Hello all!
I have lurked the semp forum for a few months now - taking in information and 'accidentally' growing my want (need) list of semp varieties - and felt it was time to finally drop in and introduce myself and begin posting! I will apologize in advance, as this ended up being quite a lengthy post
For me, it all started with a sad little Jade plant I picked up when we bought our first house 3 years ago this past April. The first year it sat there under the kitchen window, getting pretty much ignored until I remembered to water it, which thankfully was exactly what it wanted ;P The second year my fiance knocked it with a plate while washing dishes, and to my surprise the parts that had fallen off began their own plants. I was so mystified with this, and began reading up all I could on how this was possible. Early last year, I discovered my dad had a nicely established 'Crosby's Compact' Jade that was actually flowering, and took a few clippings to propagate back at home. After rooting those and watching them grow I began looking into other succulents to add to the mix for variety and to fill my growing propagation interest. I got hooked hard, but quickly learned that many of the soft succulents I loved were not as happy having to live indoors during the North Carolina winters. I began branching into aloe hybrids and a few haworthia, but was still sad that none of these plants which I had come to enjoy could live outside year round here or find a permanent place in my garden.
I've never been much for the traditional gardens that are typically kept in NC. One of the first things I did after buying our house was tearing out all the Lilyturf in the front bed and planting Lavender, Rosemary and Sage. I also planted a few Hydrangea, which while more common, no one around my area really seemed to have in their yards and I loved the big puffy blooms.
Near the end of last year though I discovered semps. Well - that's not really correct. I had seen photos of them before, but was always turned off by them as I have a big aversion to cacti because of their spines, and had gotten it in my mind that the cilla on sempervivum were just as spiky and unwelcoming, especially the arachnoideum types. I also assumed given my climate and that they were succulents, that they would have to be mainly indoor plants, so I just wrote them off - that is until I learned that they are actually hardy in my zone year round, and that they were not mean little pokey plants ;)
I tentatively ordered a few from Mountain Crest after educating myself as much as possible on how best to plant them, what would keep them happy, and above all - how to make sure I wouldn't kill them accidentally ;P. They arrived, and I fell in love. This was the plant I had been looking for - and to think I had almost completely written them off! I immediately ordered a few more, planted them in temporary planters and began laying out plans for my first bed. Thank goodness I am a little ocd - I made sure each was neatly grouped and labeled from the start - as I quickly discovered that without a label and remembering what it was that they would otherwise become happy little 'noids' lol!
I had been looking up each semp to see the various color changes it went through before selecting ones I wanted, and stumbled across this site - a true wealth of information from others growing semps. After lurking and reading for a while, I finally created a profile last week and loved how easy it was to use as a resource to keep track of the ones I already had and those I wanted to track down. I've since purchased a few more and discovered that the person I had bought them from was a member here as well - goldfinch4 - and what beautiful semps they are that I received!
And so here I am, finally making my intro post as I am eager to join in the fun and conversation! My first two beds are planned out, but I have been trying to wait out the crazy rain and storms we've been having the past few weeks to get them in the ground, as well as hunting for a place where I can purchase larger garden rocks for around their new 'homes'. So sadly no photos from me yet as they are still in temporary planters but hopefully very soon as it looks like the worst of the crazy rains are behind us here *knocking on wood*.
I have been planning for my soil mix to be cactus soil, perlite, paver sand (the bigger grittier particles), and pea gravel but was curious if perhaps given the awful clay we have deeper down here if maybe something like turface or pumice might be a good amendment to consider, especially with the extra rain we have had here lately. I originally planned to use 'slightly larger than pea gravel' sized stones for a top dressing, but am now instead trying to track down chicken grit or like sized granite gravel for that as I like the appearance of that more and feel it will fit better underneath them to help keep their 'heads' dry.
Anyway, now that I have written a mini novel of an introduction I will wrap this up ;) Happy to be here and to hopefully becoming part of the community!
- Wren
to the site. So glad you decided to post, so much better with more sempers. Sounds like you have done lots of reading on the threads. It is a challenge to get the soil just right for your climate. I have 4 raised beds and 5 sheep troughs and finally in the 4th bed the soil seems right. We don't all have the beautiful soil the Oregon group use. Looking forward to some pictures and glad you posted.
the more information the better! Neat that you are from North Carolina. One of my grandmothers was from the coast of NC, and cried when she first arrived in California because everything was so dry and brown. 
it is very easy to get addicted to sempervivum. I only had Sempervivum tectorum and a few mystery ones, and all it took was finding Mountain Crest Gardens and some other places for me to buy whatever caught my eye. Funny you mention being turned away by the cilia - I remember seeing an arachnoideum once when I was little and not wanting to touch it because I thought it was infested by spiders 
if our climate was cooler, I suspect sempervivums would grow happily here in our soil, mostly deep rocky sand with some underlying sandy clay in places.
and of course, I failed to ever introduce myself and welcome new peeps as a consequence---so, for all ya all that I've never 'met' and 'welcomed'--oops, sorry and Hi, and you don't know me either 
despite my evil clay
From me you have enough for one ticket! Good luck and welcome! 
your arachnoideum story made me laugh 
Your intro tells me you are already wise in the ways. 
