Sempervivum and Jovibarba

[Lvandelft]

The trick with semps and jovibarbas, is to find those sites that can be considered reliable web resources.  They should be fairly comprehensive and give pertinent information, such as the hybridizer, year of introduction, brief description, and several photos of plants grown exposed to the weather taken during various times of the year (greenhouse semps tend to turn green and lax, hardly looking anything like their true selves).

Here is a site (in German only) where you may see lots of foto's and there is a page with downloads.
http://www.sempervivumgarten.de/index.htm 

On top you see: Pflanzenlisten/Downloads, then try :
2007 Sempervivum-Liste, complete collection with origin!

Enjoy.

[TheOnionMan]

Here is a site (in German only) where you may see lots of foto's and there is a page with downloads.
http://www.sempervivumgarten.de/index.htm 

On top you see: Pflanzenlisten/Downloads, then try :
2007 Sempervivum-Liste, complete collection with origin!

Enjoy.

Luit, that's an AWESOME web site, thanks.  High quality images and jovs and sempervivums to delight the senses... FANTASTIC!

[Graham Catlow]

Luit
I was nearly late for work this morning after opening that website. It's amazing
I'm about to go back in for a couple of hours of browsing. I hope the ones I like are 'Sold out' or it could cost me a lot.
Graham

[FrazerHenderson]

Graham

It's a shame the Sempervivum Society folded in the 80s with all the recent interest in the plants I'm sure that it would be a success - perhaps you should get it back on its feet!!

Frazer

[Graham Catlow]

Graham

It's a shame the Sempervivum Society folded in the 80s with all the recent interest in the plants I'm sure that it would be a success - perhaps you should get it back on its feet!!

Frazer

Frazer,
I am an enthusiast with a small collection and no real knowledge, so I wouldn't be the right person to do that. Not enough time either!
I would join if someone else wanted to start the society.
Graham

[TheOnionMan]

Just made a new semp planter, this task taken not because of a design inspiration, 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, and photo #3 for a key map:

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.

[cohan]

nice work, mark, this should look smashing in no time at all! i do envy you the stone!
i was thinking about semps today, too, took a few shots yesterday--mine are starting to tighten up already (not that most ever open up much in my climate) and ready themselves for winter, but i put together a series of one pot which holds a number of lost label plants i received last year from a grower in europe..note :this was never meant to be a 'designed' planting, just a place to grow the tiny offsets till i had  a place to put them in the ground (still couldn't resist sticking in a few rocks!)--well, despite much work, i still havent finished the rock garden(s) so, the pots will very soon be sunk into the soil again..
first shot, in july of 09, shows the tiny etiolated offsets soon after arriving after a week or two in the mail!
second shot in late oct 07, pot already sunk, with some branches laid for shelter (for this and many other pots)
third shot
fourth shot 2 days ago--filled in quite a lot, eh?
these (along with 2 more smaller pots of lost labels, a large and smaller pot of named plants also received as offsets from overseas last year, and a couple purchased locally) will nearly all be going in the ground whenever i finally have a place to plant them..though i do like the look of them in pots too, so i will likely stick some bits back in pots of some sort...

don't try too hard to match individual plants between the views--i haven't got the shots aligned exactly alike (look at the rocks to orient if needed...lol);
as mentioned, these were received as lost label plants from a very serious collector, so i assume she has good reason for not attaching names to these, and i will not be attempting to name them, so no guesses needed or wished for

[TheOnionMan]

Cohan, a nice succession from early planting to a fine looking pot full of semps.  What I find interesting in your planter, is how each semp among the mixed cultivars is taking on good form and color, each a jewel unto itself, your selection of a prominent pink-and-pearly quartz rock fits in with that jewel effect that semps are so good at achieving.

I have an old metal wheelbarrow that I was going to dispose of, but now thinking of making a semp planter out it, the wheelbarrow parked someplace in the garden.  The hard part is finding just the right spot for such a scenario, as well as anticipating what my wife will think when she sees it

[cohan]

Cohan, a nice succession from early planting to a fine looking pot full of semps.  What I find interesting in your planter, is how each semp among the mixed cultivars is taking on good form and color, each a jewel unto itself, your selection of a prominent pink-and-pearly quartz rock fits in with that jewel effect that semps are so good at achieving.

I have an old metal wheelbarrow that I was going to dispose of, but now thinking of making a semp planter out it, the wheelbarrow parked someplace in the garden.  The hard part is finding just the right spot for such a scenario, as well as anticipating what my wife will think when she sees it

thanks, mark! i must give full credit to the plants themselves, since obviously in their tiny, pale and etiolated planting state i had little idea how they would look so i just spaced them out and grabbed a couple of pretty rocks to fill some space...lol
interstingly, i have a couple old wheelbarrows i was thinking of doing the same with! one regular size, and one tiny one that was mine when i was little, i think, and later 'used' by one of my nephews its a bit trickier for me, since i'd need to sink them for winter (i wonder if the big one would be big enough to stay exposed, but so high off the ground? or maybe i could put them in a shed over winter and see if that helps enough... might be a good experiment, but not with a whole (full size) wheelbarrow of semps in it!....
might help your wife if you show her some finished images of the fun plantings folks have done with novelty planters...lol also, i think a full sized wheelbarrow, if left on its supports-might look best in a bed of perennials or small shrubs that come up to the near/below the rim of the barrow.... and not exactly hide, but soften the wheel and supports....

[Graham Catlow]

Mark and Cohan,
Two nice selections.
Cohan - quite a diverse selection and bulking up quickly.

Graham

[TheOnionMan]

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.

[Lvandelft]

Mark, if you need some more inspiration for things out of function

[Gail]

Those are wonderful Luit!

[TheOnionMan]

Now that's what I call a plant bed!  Such sempervivum fun.  My wife would definitely divorce me if I had such a plant bed in the yard .

[cohan]

graham--tks--i cant wait to get some in the ground!

mark--good luck with the planting and the wife 

luit--cool plantings--is that bed in your garden i don't see any sand.....