Sempervivum and Jovibarba

[cohan]

Coahn - If moss isn't dealt with quickly in this climate it will swamp everything. Witness my neighbor's garage roof, northside.  He went on sabbatical and came back to this.
johnw

okay--it wasnt apparent in the photos that it was doing the semps any harm--just seemed to be around them and not over them or anything--soi i assume that means you have been removing it all along?
moss grows here more or less anywhere shady, including under grasses etc,  and will grow to some degree in more sunny spots, but i've never had the impression that it is overwhelming any other plants;certainly in the woodlands where it is most prevalent, everything grows out of moss in much of the habitat (naturally those species are more adapted to that than alpine plants might be) ; of course this is a drier climate than yours most years; in fact we have been very dry this spring, finally getting some precip in the last couple of days, and possibly this week--we'll see if it amounts to much.. in fact i think my semps outdoors will be happy for the moisture, after i was worried about them (in sunk pots) being too soggy when the snow melted not long ago!

[Graham Catlow]

Hi,
John my first instinct on the photo was that it didn't need anything doing to it, but the photo of the garage roof sems to indicate otherwise. It is still a good looking trough though.

Some of you may have seen some photos I posted on the General Forum under Harlow Carr, (the most northerly of the four RHS Gardens), of the alpine house.
Below are some photos of the Sempervivum they have in the house.

Graham

[TheOnionMan]

looks great overall--if anything just a little empty in the front..
i'm still not sure i understand the problem with moss--it doesnt seem to have hurt the plants, and i think it looks great around the plants, so what is the issue?? when i planted my big pot with semps and sedum, i planted bits of moss on purpose, though they haven't really taken off yet...lol

A late return to this thread.  Cohan, I photographed a couple plants in a trough that needs redoing because of moss, just salvaged a plant of Talinum 'Zoe' that stopped blooming about 5 years ago, as it is totally encapsulated in moss.  I'm not a moss guy, and don't now anything about the various species, but this is a dense, hard moss that grows under fairly dry conditions.  The hard moss mass is about 2" (5 cm) deep, so dense that it was a job to extract the Talinum from it.  I have uploaded a photo where I have started to pull away the edge of the moss.

In another planting, the same container with three semps I've shown previously, the same hard moss has basically created a "wall" that prevents Sempervivum ciliosum var. borisii from advancing another further.  As a test, I have removed a narrow barrier of moss, to see if this semp will finally expand to reach the nearby rock.  Once again, removing the moss is very difficult, it literally adheres to all surfaces of whatever it touches.

[cohan]

looks great overall--if anything just a little empty in the front..
i'm still not sure i understand the problem with moss--it doesnt seem to have hurt the plants, and i think it looks great around the plants, so what is the issue?? when i planted my big pot with semps and sedum, i planted bits of moss on purpose, though they haven't really taken off yet...lol

A late return to this thread.  Cohan, I photographed a couple plants in a trough that needs redoing because of moss, just salvaged a plant of Talinum 'Zoe' that stopped blooming about 5 years ago, as it is totally encapsulated in moss.  I'm not a moss guy, and don't now anything about the various species, but this is a dense, hard moss that grows under fairly dry conditions.  The hard moss mass is about 2" (5 cm) deep, so dense that it was a job to extract the Talinum from it.  I have uploaded a photo where I have started to pull away the edge of the moss.

In another planting, the same container with three semps I've shown previously, the same hard moss has basically created a "wall" that prevents Sempervivum ciliosum var. borisii from advancing another further.  As a test, I have removed a narrow barrier of moss, to see if this semp will finally expand to reach the nearby rock.  Once again, removing the moss is very difficult, it literally adheres to all surfaces of whatever it touches.

very interesting, mark..i'll be watching plantings here over time to see if anything like that develops..never seen or heard of it til now... the closest i can think of is that there might be some clingy moss that grew on rocks in old overgrown parts of rock gardens..

[christian pfalz]

helli,
sempervivum arachnoideum ssp. on lava tufa...

and on a tufa wall...

and a lot of species in pot culture

regards
chris

[TheOnionMan]

helli,
sempervivum arachnoideum ssp. on lava tufa...
and on a tufa wall...
and a lot of species in pot culture
regards
chris

Chris, fantastic!  Growing out of tufa they look great, but the eclectic collection of earthernware pottery is truly appealing and artistic, setting off the semps effectively; inspiring new planting ideas .  Do you protect those pots in winter?  Here, they would mostly split and break over winter due to freezing/thawing conditions.

PS.  really like your oncos and dryland plants (acantholimons, astragalus, etc) shown in other SRGC threads.

[christian pfalz]

hi marc,
thank you for the flowers  , no winter protection, the pots are on this place all over the year....i´ve got a big yucca and agave field, only rain protection in winter, i´ve you see it, i must opened a new thread...
greetings
chris

[ruweiss]

All the Semps are now in their brightest colours

[cohan]

hi marc,
thank you for the flowers  , no winter protection, the pots are on this place all over the year....i´ve got a big yucca and agave field, only rain protection in winter, i´ve you see it, i must opened a new thread...
greetings
chris

really nice plantings! like mark, i cannot leave pots exposed here--not just for the pots, but the plants will not survive mostly in small pots here, too cold...

[cohan]

All the Semps are now in their brightest colours

really nice, rudi! i love the hanging pail i'd like to do some plantings like this, and i might, but i will have to sink them in the ground for winter...

[Graham Catlow]

Hi Chris,
Great plantings both in the tufa and the pots - especially the pots!  A really nice selecton of pots with the plants and the pots complimenting each other.
Semps. are amazing plants.
Graham

[Ragged Robin]

All the Semps are now in their brightest colours

really nice, rudi! i love the hanging pail i'd like to do some plantings like this, and i might, but i will have to sink them in the ground for winter...

I agree with Cohan Rudi, a really lovely example of how to show off Semps and they obviously like their home in a hanging bucket 

[TheOnionMan]

All the Semps are now in their brightest colours

Rudi, great plantings, I too like the rusty bucket planter.  In the last photo, is the cultivar name indeed 'Shampoon' or is it 'Shampoo', never heard of either, but 'Shampoo' is an english word, so was wondering.  In that cultivar, it is certainly one of the best webby semps I've seen, love the tiny white webby chicks all around.

[ruweiss]

Dear friends,
thank you for the friendly comments.
During the cold season I hang the pail off and place it on the floor, if you live in a colder region it is safer
to dig it into the soil until springtime comes.
The cultivar Shampon (Shampoo in your language) was raised by the bavarian nurseryman Volkmar Schara
(www.sempervivumgarten.de) and named after the stuff for washing the hairs.
In my experience I can recommend to everybody to sow out own seeds and you will be amazed by the
result. Good  luck!!

[Graham Catlow]

I nearly put this in the Moan Moan Moan thread.
Just when S. 'Lion King' was starting to look its best for this year, and next year I think it would have been superb the main rosette decides to flower 
Under usual circumstances I would take the flowering rosette out so that the rest can bulk up and replace the flowering one as quickly as possible. I don't grow sempervivums for their flowers. But as nothing is going to replace this huge rosette for a couple of years I have decided to leave this one. I suppose I'm a litttle interested to see what it looks like and I'm sure some forumists will also like to see it. I will post a photo when it is in full bloom.

Graham