I don't have any. And I love them.

I tried to buy some once, but our local Nursery didn't have any! I left empty-handed and disappointed.

Your photos are so pretty! This year I'm not going to take "no" for an answer!

What is your growing zone Nancy? They are so easy to grow if you are zone 4 to 9

Zone 5. I have some reading up to do.

Then they would do beautifully in your area Nancy. They just need good drainage, they don't want to be in standing water. They like sun and are alpine plants so don't need a lot of water. A nice top dressing of pea gravel or chicken grit works well. They also love a nice layer of snow cover in winter. I do believe you have that where you are. : )

I don't have the snow, just a lot of rain which can be hard on them. I take care of that problem with adding plenty of gravel and chicken grit. That keeps the root from becoming water logged.

This is a most beautiful article. Wow!!

OK, I have a rock wall. I'm thinking they would grow well where the rocks meet the soil. Right? Of course I'm in zone 7a/6b and I know they'll grow, I'm just wondering about having them near or sort of within the rocks. Whattya think, Lynn?

They love rock walls Sharon. They are alpine plants, the rocks would give them very good drainage. I took some to my sister in Wenatchee, WA and they love her rock wall. You would have to play around with different varieties to see which ones would do best. I have a tectorum that will take just about any condition.

Linda (LuvNature) lives in TN and grows them. Hers have done very well. They are really tough little plants. Something else that would be great in your wall is sedum and they look so nice inter planted with semps.

Here is one of my raised beds with some sedum growing in the middle. This particular one would be too tall for your rock wall, but some of the low growing ones would be beautiful. The coral colored one (Coral Reef) to the left of the taller Blue Spruce is a low growing sedum.


Sedum senanense would be wonderful in a rock wall. Mixing the sedum and semps around the wall in separate pockets would create a lovely tapestry affect. There are many leaf shapes and colors on the sedum.


Please let me know if I can help you with finding what would work for you. I have many different varieties of both semps and sedum.

I have lots of sedum, all tall growing, though. But it does very well here.

I love your raised bed. OK, I'm going to work on this.
Don't go too far away, I'm going to need your help!!

Beautiful pictures.

Thank you Sharon. : )

I love Sempervivums. They have such wonderful shapes and colors and they need so little care! I had pretty much lost interest in plants...until you went and got me thinking about hens and chicks again. Bob will not be thrilled to see me return to my addiction...I'll tell him it is all your fault

Lynn. your article and pics are absolutely wonderful. thank you for sharing your pics with us. your pics really show why they are such facinating little guys. ☺♥♥♥♥

valleylynn said:Then they would do beautifully in your area Nancy. They just need good drainage, they don't want to be in standing water. They like sun and are alpine plants so don't need a lot of water. A nice top dressing of pea gravel or chicken grit works well. They also love a nice layer of snow cover in winter. I do believe you have that where you are. : )

I don't have the snow, just a lot of rain which can be hard on them. I take care of that problem with adding plenty of gravel and chicken grit. That keeps the root from becoming water logged.

Sorry to be late responding, Lynn. It does sound like they will work here. So I wonder why I don't see them around? My aunt had them, but I've never seen them in any of my neighbors' or friends' gardens. I have seen them in indoor pots, however.

Brenda would you please tell your wonderful DH that I now live in Siberia? Does he need the address? Then while he is trekking around trying to find me you can be shopping for semps.
The nice part of sempervivum is they are pretty much carefree. No fertilizer, minimal water (they are drought tolerant), pretty much pest and disease free. What better plant to become addicted to?

Thank you so much Cynthia for the encouraging words. Do you grow sempervivum?

Good morning Nancy. On the topic of the house plants, are you sure they are semps, or are they one of the many types of tender succulents, maybe echeveria or aeonium?
--Echeveria----Aeonium 'Catlin'---These do wonderful indoors for winter time, however they will not survive winter outdoors, but can be placed outdoors for the warm growing season.


I know many people that live in the southern states around you have to buy their semps by mail order. Not sure why the local nurseries don't carry semps. I did find a wonderful nursery just outside D.C while visiting my son and family. They had a wonderful selection of semps, most of which I didn't have yet. Well I have them now. : ) My wonderful DIL bought them for me for Mother's Day and we shipped them to Oregon the day before I left to go home. They arrived in perfect condition the day after I got home. I must say with all the nursery hopping we did, that was the only one that carried semps. We planted some beautiful containers for my DIL and they are doing very well for her in VA.

Nancy I just realized you are in NY. Since semps are alpine plants, and you are in growing zone 5 they really should do very well for you outdoors year round. : )
One of our favorite nurseries is located in Eastern US, in W VA (I know it's not NY), but they have awesome plants and have much colder growing conditions than I have. Many of the members of my Cubit live in areas that are still deep under winter snow. One is in Canada. Snow is a great winter protections for semps.

Well, that is good to know. And now I am not at all sure that what I've seen are semps. They are very similar. I even saw some for sale (potted with other things) in small pots in KMart!

Thank you, Lynn, for rejuvenating my interest!!

Most of what you will find in the Big Box stores are what is called tender succulents. I do have a few of them and bring them indoors before first frost.
The ones your grandma grew outside would have been sempervivum. Tough little plants.

Chiming in pretty late here but what a great article and photos! Thanks for the edu!

Great photos! Love to see the changes over the seasons. I'm just starting to fill 2 raised beds with them and can't wait to see them grow into mature Moms.

Susan I look forward to seeing photos of your new beds. Be aware, these can become very addictive.