It is unreal how great they look after such a long journey!! Here is another photo with pot number 2. The rock garden is the next project to get started!!

The pot on the right is the new one with Chicken Grit. We found it intown at a country store. Very cool.

You have planted them so beautifully Andrew.
Just one problem, they will all be increasing by this fall and won't have enough room in the containers.
Like these. Last fall each one of the two clumps was a single rosette.

Nice color Lynn. What variety?

Nice color! Looks like flames shooting out of the middle.

Good Morning John! We have to quit cross posting at this time of the day.

S. 'Starshine'. I has become one of my favorites. I got it last year. It is a heavy producer of offsets and get amazing color changes through the seasons.
Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum 'Starshine')

You two don't have this one?

All 3 of us!

On my way to work.

Nope, I don't have that one Lynn. I'll put it on my want list for a trade next year.....if I don't lose my list before then!

I have Starian but not Starshine.

Lynn, thanks! I would love to have the overcrowding problem with the semps. So far I am doing good just to keep them alive. I would consider your picture above a great accomplishment!!

Good morning all. It is cloudy and still outdoors this morning. Oh, it just started raining. We got rain. My semps will be so happy. So far it is just a soft, misty kind of rain.
The little seedlings will probably take another burst of growth, they so love the rain.

Chris add it to your list here at ATP.

It's been awhile since the three of us have been on here about the same time.

Andrew I think you will do just fine with your semps. Just don't over water them. To much water in your heat can be lethal. I forgot to ask you, do you get freezing weather in the winter?

Lynn, the winters in Jax are very mild, we may get a few days where the morning lows will be below freezing. I beleive they will love our weather from October-June. July, August and September are very hot and humid.

Here are the final pictures of the bed we made in the mountains of NC were we come often to see my wife's parents. We are hoping this bed will become the "mother ship" for all the semps as they should LOVE this climate. Today there is cloudy with highs around 80 and lows in the 60s. It stays very cool here during the summers and the winters are worse than Jacksonville but really not that harsh. I hope they take off. We are very excited to see how they do!!

Here is a before picture the Semps went in with my mother in law getting everying ready. She has a wonderful garden here where I started some Semps earlier this year. They are doing GREAT, although one already is starting to bloom but has lots of small plants taking off.

Here is the after pic with all the Semps!



The large red one is UNREAL!! I promise to get the names organized on each of them shortly when we get some time!

If I loose any in Jax the hope is the ones in the mountains of NC will thrive and do well.

We will keep you updated.

Thanks

Andrew

Very nice Andrew! Between your mother-in-law and you, you should have a nice collection in no time!

Andrew the photos are wonderful. The semps should really love the NC weather, they will appreciate having a real winter also. The experiment is off to a grand start.
Love the rock garden.

Well, we are back from heaven to the 100dg. Florida heat. Do any of you know if plants will benefit from more circulation in the form of a outdoor fan? Just thinking if this would help with the humidity. Most likely it would just move around the same air but I thought I would ask and see if anyone has heard anything about this. All the Semps here in Jax are getting by but turning mostly green (most are loosing bright colors they had when I got them). Definitely not the growing time of year for them here. In NC, I could not believe how much the Semps had grown in just 1 month and the colors, wow! They are cool but a little wet in the mountains which must be good for color and growth!

Also, as a last resort I have thought about bringing them inside where it is cool and dry but I have no windows that get light. Going back to my aquarium days, I could use a high intensity grow bulb like a metal halide to get them some artificial light over the hot months.

No matter what, I am going to make this work!

I will keep the updates coming.

Thanks

Andrew

A fan will increase evaporation, especially on a damp porous surface such as concrete. If plants are fading, then too much hot sun. They need some shade to protect them.

Evaporation cools the plants. Shade keeps them from heating up.

If cool in the house, do not water at all. Plants will stop growing but will be ok a long time.

So, the fan increasing evaporation would be a good thing, correct?

Lynn, I left the pot with your Semps in NC to give them time to adjust. My wife's parents will bring them too me in a few weeks when they come in town. The colors on your Semps were very vivid and bright. I hate to watch them fade. I am considering the fan option or just bringing them inside at night. I can't do this easily for all the Semps (bring them inside at night) but it would be no problem for the bowl. I think this will be the first thing I try as the indoor lighting idea may not go over well with the wife

Let the experiment begin.

I don't understand why you would bring the plants in for just the night. Is that when it rains? I'm assuming that night time is coolest, as the sun is away. It would make more sense to me to take the pot in during the day when the sun is strongest.

If you are getting lots of rain, then the fan might be a good idea. I do think, however, that the best place to start would be to set up some sun (and rain) shade. A fan can be useful for drying overly wet semps quickly, but please be careful of electrical shock, especially in damp or wet conditions.

A fan to lower the temperature will not do any good if the plants are in the sun. The sun will heat the plants faster than the fan can carry the heat away. The fan would be useful in cooling and drying plants in shade.

IMHO