Natalie, I'm just touching base here and want to note that my semps are still under about 2' of snow in the same Zone 4a as your father, (although in the Northern Catskills, Upstate NY). I can't tell yet whether my seedlings from last year will have survived the winter, but the 3 or 4 NoID's we've grown in our regular flower beds for several years have never had any problem with our winters... They are somewhat addicting as I found out when I planted my first seeds last spring...

Here are a couple of photos of this year's seedlings which just sprouted this week (along with some of my other plants under light -- we won't be doing any outdoor gardening for awhile yet (it's 28 degrees and snowing; was down to 0 again yesterday morning.) This is about as exciting as my gardening gets t his time of year!

Thank you, Mother Raphaela! That is great to know! Sorry to hear that you are still suffering from those terribly cold temps, especially on the first day of Spring. I've been to the Northern Catskills, and it is so beautiful there!

I hope that your seedlings do great, once you can get them planted outside. They all look to be growing well in the pictures!

Baby semps. How sweet. Now for the wait to see who they are going to look like, mom or dad.

Natalie you will do great. I agree with Chris, 'No looking back once you figure out how to grow them'.

I just hope that I don't get the hybridizing bug! I already hybridize daylilies, so I'm not sure that I need another plant to do that with. But, those little seedlings sure are cute, aren't they?

You should come to the Sempervivum Hybridizing Clinic next month. It is free and oh so wonderful.
Tried to find a carrot emoticon to dangle in front of you.

Natalie, while I'm in danger or sounding like a commercial, one way to jump in head (or feet) first is to get a packet of Park's Hens & Chicks rare varieties mixed. You'll get a total cross section...

And there is still time to plant them; they don't need to be chilled -- just sprinkle them very sparsely on top of any seed-starting mix, put them on a heating pad and they will be up in no time!

If you want to try sprinkling them on the ground outdoors in your climate I suppose you could, but they are very, very tiny at the beginning (a jeweler's loupe helps) and they should probably be a bit larger before they get put in the ground. Although Lynn can give you better guidance there -- she has obviously started all kinds of seeds in a climate probably closer to yours....

That would be about a 12 or 13 hour drive, one way. I think I'll have to pass!

Thanks for that tip, Mother Raphaela. Maybe I'll try that next year. I've already got way too many seeds that I need to start this year, and have promised myself that I will not buy any more seeds for a while. I went a little nuts this winter, shopping online. Someone needs to ban me from a couple of web sites.

Like Natalie, this week has given me a new attitude towards hens and chicks. There are so many more kinds than what I thought! It was so wonderful seeing the articles and especially the banners, they were all so wonderful. A great week all around

I know I really enjoyed this week.
I think it is more than 3,000 different named cultivars now. Could even be more. Each one with it's own attributes.

snowflakes don't stand a chance competing!

And these last longer than a snowflake.

@valleylynn
Is that your photo featured in Dave's post! Absolutely beautiful! It totally grabbed my attention

Toni, thanks for mentioning that picture! With all of my excitement, I hadn't clicked on it! Are those the cement blocks that everyone seems to have? If so, I've got a few of them around here that I have been saving for something, and they will be perfect!

Yes it is Toni. It is in one of the cinder block holes in the raised bed. I love those raised beds, and so do the semps and other drought tolerant plants that grow in them.
They are really easy to put together Natalie.

Here is one of them.

Hey @Natalie
I'm going to weigh in here too, not that I'm an expert or anything or even know very much about how we are *supposed* to grow these lovely plants, but I do know how I have been growing them and that is
like cute little weeds, tucked in here, there, and everywhere--on a whim, as part of some half-hatched plan, as a complete afterthought--in all manner of conditions from sun to shade, from good soil to crappy soil, and everything in between.
They really are amazingly tolerant of ignorance

I guess I just presumed that they don't like drowning, but other than that I just assumed that they could pretty much grow anywhere/anyhow because, well, they do, somehow, for me anyway...
I have only recently learned that they don't like to bake in the hot sun, all day... but really, my ones that fry in the sun all day actually do better than the ones that get choked out in the deep shade of competition when the other plants grow up and crowd them. So I find that it is those that end up being too shaded that I end up moving.

I'll bet you could make some fine planting pockets between rocks. Grit is better than sand for improving drainage. And semps are short so you can kinda shade them with the rocks themselves. Go for it!

This is a southwest facing street corner garden.

I didn't know any better, and I planted semps all around that big, broken shale rock, and in the rock.
No shade, nada, none.
Well okay, maybe a little bit from the fire hydrant

but really, this is brutally hot and dry here. We usually top out in the nineties, but occasionally hit triple digits for longer than anyone wants to, and it doesn't get watered (I am going to have to figure out how to water it some this year).

I ran around and took some sunset pics of abused semps for ya, after a dry winter and no spring rains either
...to encourage you to try whatever you want with your rocks and anything else

world's tiniest semp in the rock--on top, in a crevice, about 2in deep--it's still okay, and is just about to run out of crevice so I'll be spreading it around soon.


and a few of the kinda pretty ones from the rock pile


I tell myself that if they have a cool root run under the rocks that they don't mind so much but I really don't know if that's true or not.
I also have quite a few in little dishes with no root run that get too much sun too.
like these are alive but they don't look as well right now as their counterparts in the ground

I think because they have nowhere to go to find water and I haven't been running around watering all the stuff desperate for water like I probably should

the rollers seem to be extraordinarily resilient and I tried 'planting' a few in this rock last fall

sorry it's kind of a bad picture, but you can see a few on this side, more on the other side--most of them rolled away over the winter and are down there with the tulips waaaaay happier than the ones struggling on this rock (okay, I'm going to run around tomorrow and water stuff-- weekend)

a rock 'bowl' someone split open for me and left laying around because the geode wasn't cool enough, and a sandstone dish my honey made for me



so yeah, they don't belong in the best pics thread or look as great as well cared for sempy's but they can and do grow in a variety of adverse conditions and they are so very much fun you really should try some

Absolutely wonderful dirtdorphins.
If I had access to rocks like yours and Natalie I would grow real rock gardens. How beautiful. That is what I love about Marks photos.