pans.


S. atalanticum


S. 'Lion King'


S. arachnoideum


S. octopodes apelatum

[Graham Catlow]

And some more.


S. calcareum


Another S. calcareum


Jovibarba hirta neilrichii

[Leucogenes]

Today I had the time to photograph some Sempervivum and Sedum. I love this variety of colours and shapes...

[Leucogenes]

...more

[Leucogenes]

...more

[FrazerHenderson]

An interesting illustrated article on Sempervivum at https://www.cactusandsucculentreview.org.uk/assets/downloads/2020/csr-march-2020.pdf

[ruweiss]

These Jovibarba heuffeli Hybrids are not everybodys taste, the color gets more
greenish later in the year

[Tristan_He]

I can't recall seeing any images of Semps from seed, so here is a snap of my potful of S. arachnoideum subsp. tomentosum.