Chromaphyto said:Here are some pictures of Sempervivum calcareum that I photographed on the Rocher du Caire (altitude 777 m/2500 feet) above Remuzat, Drôme, France, July 14, 2014.
Rocher du Caire is known to be a popular area for watching Griffon vultures, they were successfully reintroduced a few years ago. This is a very accessible unique perspective by a small road. Just 15 minutes walk to get there
Tourists therefore look to the sky to see the vultures and I look at my feet to photograph what no one is looking at: beautiful groups of Sempervivum calcareum !
Panorama at the Rocher du Caire summit
We continue on a ridge to the mountain Le Devès (altitude 1048 m). The walk is very easy and rises gradually.
After 10 minutes, you begin to encounter groups of Sempervivum calcareum more dense along the ridge.
After a moment, there are thousands of Sempervivum, 10,000 .... 20,000 ... 30,000, I don't know !
Some groups of plants are green, others red. It depends on the food and water they have at their disposal.
JungleShadows said:Lynn,
Well I certainly enjoyed the visit! It's always good to have another set of eyes look over the seedlings. Hope the little class in crossing was a help too. I think you know about pollen now and where it should go and how you have to wait until the flower is at the right stage.
The seedling that you couldn't read is a new baby from 'St. Cloud' X self. It has both tufts of hairs and lots of very prominent cilia. As you may remember from your visit, 'St. Cloud' has pale pink flowers, not the bright rosy pink flowers you see in most arachnoideum hybrids, indicating a yellow or pale flowered other parent. When you self pollinate 'St. Cloud' you begin to see some of the segregation of the traits from the other parent. Obviously 'St. Cloud' has a parent with some genes for prominent cilia as 3 of the seedlings in that group do. The one you photographed is the champ for this, however. It also has exceptional wide leaves and an unusual shade of green. Of course this seedling is only 3 months old so it will not show its true colors until next spring. Based upon the size of this plant after just 3 months I assume it;s going to be BIG.
JungleShadows said:I can tell you the story of this one.
Mina Colvin loved arachnoideum 'Tomentosum' and wanted to see what variations it might produce from seed. She grew a large number and sent a slide of the group of seedlings in our round robin that eventually became SFAN. I saw two that looked distinctive in the slide and said "pull these two out and grow them on". Those two turned out to be 'Raspberry Ice' and 'Silver Thaw', both great plants although frustrating as parents because they produce few seeds. Both grow great for me although my colony of 'Silver Thaw' looks a bit chimeric, as some of the rosettes are differently colored than the rest. Generally I would blame seedlings, but not in this case.
Kevin
JungleShadows said:I can tell you the story of this one.
Mina Colvin loved arachnoideum 'Tomentosum' and wanted to see what variations it might produce from seed. She grew a large number and sent a slide of the group of seedlings in our round robin that eventually became SFAN. I saw two that looked distinctive in the slide and said "pull these two out and grow them on". Those two turned out to be 'Raspberry Ice' and 'Silver Thaw', both great plants although frustrating as parents because they produce few seeds. Both grow great for me although my colony of 'Silver Thaw' looks a bit chimeric, as some of the rosettes are differently colored than the rest. Generally I would blame seedlings, but not in this case.
Kevin
JungleShadows said:'Ohio Burgundy' is a nice one. Ed thought it might have come from 'Cleveland Morgan' even though he grew just mixed bee seed. You don't see 'Cleveland Morgan' offered much any more because it has been superseded by others. I'm sure my 'Lipstick' has 'Cleveland Morgan' as a pollen parent as it was blooming next to the plant of 'Silverine' that was harvested for that seedling crop.
Kevin
JungleShadows said:Lynn,
Did you know that the "HEP" actually stands for "Helen E. Payne"?? Gary didn't dare name one for her so he sort of cheated and used her initials instead.
Kevin