IAmHumanJake said: Hello everyone I've been obsessed with the sempervivums lately. Bought Kevin Vaughn's Sempervivum book, also watch most videos that he talked in. I also probably will watch almost every video I can find on sempervivum.. lol. So Decided to do a new cold hardy succulent garden. With existing other plants. Here's the start of it. (I remember I'll also post a picture of a garden I did last year.) I've also ordered over 100 sempervivum plants to add to this. Will also post updated pictures when I get and plant them.
P.s do you guys have a Facebook group

Which part of Indiana? I use to live in southern Indiana and can give you some tips if you want. When I lived there, it was very hard for me to grow semps in the ground. I found I could never amend the soil enough for them to really thrive and I had some issues with the heat and humidity during the summer.

ndmpkt13 said: Which part of Indiana? I use to live in southern Indiana and can give you some tips if you want. When I lived there, it was very hard for me to grow semps in the ground. I found I could never amend the soil enough for them to really thrive and I had some issues with the heat and humidity during the summer.

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I live in northern Indiana just below south bend area. I'll take any tips and information

valleylynn said: Jake, that is such a fun area you have provided for your cold hardy succulents. It won't be long before that area will be filled with lovely colonies of your new sempervivum. Can't wait to see your new semps when they arrive.

Alex, I love your little crevice garden, that is so very sweet. Your Karola makes me laugh with joy at how playful it is with the long stolons. I also love the interplanting with other perennial. Such a pretty picture.

Hello Lynn
I also can't wait for everything to grow out in it. I have some opuntia cactus that's in a different area debating on adding a pad in with this garden. Not sure though

Do you guys have a Facebook group?

I think as individuals, some of us have FB, but we don't have our own Sempervivum FB page.
There are many FB groups out there. Most are in Germany.

valleylynn said: I think as individuals, some of us have FB, but we don't have our own Sempervivum FB page.
There are many FB groups out there. Most are in Germany.

Oh ok.

Good to see another fanatic jumping into the semp hobby. I remember it well. Good luck @IAmHumanJake and remember all those plants are likely to multiply like tribbles.

Tis the season where I live that the Crane Fly maggots are fat, happy and active. I've noticed some very sad looking specimens around my garden with the telltale chewed up leaves and missing root masses.
I pulled up 'Lilac Time' to find one of these buggers in action.


Digging down invariably reveals 6-10 fat, juicy maggots. Not to be wasted I toss them to my chickens who love them.

Cleaning her up a bit I find this on the bottom. I used to think this was slugs and maybe sometimes it is, but right now it's these maggots.


I do what I can to resurrect the colony... will they make it?


'Saharasonne', 'Gold Nugget' and 'Goldmarie' all went thru the same process today. There's maybe a few more but I don't feel like looking for something I don't want to find.

I wonder if any other PNW folks have this issue... anyone?
I wonder if using 50% native soil encourages them. Maybe a 100 artificial/bagged soil mix would deter them?

Despite these issues, most semps are looking quite good on this last day of April.

'Eyjafjolla' and 'Tiefgang' live up to their hype.



'Serapis' and 'Patent Leather Shoes'



A Globifera, 'Faramir' and 'Grunrand'




My two favorite pinks are 'Pink Lotus' and 'Pacific Jordan'

webesemps said: Guess that means more space for NEW Semps to live in that vacated space, Alice! Happy shopping?!

No shopping, just pond service. April 21st semps, they are doing well, the Karola has about filled in where I took chicks to start 2 pots for a friend and a granddaughter. Still pond season. Lady Kelly reappeared in between the Happy's. took winter color to see her.




















they are still actively growing. The ones I tried to clean in fall and almost killed did live but are still small. not doing much with them, they are alive

@tcstoehr thanks can't wait for them to multiply

Wow, Tim those are looking beautiful. How sad that the maggots have started their dirty work, I bet with your care they will send out new roots and be fine.
I had a couple of colonies damaged last month from the maggots. I found them when I dug up the entire bed in preparation to add a new 10" layer of premium mix, bringing the soil level back to the top of the bed.

Alice, it is sure good to see color coming out in your collection.

Hey Jake, welcome to NGA and to the forum! You have some beautiful semps there.

Johannian said: Hey Jake, welcome to NGA and to the forum! You have some beautiful semps there.

Oh thank you 😀

Update on the sempervivum growing in clay? soil, the light khaki color type with a bit of fine sand in it, the way it was in the the field. It's not that grey type of clay that we used for modeling which can't really crumble when it's wet like this one can, but this one too will dry like a rock if there is no moisture.
Interestingly enough it works well so far, it tends to make the rosettes open up a bit more, like there would not be the same amount of light with other containers, but in my experience a constantly moist substrate tends to have that effect compared to an ultra fast draining substrate where the rosettes tend to ball up more.
Since I've seen people locally plant sempervivum directly in this type soil with great results, I said I should try it too.
Right now I think the containers are too small, but they are heavy, the bigger one is 2Kg/4.4lbs, even if a type of a tiny bee species started digging tunnels in the containers and throws out substrate around the containers.

Clay containers:


In comparison with a 60% perlite mixed with 40% "flower substrate" container, the age is probably not identical with the one in clay substrate.

Same container different light.

For grain size specificity, you could do a ribbon test and texture test

That's interesting, I guess I should try.

Paleo, your clay substrate sounds a lot like what I used in my raised beds in Dallas, OR.
If it dried out the only way you could dig in it was by watering it. Then it became loose and workable. The plants love it. It was a sandy loam mix which had clay in it. It gave me wonderful color in my semps.
Your plants are beautiful and so healthy looking.

I have nearly pure clay in a lot of my garden beds. Perhaps I will pop a couple semps in to see what happens. Sedum usually do great in it, especially the native species.

BTW this is the bee species that is digging tunnels in various containers I have.
It's quite small, around half the length of a honey bee with an overall much smaller body volume.

Alex, let us know how your clay experiment goes. I find that interesting.

Paleo, I love your digger bee photos. I had to look them up. They are great pollinators for our plants, and pretty much harmless. I have seen similar bees in my garden, I didn't realize they dig and nest in soil. I love learning new things. Thank you Paleo.

Our native soil out here has a pretty heavy amount of clay in it, so I'm looking forward to your experiment results, Paleo.