My Living Pictures

I call them Living Pictures. When I started to make them, there were no others to look at except for the few I had seen near Carmel Calif. in 1991. The first one I saw had a jade plant growing out from it and I thought: “Gee, when this jade gets bigger, it will be growing perpendicular to the frame and look peculiar when the frame is hung up.” I thought then that succulents with less stem should be used. That is when I decided that Sempervivum would be my plant of choice for making my version of living pictures.

This article will not be a tutorial on how to make a vertical frame. Neither will it give instructions on how to plant one. Instead, I want to use it to share experiences and lessons that helped me accomplish what I wanted in making my own Living Pictures.

My goal was to showcase the beauty, form, and texture of Sempervivums, achieve aesthetically pleasing plantings, and have healthy plants displayed despite scarcity of water, high altitude, inclement weather, and fauna interferences.

The majority of Vertical Frames, Living Art, Living Pictures, Living Wall, etc. that I have seen appear to incorporate a mixture of tender succulents (i.e Echeveria, Sedum, Crassula, Senecio, etc.) and Sempervivums. I‘ve always favored the usage of Sempervivums only.  Though the overall look may be somewhat predictable, I like the simpler maintenance and cleaner look that can be achieved when Sempervivums (semps) are planted together.

Sempervivums as a group are similar in their shape and form, and variation occurs mainly in color and texture. This combination works well in creating a consistent low profile of the frame surface. In regard to maintenance, semps don’t differ much in weight, length, watering needs, sun exposure, compatibility, and hardiness. At the time I was concentrating on making frames, my environment initially consisted of 7000 feet in altitude, intense sun, lack of rainfall, and very dry conditions, with fauna thirsty for the water stored in my succulent plants.

The desire to incorporate a water-saving strategy into my lifestyle forced me to decide on a no-frills approach to maintaining viable, but visually pleasing succulent plantings.

For Living Pictures, my design considerations focused on several aspects: size and scale, color and texture, growth pattern and rate.

Size and scale - I see most semps as small, medium, large or “too big” for my frames. I use small semps for small frames, larger semps for larger frames. Remember, just because a semp is small doesn’t mean it will stay small over time. I always check for the adult size of a particular chick before I plant because you don’t want to be surprised by small chicks growing to be large-sized chicks and throwing off the chosen scale for the frame. That’s not to say that one can’t mix sizes, but one might not want a small frame accommodating only 3 large semps, or maybe one would?

Color and Texture - Those in the know are familiar with color changes, which include degrees of darkening, deepening, or marbling throughout the changing seasons. Texture variation includes smooth, hairy, ciliated, fuzzy, and succulence of leaf.

Growth Patterns and Rates - Some semps tend to mound, some have rollers, some cluster very closely, and some send out chicks on very long stolons. Some groups grow quickly, some slowly, and yet both rates affect the continuity and cohesiveness of the intended design.

The following are just a few things to consider before planting frames.

My constructed frames had a track for sliding in wire to hold back the soil and to plant the semps through. In regard to chicken wire versus hardware cloth, I find chicken wire more flexible to use because the standard holes are bigger than those of the small hardware cloth and have a nicer shape than those of the larger hardware cloth. It is also easy to clip and bend the wire to make a larger opening for root balls or large roots. The thicker hardware cloth is harder to manipulate.

There are different brands and kinds of sphagnum moss out there, but not all types of sphagnum moss are created equal. As one ATP member (drdawg) once posted:

“I generally chose to purchase sphagnum moss from New Zealand, since it has always been the type I like to use, specifically long-fibered sphagnum. I think my moss would be labeled ‘extra-long fibered’ sphagnum. Some of the sphagnum found in big-box stores, such as Lowe's, has been chopped up and the fibers are not very long. The longer the fiber the easier it is to wrap or form…”

You don’t necessarily have to order moss from New Zealand, but a little sleuthing could connect you with the optimal kind to use. I prefer moss that can be manually teased out to allow ease in laying the moss evenly in equal thickness across the chicken wire.

Soil of choice is usually determined by its availability, success of cultivation, and/or the preferences of the gardener.

As to the process of packing an assembled frame, there are a few things to keep in mind. Additional soil may still need to be added after the initial packing of soil into the frame. If not packed evenly, soil can start to shift downward when the frame is hung and you will get holes. So, I use my tool (sometimes my finger) to push the soil to empty spaces or toward the sides of the frame to make sure the soil is distributed evenly and adequately. Don’t pack too tight, but not too loose either. Remember, you still need to push through for holes to accommodate semps that already have roots.

I plant calloused semp cuttings and rooted semps that may have small to medium root balls. If planting calloused semp cuttings, I use small florist pins to stabilize the semp so that the heads don't fall out of the frame when hung vertically. I try to anchor securely by inserting the pin at an angle, catching part of the plant and pushed into as much moss and soil as possible. I have also found that not all semps root and establish themselves at the same rate, so the pins help to hold them in the frames till they establish. Sometimes I don't even remove the pins until much later when I have discovered that the other neighboring semps have grown over the hidden pin.

I usually plant my semps into packed soil that I have sprayed damp with a spray water bottle. When I am finished with my newly planted frame, I spray new plantings with a solution that helps root formation and foliage health for the first week or so. Afterward, I feed the frame semps at the same time that I feed my other succulents, once a month or so during spring and summer, but not in winter. I water the frames with a bottle or watering can or gentle hose dowsing, depending on the climate the frames are in.

Sometimes as part of a design, I want to plant semps in an orderly, non-random fashion. To help achieve clean lines in the design, I use long sticks or stiff wires to divide the frame into sections. The sticks serve to guide my planting scheme.

A few points about Seasonal Care:

Pests: Invasive problems can include bird behavior, including something I call “tasting pecks" and serious pulling of the frame moss during the nesting season. Insects like to nest and secrete where they  live hidden in the tightly arranged semps' leaves. They are mostly mealy bugs and aphids that suck juice out of the plants. Rodents eat and pull out semps during the very dry months. I kept my semps' pots and frames off the ground to prevent exposure to animals looking for "succulent" plants to quench their thirst.

Sun: Fulfilling sun requirements can be tricky. I try to plant semps with common sun exposure requirements together. I found out the hard way that semps do differ in their sun exposure needs. Full sun exposure at 7000ft altitude is not the same as full sun at sea level. Some semps do better in partial shade than in blazing sun.

From my experience, I know that the light exposure on a frame is never optimal, so I find that eventually some of the semps will start to "lean" toward the sun, sunny-side leaves will grow taller than the leaves on the other side, and on the whole will become asymmetric in the way they look as a group. This is why I will put two hangers (one on a vertical edge and the other on a horizontal edge) on the back of the frame so that I can hang-rotate the frame occasionally to even out the growth. Even when a frame is not hanging, it would be a good idea to rotate it regularly to promote even growth. I also find that when a newly planted frame is hung outside, morning sun or filtered sunlight with afternoon shade is helpful in establishing the plants in their new frame.

Watering: More thorough watering is needed in hotter climates. Water can be reduced starting late fall or when temps drop. I believe in a good soaking for frames. They should be put down flat, watered thoroughly, left to drain for 10-30 minutes, and then hung back up. I feel bottle spraying does not give enough of a soak and tends to enable water to sit on the leaves, where the full sun at high altitude can burn the wet leaves.

Seasons: During harsh winters, frames can be taken down, laid on the ground atop hay or mulch, and covered with frost cloth. They would still be watered, but less frequently.  One measure I had adopted for semps before harsh winter's arrival in high altitudes was applying a foliar spray to protect the leaves in October and November.

<><><><><><><><><>

To achieve a healthy and visually pleasing presentation of sempervivums in my frames, my approach to ideas and techniques was driven by my environment and my expectations. What I couldn't accomplish would set me up for tweaking my expectations and planting a new frame. Just as my growing Living Pictures are never finished, so the desire to make a new one never disappears. Continual experimentation, expectations, and experience are facets of my work that are still happily unpredictable and evolving.