Man, some of these semps are pretty darned prolific. The two large clumps towards the bottom of this picture are my first two acquisitions. I pulled some chicks off and planted them around to help fill in and even those chicks are having chicks. It's a total chick-fest. I have read in this forum that 'More Honey' is prolific, but in this picture at the upper left it is doing OK but still may get shoved out of the way.
I have no problem with these semps covering all of the available soil, that's my intent actually, although it would be nice to see the rock outcroppings. But my question is about maintenance. What happens when these semps all bump into one another and run out of space? Does it all just take care of itself? Or do I need to go in and do some selective removal? Will they try to overrun each other? Will they go vertical?
It seems like plants are healthiest when they have room to grow. But maybe evolving in alpine rock crevices has made these guys different?

Let's hear it for a chick-fest!!

Chick-fest!!! LOL I hope mine decide to organize a chick-fest! Sorry, but I'm new at semps and don't know what they will do when they fill the space. I'll be following this thread.

They're fine to be crowded in, if you want to keep the cultivars separate its best to plant things that don't look the same next to one another - I planted these semps 1.5 years ago with space in between each cultivar I have 4 of these foot deep troughs that I used for semps

I use slate pieces to keep some of them separated and to keep shade in summer
some of these are repeat pics, sorry...they're still pretty and show what I mean!


Enjoy!!

WELCOME TIM !
Chick Fest you say? Here's one of my hens with 31 offsets. I can't tell you the progression that this generation of chicks took...I ended up having to move them out of the bed to move to OR and thru hasty handling the chicks got separated from the hen. I would have left the chicks attached to the Mom as there was ample space for further growth and spread (well, maybe not on the right side of the family )

Chick Fest in early March and then in early April:


Continuing onto late April and then to early June:


{Edited to add photos of growth progression of chicks.}

gg5, I *did* enjoy your pictures. It seems like you just can't go wrong. Either planted far apart or close together they end up looking great. I've definitely tried to keep the similar-looking varieties away from each other.

Pictures are spectacular. Love all the colors and patterns. Good idea to separate similar semps in some way.

Welcome Tim, great to have you here!

You are correct that they will perform best when they have room to grow. Some of them will form mounds of plants that will still look good, but some of them will crowd each other to the point the plants won't reach their full potential any more. All depends on the look you're going for.

This little clump of Sempervivum arachnoideum (bryoides) is very happy all piled up!

Wow, that's a nice clump of arachnids. So well behaved.

I'm wondering about pruning practices for the more spreading cultivars. Let's say I devote a 1.5 square foot zone (15"x15") for one plant. If it ventures out of that zone then SNIP, SNIP! And even within the zone maybe some space could be freed up by selective chick removal (murder!).

In gg5's pictures above there's obviously some plants running out of space. They look really good. I'm wondering if some chick removal will soon be required to keep it healthy and attractive.

Since they come in such a wide range of sizes, it would all depend on the cultivar. But yes, I often have to pull out semps because they spread so much. They're easy to control though because they have such shallow roots. I like to give them plenty of room to start with. Here is a pictures of one of my semp beds.

Chris they are spectacular. I'm guilty of cramming.

Tim yes in the spring I'm going to cull many of my cultivars, I'm hoping to either use them in projects, give them to others or plant them in a park or public space

Great photos everyone. Examples of many ways to handle their growth.
I tend to let them grow into colonies, until they are over taking each other, then I cull them out and start all over again. The excess is great for projects.

I see the word "cull" used a couple times here. Glad to see it. I was worried that you folks might insist that every bit of Sempervivum is a rare and precious gift from heaven and must never be allowed to perish. I must confess that I wouldn't hesitate much to yank out a not-so-fave specimen and replace it with my current sempalicious love affair.

Sempalicious? Lynn, I don't see this in the semp dictionary. Can you (or @goldfinch4 ) add it?

http://garden.org/ideas/view/g...

Great word Tim.

Julia, Chris wrote that article so she will have to add the new and wonderful word 'Sempalicious', something delicious to look upon. What would be another good definition?