I thought it would be interesting to all of us sempervivum fanatics to explore some of the major breeders of the plants we love.

Starting off with Andre Smits, a very prolific breeder of beautiful sempervivum. On the upper right side of the page you will find these links that will take you on an amazing garden tour of Andre Smits garden.
http://sempervivum-liste.de/no...

Thanks Lynn really nice!!

That is so cool. Would love to walk his garden. Looking forward to this breeder info!

Here is a link to the Andre Smits semps that we currently have in our ATP database. Very impressive. More will be added as we come across them.
http://garden.org/plants/group...

What a fascinating garden. And it's so neatly laid out! The combination of colors of the plants and the gravel are amazing.

402 cultivars from this guy. Seriously?
He seems to like to keep his semps in pots, even the ones buried in the ground. I'm starting to wonder if that's a good idea. Maybe that way you can rearrange them quite easily.

There is a way and a method for each of us according to what we find pleasing. I am fascinated by Andre Smits method, and love it. But for me it would not work. For one I would never be able to care for that many pots, or get down on that level to care for them.
But it sure doesn't stop me for admiring what he does.

Tim, in the article linked it says that he created/selected about 2000 heuffelii, 1000 sempervivum and 100 globiferum varieties and that his collection comprises about 7500 varieties - that's impressive! He must habe them all (or nearly so...), and half of them are his own...unbelievable....

It sure is amazing Michael. Quite an accomplishment. I for one am very thankful for all the work he has done to provide us with such beautiful sempervivum.

Michael how far away is he from you?? Maybe you can take a trip to his place

Belgium is not that far away, but my French is not good enough for a conversation... and Andre only speaks French. But I was planning to visit Martin Haberer's place (German collector/breeder) next year in April or May to slightly expand my collection.... he's supposed to have about 2000 varieties - so I might select 1 or 2 for my collection

Oh Michael, now I am jealous. Please take lots of photos to share with us.

That would be so amazing to travel to several different hybridizer's gardens in Europe!

What fun that will be Michael.

Thanks for the great thread Lynn . Andre sure seems to be an amazing character with an even more amazing website .Scrolling through the ATP list I find that I have four of his cultivars .
The semp of the year competition seems a lot of fun too , I want all twelve http://sempervivum-liste.de/no...
Anyone for a slice of cherry tart ?

Actually Andre has no website nor an email address, Paddy. What you saw is "sempervivumliste" a German site. Peter Diekmann (banker07) was one of its creators...

Sure some fabulous sempervivum pictured there!!

Thank you for the link Paddy.
Yes, Michael is correct, Andre does not have his own web site. But others have visited his gardens and left us with wonderful photos so we can enjoy what Andre has done.

I love some of those! Rainbow is a pretty one but don't think it was my #1 on that list...I love the, for me, nearly unpronounceable one http://sempervivum-liste.de/Se...

I really can't choose which is my favorite of Andre's semps in my collection. There are so many that I love, like these:





But a few of Andre's lovely semps that I have.