Beautiful plants Connie! Thanks for keeping us updated Greg, really sounds like you're all having a good time.

Which varieties did you get?

Boy I blew it today... after posting I sat back in my recliner and fell asleep and woke up too late to go to the clinic . So I missed it . Bummer!

Yesterday I tried to pick out semps that looked different from each other or ones I have been drooling over here. In no particular order:

Mona Lisa
Red Lion
Bella Donna
Rita
Pacific Zoffic
Jungle Fire
Fuego
Pacific Red Tide
Elgar
Pacific Sparkler
Lilac Time
Limelight
Mulberry Wine

So the shopping wore you out?...Man, that must have been one heck of a shopping spree. Your brain probably didn't feel like it needed any more distraction...

Great selections. I really bought a lot of plants today too. I ordered 'New Rhumba' and 3 more Sempervivums. Then I went some place locally and found Sedum 'Lemon Ball' and Echeveria nodulosa (painted Echeveria). I liked those so much I got two. I also got 4 more Delosperma. I got a new 'Starburst' because mine was looking bad. I also got Delosperma 'Moonstone' and another 'Garnet' and 'Ruby' so I could have more cutting material. LOL.

Actually I felt great when I got up this morning and loaded a few things in my truck and double checked the route I planned to take. Then I guess it was like I hit a wall, figuratively speaking.

It was a great shopping spree though. I had never seen so many in one place! I got a few potted up this afternoon.

Nothing like a good shopping spree. I think I'm done for a good while. I will be rooting cuttings/offsets of all these Sedums, iceplants, and Semps. I don't think I need to buy anything for a long time.

I think I am at the same point now. The pot ghetto runneth over! Need to get busy and do something with all of it.

Just through with a wonderful dinner with all my old and new Sempervivum friends after the clinic. What a WONDERFUL group and it's amazing how we all immediately connected as people as through our plants. In 20 minutes iI felt as though I had known all of these people for 20 years! Guess this speaks volumes about semp fanatics!

The clinic was fun for me to teach and brought back many memories of all the wonderful people who trained me in these evaluations back when i was a pup, I think it is a great way to evaluate potential new plants as it forces us to consider all the facets of the plant. The group caught on very quickly and they were telling me things about my own seedlings that even I had failed to see. They also observed the good and bad characteristics and were able to tell me, so I think they were all very good students. I also think they were able to understand the whole process of creating new plants and what a fun (although somewhat tedious) process it is, Hopefully the class encouraged a few more hybridizers.

Many thanks to Lynn and Cynda for pushing this idea forward and giving me the push to do it. I realized there is much more to this than this one workshop could possibly cover and I look forward to the group returning to help me evaluate the much larger seedling crop next season.

Kevin

Many Thanks, Kevin, for the wonderful and Informative Class today. I'll be looking on Amazon soon for that Tiny Tweezer and I'll be looking at blooms this summer to see if I can identify the Anthers and Stamens. I loved the full garden tour, some stunning Pacific Coast Iris & Daffodils. I'll post a couple pictures that I took, and I didn't get the variety names on these. I'd Label the pictures with variety names, if anyone would like to identify them?

Kevin, it's so wonderful of you to do this clinic and share your enthusiasm and knowledge with the ATP group. I so wish I could've joined you for this incredible opportunity, but am looking forward to hear what everybody learned.

Beautiful pictures Diana, and thank you for sharing them!

Nice plants Connie. Would have been a fun shopping trip. Bummer that you fell asleep and missed the clinic though.

Sounds like you had a good shopping trip too Clint!

Great photos Connie and Diana!
Connie sorry you fell asleep, we were looking for you and wondering where you were!!!
Kevin, thank you so much for your time and energy with this!! Very much enjoyed meeting you, and having a great yard tour! And of course the workshop!! You are very generous with your time and knowledge!! Thank you for that!
I loved meeting the ATP folks and their (happily dragged along partners ) Everyone was so nice! You know how people on here "seem" friendly and nice - well let me tell you they are!!
I didn't take photos - "sue me!" I'm just not good at taking photos when there is so much going on!
Some people took photos, including Lynn's daughter Denice, who I hope is on here more often now that she's met so many ATP semp folks!
Denice/Lynn I hope you all post a photo of Lynn in her hat at Joy creek!!
I enjoyed talking to and meeting everyone - oh yeah and seeing the incredible plants...even the violas were amazing "vaughn" hybrids, I hope someone took photos of those, they were just the under plantings of the Irises, yet looked painted because of their unique beauty! The above photos don't do justice to Kevin's amazing Irises either (totally breathtaking! as many of you know, I often say "oh wow!!" or "how pretty"!! so there were lots of exclamatory remarks! and breathlessness! )
Kevin re-showed his gardens to those who arrived later, taking time and sharing his interests! Everyone there was warm and happy (since the weather was freaking amazing! Sunny and warm, unlike Seattle where I return to the cold rains (where's the "shivering" emoticon!)...ah well, we're even greener here then central OR! )
Toby thank you so much for video taping this, I'm sure you will let us know how we can view it!! I hope you and your mom had a good ride home! It was a pleasure to meet you both (http://www.youngs-garden.com/) Young's garden supported our Semp week raffle, so please take time to check out their online nursery!!
Cynda and Dave thank you also for your hospitality and graciousness! (http://perennialobsessions.com...) I will be ordering more from you soon!
Lynn, thank you so much for helping to make this happen!! I give you much credit for getting us all together in the pursuit of the "perfect" semp!!
Completely enjoyed this weekend!
Thank you all!

I get my hybridizing supplies from Earthstar Co. They have all kinds of tweezers including reverse action ones. I don't know if any of them are like the "Tiny Tweezers". They are very reasonably priced and fast shipping.

Glad everyone had a great day and sorry I ended up missing it. Next time.

Connie, I will check them out! Thanks for info. You were missed yesterday, but it was good meeting you Saturday, and fun picking through all the semps!

Connie do you have the website info for Earthstar? When I "googled" it airplanes and such came up...don't want that!

Oops I did the copy but not the paste. Here it is:

http://www.earthstarproducts.c...

Here are the ones I have:



It looks like they don't offer the curved one on the left anymore. It has the finest point but isn't reverse action. The other two are reverse action 6" tweezers; one straight and one curved. Reverse action prevents you from accidentally dropping the anthers.

You just need to compare to what Kevin uses and if yu think his is better then go hunting for it.

Oh Thanks Connie, for that picture and website, I will check it out. I think we are looking for the #5 size, but I really like the idea of the reverse action. That would be much safer. Yes, I can imagine letting loose of the tweezer while trying to rotate the pollen head around on the flower. I'll be checking out Earthstar

Thanks Connie

Just starting to move around after a bit of rest. Dogs got me up at 6 to go out then Nina either fell or jumped in the lake!! What a nut. I went back to bed.
This whole experience was so great. Meeting everyone was fun. Thank you Lynn, for the fabulous breakfast and semps, you are a marvel. This was no easy task to get all the people together. Cynda and Dave what a place you have. I have never seen so many sempervivum in one place. Thank you for such a warm welcome and letting all of us shop you inventory. Kevin, enjoyed you garden tour and clinic, thank you. The clinic was fun and informative. So fun to use our new knowledge on evaluating your sempervivum seedlings. I have a few pictures but eventually got so intent at looking at the plants that I forgot. I'll get them loaded up later today. I enjoyed visiting with everyone, so good to meet fellow gardeners.

Just a few quick things:

The tweezers I use are Dumont #5. These are NOT reverse action as what you are doing with Sempervivum blooms is tearing off the anthers to emasculate the pod parent so you want something that bites and releases quickly. The reverse action ones don't have the fine point and the motion to me is TOTALLY backwards. It also rips off the petals of the Jovibarba ones easily. with those you need to remove both petals and anthers as the bloom is more congested! Of course I've used these tweezers my whole career so I'm more than a bit biased. They are stainless steel and last FOREVER although like all tweezers EASY to lose. I won't tell you how many times I've been searching for mine when I dropped them on the lawn! word to the wise: buy two pairs!

The pictures posted by Greenfield are: Blue Plate Special, white with navy striped Pacific Coast native iris seedling (will probably get a name; it's quite lovely and a great plant habit), Dolly and Me (miniature tall bearded iris), S. 'Raspberry Ice' (one of Mina Colvin's and a personal favorite), and S. ciliosum from Ali Botusch (with a mushroom intruding!!),

Thank you for all of your kind comments and right back at you all. I feel as though I have 17 new great friends!

Today i rowed out ~300 seedlings but that is a DROP IN THE BUCKET as you all know. Some pots have more than that in them! I'll be building a new bed for the remainder of this crop this week..

Greg, like you I find the camera a distraction when visiting another garden. I do take lots of pictures in my own garden for recording the colors and shapes of seedlings. Also, i do lots of programs om plant breeding and need good shots to demonstrate the points I'm making in a talk.

Hope Lynn can post some pictures of the group dinner at Robert's Crossing. We were in the "shed" but I think after we were in there it will have to be the potting shed!

Kevin