Hi all!
I'm so excited to be gardening this year as we moved from an apartment to a rental house. It is on a big lot for Victoria but has been neglected completely for many years, Now that we have carved out a veggie garden in the back I can start working on semp beds :)
I'm posting today mostly to share a recent joy, I joined the cactus and succulent society last month and just went to a lovely open garden. The owner had so many different kinds of sedum, sempervivum, and other lovely plants. He also had a generous free table stacked with 'Big Blue' semps which he offered me a tray full of! I only have a handful of varieties right now (no big blue) and most of them are tiny babies so these are a huge addition to my garden in terms of numbers as well. And as I am a recent university graduate working on my own company and living on scraps I could never have bought so many!


(some of them are even flowering!)


(on my succulent nursery table)

My first project is the rubble wall I built along the fence. This is technically our driveway and I think it might be paved way down there but it is covered in so many layers of large rocks and sand.


(The wall. Seems to get around 4 hours of direct sun a day this time of year but bright all day)


It is going to take time to fill in and flush out and I'm not done extending and fattening the wall either but it will be nice to look at from the kitchen window when I'm done If anyone has any tips on varieties that would thrive and proliferate quick there so i can move babies around I'd sure appreciate them!
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Wow, Chris what a spectacular rock garden that is going to be. I love it already. Any of the semps and hardy sedum will do well in there, and will colonize quickly. Maybe the tinier types in the upper levels, larger more to the bottom? Mixing colors and textures throughout for eye appeal?

It looks like you might have a few tender type succulents in the photo above, they won't make it through winter. But you could arrange niches to set the pots down into the rocks, would be easy to lift them and take indoors for winter.

You have a great place in Canada to get new semps from http://www.drought-smart-plant...
She has an amazing assortment of wonderful semps and other types of succulents.

Your Blue Boy is wonderful, one of my favorites.

Thanks Lynn for the kind comments and advice! Drought smart plants looks wonderful I know where the contents of my change box is going for sure I still don't really have any 'tiny' semps so ill have to pick up this collection when the 2013 order is in stock http://www.drought-smart-plant... . Sadly sold out this year :(
I got most of the plants on the table from a raffle and am not sure what to do with all of them. I'm not trusting anything other then the semps and sedum outside in the winter that's for sure. Need to look at nice ways of displaying the pots at different levels in the wall as you said though, I think they would look really good in there and colour things up a bit more.

This morning when I went out to check on everyone I found a curious deer had eaten 3 of my flower heads clean off! I'm surprised they went for them as there is so much else growing right now. Could be worse though and at least I have a few more buds that will hopefully get ignored now that I've hidden the pot.

Hi Chris !

I thought I had written a response yesterday but see it's not here....must've hit the wrong button and thought I finished it but didn't. Guess the heat is getting to my brain!

Anyway, nice to have you here! That area will make a beautiful rock garden. Looking forward to seeing pictures when you've got it planted. Those blasted deer. I've never had them bother my semps but they do like to eat my lily buds occasionally.

Blue Boy is a nice one. You're pretty lucky to get an entire tray for free!

Maybe the deer are just trying to help you get more offsets by pruning the bloom stalk off.

Wow, Drought Smart Plants is sold out for the year? Or just on the small semps?

Looks like Drought Smart Plants still has some plugs but not sure if i can choose which, sold out of all their semp collections though. I might have to give them a call and see what they can do for me as i'm sure there are still plants somewhere in the back ;)

Thanks for the welcome Goldfinch! I'm hoping to plant up the big blues and split up some of my pots today so I'll post a picture when things are in. I'll probably be moving the big blues around a lot as i get other species but for now it will be great to just have so many plants on the wall. Also I heard that about deer and daylilies was told not to bother here but still might have to plant some :)
They sure took my flower heads off cleanly which I appreciate!

Hi Chris, what a great project - I've had lots of fun with my rock wall project - wait until you get a family of Northern Alligator lizards in there - watch for the cat!

Contact me on my site, and I'll see what I can do - I do have lots in the back

She still has some Chris. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks Blue Fox I just sent you a message on your site!
I've been plugging away at the wall but got a little busy and in this heat wave watering takes so much of my time Pics soon!

Chris, your selection will be on the way Monday, July 16 - pray for a bit of coolness so they can get established. Even some of these normally reliable plants are flagging with all the heat. I can't wait to see more of your projects, especially the rock wall. Here's a picture of mine:



The Sempervivum do exceptionally well plugged into crannies and nooks between the rocks vertically, and the Sedum is gradually filling in and maybe it will drape over the wall some day. Every year, it just keeps getting better.

Wow that wall is really lovely! How many years has it been maturing for? I sure like the look of that mature tuft of furry sempervivum and I love the red stones for contrast. Did you find all those shovel heads while clearing it out? We have found rake and pitchfork heads here Looks like you have almost as much weeding to do as I do with so much wild space uphill. I'm still fighting some resilient blackberry under my wall.



Here is how mine is progressing, still lots to do though. I'm also working on a little 'nursery' for things and at filling in some rocks that border our front yard beds. Give it til the end of the summer though and I'm sure I'll have ripped out some/all of our Burned-to-a-crisp front lawn too

Jacki, that wall is really coming along beautifully, I haven't seen it for quite awhile.

Chris your wall is going to be amazing by this time next year.

I got my order from Blue Fox Farms/ Drought Smart Plants today! Shipping was 20$ so my 75$ got me 55$ worth of plants They didn't know until too late that I would have preferred things labelled so if anyone recognises anything specifically on here please let me know. Should be fun for me to sit down and try and ID them as they grow too though!


Plants were packed in newspaper 'trays'. Seemed to work pretty well.



The Bare roots



The sempervivum plugs



Sedum, Didn't expect quite so much of the order to be sedum (12 plugs so almost half my order) but I'm willing to try them out...



Jovibarba plugs, I don't think I have any jovibarbas (though I'm waiting for one pot to flower till I can be sure) so I'm pleased with these!



Everything was pretty dry and flagging so I set them up to soak some water.






Some plants got a little squashed as you can see but most are pretty good!





And here are all the little offsets I found in the trays.

I'm looking forward to finding homes for everyone later on today! I think my favourite one is the larger red and green fuzzy one and the (slightly squashed) red one with the green core. All in all I'm not displeased with the order (12 sedum plugs, 10 semp plugs and some assorted bare root offsets for 55$) though I would have likes fewer sedum and more semps especially the smaller ones. Hopefully between this order and the ones I already have I can breed propagate and trade a gardenfull eventually!

More pics will follow when I get everybody settled in

What nice, healthy plants they are Chris, and in such generous portions. You will love the sedum.

Unfortunately if they didn't come with names we would not be able to ID them for you. That is just about impossible with several thousand named cultivars out there.
Maybe Jacki can help you ID them? She might remember and recognize some of them. : )

What fun you are going to have with them, such a great selection colors, textures and types.

It got a little late today to take pictures but I had a lovely day in the garden getting everything in! The wall is looking so much fuller Thanks again BlueFox!

Here are some pictures of the wall. I think the Sedum from Blue Fox Farms are going to do great in there. Don't think I've ever seen broad leaved sedum like that :)






And the babies are in nursery pots.







Here is the rest of my temporary nursery :)




And a bunch of assorted tender succulent seeds I'm trying to sprout.

You have really been busy Chris. That is going to be such a pretty site when everything fills in.

Those baby semps are really starting to show differences. I see some with some webbing.