Any obsessive collector eventually comes to a point where it's difficult to discover a new piece to add to the collection. With regards to standard variety nurseries, this is the way it's gone for me and sempervivum types. I have about 200 hand picked semp cultivars and anything I really want that I don't have is extremely difficult to obtain, and not the sort of thing I'd just bumble into... or at least I thought! Yesterday while perusing Portland nurseries perrenial section (as I often do) I stumbled into a cultivar I'd never heard of called 'Spirit of 76'. What's most interesting about this variety is that we have it listed in our database as a plant hybridized by Skrocki, but it appears to be a grandiflorum type which is odd because he really didn't do much with that sort that I know of. Could be a montanum though I suppose. Not many pictures of this one in our database so if anyone knows something about the variety I'd love to hear it. The label says it gets a red/orange blush in the summer, though it's predominantly green at the moment.
Seems like a cool plant, first one I've bought from a non-specialty nursery in a long time.

Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum 'Spirit of 76')

Nice velvet and a touch of color...

I found it charming so it had to come home with me.

Any thoughts on this one?
-Sol

Nice find Sol. 'Cleveland Morgan' is the pod parent.

Nice find. Maybe Chris has some info. It's her picture in the data base.

I thought it might have something to do with 'Cleveland Morgan', that one seems to be behind a ton of velvets. Definitely a fun little score, maybe I'll ask Chris about it this spring. I'm very curious about the color changes it has in store.

I looked it up on the German site, their's doesn't look the same. Has thick lashes along the leaf edges, and tufts.

I see that Little Prince has it. https://littleprinceplants.com...

Lynn,
Yes I think mine is from little prince, might be the right plant though because it has some resemblance to 'Cleveland Morgan'.

Yeah the german site's photo does look different, longer lashes for sure. And it's more pink than red. Odd that they should only have a single photo of it as well.

I would watch it over the seasons. I feel like the lashes can come and go. I observed other semps do that.

Good call Julia,
The arachnoideum types certainly undergo big changes in cilia, I wouldn't put it past this one to do something similar.

It will be interest to see if it does aquire the lashes and tufts. Keep us posted

Will do!

Sol,

I think what might be circulating in the US is wrong. I have a photo of Spirit of '76 from a plant that Ed sent directly to Peter Mitchell. It has cilia as well as velvet and the shape of the rosette is quite different than the one floating around here. It has LOTS of leaves and the center of the rosette has very incurved leaves like Pat Drown's 'Tamerlane'. I grew it when it was still under seedling number, ~1973.

Peter states that it was grown from MIXED SEED not 'Cleveland Morgan' although that was one of the seed parents that Ed used. He also ASSUMED it was the parent of 'Ohio Burgundy'.

'Cleveland Morgan' does give some highly ciliated progeny. I had one that I named 'Dusky' that only had minimal velvet but quite prominent cilia. This led me to think that there are genes for DISTRIBUTION of hairs that can influence their deposition. Right now I have two siblings from a self pollination of a velvet seedling. One is very velvet and the sibling ciliated but the size and shape are almost identical. The ciliated ones looks BRIGHT red whereas the velvet one looks more dark and less red.

Of course this makes you wonder what the imposter is! It still might be a useful parent.

Kevin

Kevin,
It wouldn't be the first time Little Prince got one wrong. I've come to believe that seedlings which have germinated in their grow houses have contaminated the stock and possibly risen to prominence after years of propagation. As with most of the little prince imposter plants, this one isn't so different from the one in the german photo that I'd think it being a seedling of the real-deal to be out of the realm of possibility.

I have also noticed variations in velvet distribution. Actually I was very excited to see that the the quantity and length of velvet trichomes and/or cilia was a sliding scale which could be intensified through self crossing, at first I'd feared it was something plants either had or wouldn't have and that further accentuation beyond our furriest velvets might not be possible, which I of course now know to be false. Distribution is definitely variable as well, marmoreums are a great example, the eyrethraum types having a short dense velvet covering the entire leaf while the brunefolium types have a pattern which seems to be consistent with the dark tips on tectorums, creating a chevron at the tip with a streak dissipating through the center of the leaf as it goes towards the heart of the rosette, others like 'Rubikon' have subtle fringe cilia only and the leaves are very glossy. Of course the interspecies crosses have a very broad variety of cilia patterning, I've got more distributions than I know what to do with coming out of my 'Midas' x ciliosum b. group. I imagine most of the variations we see are derived from the diversity in our hybrids, but perhaps seeing different variations in distribution on your selfcrosses while retaining the same form suggests that these genes can also be altered within a single type of velvet or species. You'd probably get a kick out of touring my 'Green Ice' x 'Shirleys Joy' (little prince) group as well, about a hundred there, showing all sorts of blends of cilia. Honestly I'm perplexed by the thought of selecting from those groups, it'll be like splitting hairs... if you will.

At the moment I do plan to try and raise seed from this "Spirit of 76", but it'll have to keep looking good now that it's been taken from a green house and left out in the rain.
-Sol

Sol, the photo on the German site was taken in June. It will be interesting to see if yours turns red, and develops the cilia and tufting.

Lynn,
I'll keep an eye on it this summer. It's a nice plant either way, the velvet's good and thick and it's nice to see even a hint of color this time of year.

I really liked that 'Shirley's Joy' little prince was selling, even though it may not be the true named plant, I've used it in crosses again last year.
-Sol