Can you add Monocarpic: blooms and dies, to Plant habit? Then we could delete Other Details in the below Sempervivum box. Evergreen and Pest resistant are already in the top info box and this info is just repeat.
http://garden.org/plants/propo...

So that would be something that would apply to all semps, right? Something that could be added across the board?

Yes it is. They don't bloom very often, some go years without blooming. There are other plants that do the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

We should have this, but I'm not sure that this belongs in plant habit. It's more of a question of life cycle rather than habit.

But then, life cycle is a pulldown where you can only choose one. (Perennial, Annual, etc)

The best I can come up with is to add it to "Miscellaneous".

Dave: There are some plants that USDA list as with multiple life cycles annual, biennial and perennial. Apparently some plants will behave differently according to environmental conditions each year.

Conditions like different zones, many that are considered annuals are perennials in warmer zones.

Calif_Sue said:Conditions like different zones, many that are considered annuals are perennials in warmer zones.

True, but they would still be called perennial because they behave as annuals because they are out of their natural zone. There apparently some though, that will vary the their behavior based on environmental factors.

dave said:We should have this, but I'm not sure that this belongs in plant habit. It's more of a question of life cycle rather than habit.

But then, life cycle is a pulldown where you can only choose one. (Perennial, Annual, etc)

The best I can come up with is to add it to "Miscellaneous".

That would work Dave. Could it have the mouse over feature explaining what monocarpic is? 'The plant can live a number of years producing offsets before it will flower.'

Yes and yes! It's done and I added the mouseover tooltip.

Thank you Dave. : )

Doesn't it mean "Monocarpic plants are those that flower, set seeds and then die."?

Wiki says "The plant can live a number of years before it will flower. Flowering does not by itself result in the death of the plants but the production of fruits and seeds causes changes within the plants which lead to death. ".

Calif_Sue said:Doesn't it mean "Monocarpic plants are those that flower, set seeds and then die."?

Yes it does Sue. But they may go for years before blooming. By then they have produced many offsets to replace the blooming rosette.

I have experimented with sempervivum this year.
1. I have tried cutting the bloom stalks off as soon as they are finished blooming.
2. Cutting them off as soon as they start growing.
3. Letting them go full cycle producing seeds.
I have had varying results with all 3 procedures. Some will continue making offsets in all three procedures. Most will not produce anymore offsets and just keep making new bloom stalks. Some finish the complete process all the way to mature seed and produce offsets on the dead bloom stalk.

This is Sempervivum 'Raspberry Ice'. When I sent up a bloom stalk I cut it off trying to stop the process. This was a new plant this year and had not made any offsets. When I cut the original bloom stalk out of the rosette it looked like it was going to make offsets. Each offset bloomed, with the exception of one lone offset. I may still have a Raspberry Ice yet.

But I thought the mouseover was more of a description of what it means as it can apply to other plants. Maybe not.

Yes it can apply to other plants that are monocarpic.
Maybe I'm not understanding what your asking Sue. I think my brain is tired.

Well if people are checking off options, they might want to know what Monocarpic actually means, that after it flowers and sets seeds, it dies. The way it looks now, it sounds like a plant that can grow a number of years before it offsets and flowers. There is no mention of it dying. Monocarpic means a plant that dies after flowering, although it may take several years to flower.

You're right, Sue. The mouseover wasn't providing enough clarity.

I have updated the mouseover to say, "Monocarpic plants die after flowering and setting seeds."

Ohhhh, I get it now Sue. I understand what you are saying.

and Lynn, your experiments with the semps is just fascinating, I had always wondered what would happen if you interrupted that bloom stalk cycle.

You just never know from one plant to the next what is going to happen.