valleylynn said:
I have this one that came as Androcase sarmentosa. It hasn't bloomed for me yet. Do you have it?

Back to your question...
There's a whole lot of confusion over the names of some of these more commonly grown Androsace; you can get a hint of it here:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php...
I'm not sure what the heck I'm growing either re. some of the more common ones that I bought long ago!

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if you have the "real" A. sarmentosa or not. In any case, it doesn't look (the small rosettes in your photo, I mean) like what Wrightman's is selling as A. sarmentosa, which is said to be grown from a (recently) wild-collected source (as opposed to what's been passed around forever under this and a variety of mixed-up names):
http://www.wrightmanalpines.co...

Here are photos of A. sarmentosa, mostly from the wild, and some validated (presumably) IDs of plants in gardens. These plants are generally hairy and your plant appears to have only short, sparse hairs:
http://www.androsaceworld.com/...

growitall said:I just got a note back from Edelweiss - they are amazingly responsive - seems like a great place!
The owner(?) says:
"Thanks for letting us know. It’s funny, I just noticed a week ago when I was dividing the plants that there were tags with Draba a. and Arabis a. and I made a note to verify which one it actually is. And, yes, Arabis makes more sense."
So, it does it appear to be a case of mixing up tags!

He is wonderful, loves his plants and has some very interesting plants that can be difficult to find. He's the one that got me interested in alpine type plants that will grow well in the same beds with my sempervivum.

The photo above is all the same plant. When a rosette matures it changes it appearance. It was interesting to watch it morph from the original small rosettes that you see in that clump, into the very different looking mature rosette in the center of the clump.
You are correct, those don't look anything like what I was sold as A. sarmentosa.
I'll have to see where I got it from, I know it didn't come from Edelweiss.
Here it is when I bought it. I found the photo with the tag, I got it from Wild Ginger Farm. Another great place for alpine plants. http://www.wildgingerfarm.com/...
I wonder if it is my very dry growing conditions in full sun that make it look like it does in the previous post?

So is there now more than one rosette that looks different from the original plant? Could you show a picture?
Re. conditions - It normally works the other way... growing in drier, sunnier conditions usually causes the plant to produce smaller, more compact growth, not larger and looser growth.
What I notice is that the large rosette(s) has a different leaf shape - oblanceolate, as compared to rhombic on the main plant.
With respect to the odd rosette(s) being "mature" while the others aren't, if you look at your picture above with the plant in the dealer's pot, that's a mature rosette that the offsets are growing from, and it has rhombic leaves, not long, loose oblanceolate ones.

I could be wrong but I still suspect a Draba seeded itself in your Androsace clump.
If you have more current photos, showing both sorts of rosettes, there are other places you could post them for an expert opinion, e.g. Scottish Rock Garden Club plant ID forum:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/inde...

I grow A. sarmentosa - it's ruggedly hardy here in Northern Vermont and spreads like a mad thing for me. Bit of a pain to pot up because of all the stolons, but after it gets over the transplant shock, does well in pots.

Hi Kay. Do you have a photo of yours?

Lori, the photo above is in April 2011 with lots of rain. I planted it out in the raised bed that spring and it's been there ever since spring of 2011.
And you could be very right about there being a stray seed. It would have had to come in the potting soil that the plant came in.
Here is when it appeared 9/2/2011. The photos before Sept 2011 show no signs of it being there. It must be a fast grower.


Sad thing is I never saw it again after the last photo in Oct. 2011. It was not there this spring.

Seriously, that rosette is a different species... if it has died out while the rest of the plant persists, that very strongly supports it too... Likely a seed that was in the pot from the grower, assuming that you are not growing any Draba sp..
Take a gander at the Draba sp. sold by Wild Ginger Farm; Draba lasiocarpa looks like a possibility, at least among those in their catalogue (they are probably growing others that are not in the catalogue).

Yes, many Androsace sp. are very hardy and make great rock garden plants for zone 3.

The other rosette must not have liked our months of rain starting in Nov. and running through the spring.
Your explaination makes sense.

Just went a looked at Draba lasiocarpa. You are so correct, that does look exactly like the rosette that came up in the clump of Androsace. Mystery solved.
Thank you Lori.

Not to get it to bloom.

Hi Lori, Great to have you join us.

What beautiful pictures of Androsace. That rock garden must have been such a fun place to visit. Do you by any chance have any pictures showing more of the garden area at one time? I'm assuming you also have beautiful rock gardens full of alpines???

I'm amazed at the tiny size of Androsace septentrionalis - what a great plant!! Appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us.

Picture won't post - apologies

Thank you for the welcome, Chris. Yes, I do have some more pictures and will post them in a bit.

goldfinch4 said:That rock garden must have been such a fun place to visit. Do you by any chance have any pictures showing more of the garden area at one time?

Here are some more photos of the most fabulous and best engineered rock garden I've ever seen (pardon my laziness in just posting a link ):
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php...

You can see a couple of larger views of the yard there. The front yard rock garden is about 100 feet long and about 30-40 feet wide, and encompasses the entire front yard except for the driveway! (That's on top of the older rock garden that takes up the entire back yard, and is built as a sort of an amphitheatre with an elevation rise of about 15(?) feet to the back alley. It's all unbelievable!)

If you go back in the thread in the link there are some other amazing rock gardens to drool over too!

Wow, I'm speechless. How gorgeous!! What a tremendous amount of work must have gone into that garden. It seemed so odd to see a road and a shovel by the garden because it feels as if you're no where near "civilization". Thank you so much for sharing that link. Lots of eye candy to keep looking at.

Sorry it took so long to post. I couldn't leave those photos Lori. Right now I can't even find words to describe the affect they had on me. I can say it made me want to go see it all in person. I have never seen anything like it.

Going to look some more.

LabourofLove said:I grow A. sarmentosa - it's ruggedly hardy here in Northern Vermont and spreads like a mad thing for me. Bit of a pain to pot up because of all the stolons, but after it gets over the transplant shock, does well in pots.

Looking forward to your photos, Kate. Are you just potting it up to share with other gardeners, or is it permanently in pots?

growitall said:

Looking forward to your photos, Kate. Are you just potting it up to share with other gardeners, or is it permanently in pots?

It's growing on it's own in a raised bed and I pot it to sell to nursery customers.