Yes, they can poke you. : )
I know the ones I got last year went through some tough times and I thought I was going to lose a lot of them, but every single one came through.

Linda, i had a few of my order from her look a little like wrinklely skin. just the out side leaves. i potted them and then a few days later gave them aabout a TSB of water. they now look fine. they stay in the garage under lights when it's below freezing and or raining. on sunny days i move the trays outside for fresh air. they all look great and the outer leaves have lost that raison like look. hope that helps

Thanks so much Cynthia. They will probably be fine. Like Twit and Jacki have told me...they're tough plants!
Keeping my fingers crossed.
Have a great weekend!

Help! If the roots are starting to rot on some of my heuff., do I take them out of the soil, rinse them off, dry with a paper towel, and let them dry out in the air?

Cynthia, I meant my roots on the heuff. were spongy. The tops didn't look all that great, but I wasn't worried about those.

I would think the best thing to do is take them out of the soil, bring indoors where it is dry (even the air is drier), clean them off and place in a sunny window on paper towels. Clean off the rotting parts also.

Can you post a photo here Linda?

I think twit would tell you not to divide them when getting new plants, as they are already stressed from the uprooting and shipping.

Dividing them was probably my first mistake on the heuffs. I never thought about the stress of moving them...dah. Live and learn and buy some more.

There's not much to take a pic of now... I guess I need to check all the heuffs. Those were in one small container and it has been raining here often. Only four tiny pieces of it. The larger pieces are elsewhere and dry. I didn't lose all of it.

We do need a "Problem and Sickness" photo library. I thought of that when I was cleaning them up. I wanted to see a pic of a rotted heuff. root and the inside of it. If it has a deep pink center vein or something like a vein, is that the spread of the rot in the plant?

You must cut the rot off of the root or it will spread. See my thread about dealing with rot.

Basically, remove, wash and dry the plant. To speed the process, set the plant wet from washing on an absorbent cloth or paper towel. Cut the rot off of the root, dividing the plant if necessary. Be sure to remove all rotting leaves. You must remove all rotted pieces from the plant or the rot may spread to healthy parts. Dry any remaining healthy parts of the plant for at least a day or possibly a few days if there was a lot of rot and you are not sure that you got all of it. Put them in a cool garage or other similar place, out of rain, snow, etc.

Once dried, plant and mist only the plant after a few days. Do not water when planting. Watch carefully for more rot and protect from rain and snow for a few weeks if it is winter.

I've concluded that heuff's in general probably need more water during cold temps than sempervivum. That is a generalization as many of both familys have differing sensitivity to moisture.


I have not seen "spongy roots" so not sure what that may imply.
I am a fan of dividing heuff's if they are large and healthy, but that is a judgment call. If it is during a stressful time, you do have to be careful with rot. In all cases of dividing, you must let them callus and dry after dividing and before planting, then be stingy with the water, unless the plant is starting to dry up (the outer leaves will tell you). If the plant is growing rapidly, then its ok to water but I like to wait until the plant starts say "Please, sir, can I have some more (water)!"

Thank you twit, that explanation is a great help. Can you copy and past your above info to this new thread so it will be easy for others to find how to treat the problem. http://cubits.org/sedumandsemp...
Linda has provided us with wonderful (what an odd word to use for such a problem ) photos of her troubled heuffelii.

Thanks so much Twit! I'll learn...these are my first heuffs to buy, so I'll be more careful about waiting and dividing. One reason I divided, I found some mold on some of the plants and thought I should divide in case some started to die.

Just to clarify what Twit says up above;

"By pulling apart:

Pro: Should tend to follow natural growth patterns in the plant.
Pro: No risk of cutting oneself with the knife.
Con: Expect that the irregular tear would expose more of the plant and root's divided surface to possible infection because of the increased surface area of the division (due to it being an irregular tear)"

In fact, the tearing will follow the space between the cells, so in fact will be less prone to get infected. When you use a knife / scalpel etc, it cuts through multiple cells all the way along the cut, so more chance of infection. Having said that, plants are amazing and have the ability to partition off the damaged part, and if you follow the rest of the instructions to allow them to dry, you'll be fine.

I must confess, I gently pulled mine apart last year (summer & early fall). All are growing well and starting to make new rosettes. The only ones that are having trouble are the hueff I got last fall in a purchase. You could tell they had been cut. Those are the ones still struggling to make roots, so far no rot in them though.

Good to know, Lynn. I'll be interested to see how my seedlings are doing (still under the snow) and see if I can split them yet. Some of my test ones I did last year (so I could take pictures of the process!) are alive and seem to be fine. Time will tell...

Can't wait to see photos Jacki. When do you expect your snow to be gone?

I obviously missed a lot of this thread - I had no idea you were worried about me

I'll have to post the pics I did of my heuffelii experiment last year - they look awful, but they are alive. No telling how long they'll linger...

Well we know you are okay for some time now.
Can't wait to see your photos Jacki.