Thank you! Can't wait for the season to begin. That cold we had a few weeks ago should color them up as the weather warms.

I agree.

Here is a new photo of 'Red Zinger'. Just a baby, can't wait to see it all grown up.

Beautiful, Lynn!

We're having blue skies today, warmer temperatures, and not a single cloud is in sight. Spring is coming!

I want to share some old photos I had filed away a few years back to admire on rainy/snowy days and I have managed to get updated pics recently. The photos share a common theme: wherever these locations of garden/beds/flats/ containers are, they are planted with sempervivums; some nicely organized, others looking like there's a method to the madness stopping short of willy nilly; some places, a lot of semps; other places, jaw dropping amount of semps.

I've been lucky to have seen some of the semp beds in person.
And those have been Crazy, Amazing
Other beds depicted, I hope to someday visit in person.

I'd like to give a background of my semp bed from way back and of my semp flats now.
In 2010 I moved into a house that came with a small bricked in growing bed. I had several flats that traveled from NM to WA to this empty brick bed in CA.




Progress in 2013

That bed looks amazing!

Such a nice planter for semps. Some well traveled plants.

Nice photos. Those are some happy semps.

John

Fast forward a few years and I found myself up in Oregon in a townhouse with no ground to plant into. I did pull up as many semps out of the brick bed in CA and moved them into flats to go to Oregon. The new abode had a balcony deck with a water faucet and morning light, that's it. I placed the 8 or so flats right on the deck and found it hard to care for them being so low to the ground. What to do?

A couple of years later, I was invited to Kevin's house and met a friend of his named Howard. He owned Fernwood Nursery in the U.K. Here's a photo of part of his set up there.


Lightbulb moment looking at that photo and then I decided to use the idea.


The height of the flats are great to walk up to and see what needs to be tended to. Sometimes with tweezers or water bottle in hand I'm ready to care for the semps right as I am standing there!

They look great!

Alex, Julia and John!

Bev, I remember seeing other photos of your bed in CA, and photos from NM. I find them beautiful and always healthy and well groomed.
I loved your balcony semp garden from the first time I saw it in person. Each plant is lovingly cared for.
Wish I had the talent that you have, growing in containers. I am really fascinated by your miniature plantings. Could we see some of those?

Yes Lynn, I'll dig around for the pics of some of that miniature plantings right after after I get this post out of my draft folder and into this thread.

Onward to other Semp Beds/Gardens/Semp SuperHighway

It was 2014 when I walked into Lynn's backyard for the first time and came across one of these:
Photo taken in 2012

Suffice to say there was a lot of jaw-dropping that day as I moved from the above bed to the next bed and to a few more beds (and in later years, more than 20 of them with more compact planting options) that continued to showcase lots and lots of labeled colonies of sempervivums.
Over the course of 5 years, I have seen the growing progress of these beds. It was like making an annual trek to a place as close to a Semp heaven as one can imagine.

Speaking of Semp heavens, here's another semp bed that is a real eye catcher. I remember the last time I saw this bed, I walked the path step by step in wonderment at all the beautifully grown colonies asking myself (as a lot of people do when confronted with an ultimate Semp Green Thumb), "Why don't my semps look like that?"


Here's the same photo at a slightly higher angle to show a clearer view of the "path" that one would wander in amazement as the owner (our rascally Tim) would go on and on about how "substandard this colony is or uncooperative that colony is"...

What a welcome sight on a cold wet day. Thanks for posting Bev! Can't wait for my semps to wake up and spring to arrive .

I agree Connie, looking at Bev's photos gives me a feeling of excitement know that spring is just around the corner.

I can't wait fo spring and splurge my budget on plants!! I anticipate many more semps this year!

Also, has Groundhog Day passed ? I don't remember the date

Alex, Groundhog Day is today, Feb. 2. He didn't see his shadow.

Awesome pictures, and as Connie said, a welcome sight on a cold day (-1 over here)!

about the groundhog, Lynn. Spring is coming!

Ooh, Johannian, do keep yourself WARM!!

You're welcome ya'll...!!!
What else am I gonna do on these cold days except type up drafts in the tree mail section to post later???