Dirt,

What a gorgeous garden. You really are an artist in your plant placement too. Everything works.

Kevin

Thank you all!
Karen has seen it in its entirety --including all the junk I crop out of pics or don't take pics of
It's always changing. Had to do quite a bit of rearranging last fall, once I could get around again and into the more challenging areas for the handicapped, especially after such major bloom out! I wanted to do more, but winter arrived before I could get too far.

Don't believe that. There wasn't much that needed changing or cropping out of photos! It's all stunning and the plant/rock placement is gorgeous. It's impossible to see in a day. I think we need another trip!

any time! c'mon over

Dirt your garden is so beautiful!

Regarding ice plants, even here in our dry Denver climate sometimes they fail. I just keep buying more. I think in the future I will only plant them in a mix of expanded shale and garden dirt, that has worked really well for my yucca and agaves. Cooperi seems to never die and is even a bit agressive, and a yellow version (gold nugget?) seems to always return. Firespinner can be picky, although at my moms house she has a whole driveway edging full of it! It's in gravel, so maybe that's the ticket.

My semps are looking rough you guys. IDK if that's normal, this is my first year trying them, most of them really look awful! I really hope they live.

Mine look bad too! These were the best looking! Much cleanup this spring.

mine are under snow--but they looked horrible before the snow
We had a really dry fall so I will have a lot of clean-up to pretend like I'm going to do too and never get to it all

Ok I'm glad I'm not the only one! SpringColor yours look really great to me!

A few I am most concerned with are completely shriveled. Do some of them do that normally in winter?

Dirt! So funny but true!
Heidi, you would be surprised at what comes back.

"completely shriveled" doesn't sound right--Take some pics for us Heidi
if there's a center part that's still hanging in there, they can recover

Starting in autumn and getting ready for winter, many semps shed a fairly high percentage of their older/outer leaves and can look very bad (messy), but the centers are intact and fine, this is natural. I'm taking note and making a list of semps that are much neater when heading into winter, as I think this is a character that could be bred for.

Semp 'Alluring' with considerable winter-shedding foliage that envelopes the sturdy rosette centers, a visual distraction from their winter appearance.

Ah yes, the added bonus of the continued white blanket is that I don't have to look at that kinda stuff for a while yet...

I'll try to show some pics when it's daylight. The centers are there, and but the outsides look awful.

Thanks for posting your pics Antman! So yes, like that, but a bit worse. Also we have had a very dry winter here.... a few snowstorms in october november but not much else after that.

on a positive note, those in containers and in my crevicey shade area look ok. The ones that look bad are in likely too sunny of a spot. Thankfully I did not invest much, so this year I can start fresh! (and move the misplaced semps.

Antman I would like a list like that! Of which semps look better over winter, that would be so helpful.

HeidiColorado said:

Antman I would like a list like that! Of which semps look better over winter, that would be so helpful.

I'll work on that list Heidi, and share it here.

AntMan01 said:

I'll work on that list Heidi, and share it here.

Oh how wonderful! Thank you ❤

I'm looking for a good technique on rock mulching.

Do you lay the rock mulch first then plant or rock mulch after planting?
I just hate this task but know it's best for the semps. I've been munching after planting but then rocks are on the plants.

My Delosperma do pretty well in my yard. They are picky when it comes to growing conditions and soil but when you find and give them what they like, most of them seem to do really well in my experience.
The ones that do the worst are usually ones that were in a peaty potting mix when I bought them. You have to remove as much of it as you can but without messing with the plant's roots too much or they'll start throwing their temper tantrums and either die or almost die in the winter.

They seem to like more water and shade than most of the common Petrosedum and Phedimus.

My Fire Spinner and Table Mountain have gotten huge and have grown so fast since I planted them in 2018 that I had to start rolling the edges in under the plants this year.

A couple of days ago It was such a gorgeous day here that I spent several hours working with my semps.

Spent a lot of time replanting offsets that those pesky squirrels like to dig up. I swear, all they do is dig them up and toss them around. I plant them and they dig them up. I wish the dogs would catch a few of them, scare the others off. Other than that, they are all doing pretty well and my bundt bans that I planted are looking nice.

I can hardly wait for spring when all of a sudden everybody just takes off.

Spent a lot of time pulling off dead leaves from underneath. Red Rum is looking pretty nice right now but underneath was real nasty. You know how those leaves can get all black and slimy! Really gross. And they don't smell real good either. Cleaned up several colonies and they look much happier. And a couple got consigned to the compost bin.

If you can't make it through the winter, you are toast!

Julia, if I am doing new plantings I like to lay out the top dressing nice and thick, the move it aside slightly to put the roots down into the soil. It is then easy to push the top dressing back under the leaves.

Angelo, good to see you. Sure wish you were coming to the clinic in April. I love seeing all your photos.
My climate is so different from yours, but your method works well for me here. I think they really love the deep mulch.
And I agree with getting rid of the peaty soil, seems like they will just shrivel up and die if you don't.
'Fire Spinner' has proven to be a very tough one here in my garden. It grows over and down the side of the bed. I have to clip it regularly.

Good philosophy Melissa. No sense in spending time, money and effort on those cultivars that do well for us. I usually give them several tries with adjustments to there growing conditions, if that doesn't work they leave my garden.
Would love to see photos. Hurray!

Thanks Lynn! I'll give that a try. My methods not working.