I've received several incorrect semps this season. There was the 'Zelda', 'Proud Zelda' kerfuffle, I ordered 'More Honey' and recieved something that now look very similar to 'Pacific Rim'. It doesn't instill a lot of confidence if the "go to" semp nursaries are shipping incorrect plants!

Terri please do report to the nurseries - it takes all of us 'correcting' them to get them to keep focused on those of us who actually care about a specific semp!

Well, on the bright side, I have a ton of Not Strider so that's one way to thin my beds!

When you get new plants be sure to keep a record of their progress in appearance. If you are at all unsure please post and we will help you get it straightened out.
Remember newly acquired semps can appear quite different from normal appearance until they establish.

Terri, did we have a discussion on your 'More Honey'? If not we can start a new thread to discuss it?

TerriStanley said:I ordered 'More Honey' and recieved something that now look very similar to 'Pacific Rim'. It doesn't instill a lot of confidence if the "go to" semp nursaries are shipping incorrect plants!

True enough. And 'More Honey' is easily distinguishable from 'Pacific Rim', so your conclusion of having the wrong plant is quite likely correct.

Funny thing... I recall over the last month looking at 'Strider' and 'Bronco' in my garden, noticing the similarity, and asking myself... "why do I need both of these?". I figured I'd wait and see if they would go through different phases... but I doubt it now.

Does this look like a Strider??? It get's very large, has open thin leaves, always a good red even here in this pic where it has been in the greenhouse (it's usually darker)This picture is a bit overexposed also. One feature of this plant that I thought was part of the reason for it being called Strider is that it has long thin stolons and even the babies get large pretty quick.You can see the stolens already out to the ends of the leaves in this picture. I'm sure i can find some out in the can lot with the long stolons and large babies at this time of year. It does not bolt to flower as easily as Treebeard from the same series. Yes I have been a huge Tolkein fan since the 1960s. The plants kind of match the characters they are named after. Frodo is a good example.
I am so glad you are around too Kevin. If this is not it then I have another noid too and it looks nothing like bronco.

Jo Ann, that is definitely different from what some of us have. Where did you get it? Was it labelled as 'Strider' from that source?

Jo Ann,

That plant looks MUCH closer!

Kevin

Kevin, 'Strider' has a satin texture. Jo Ann's semp has a velvet texture.

Ah I didn't see the velvet! It looked smooth until I blew it up. The shape is close though.

Kevin

I just looked at the sempervivum patch pictures. Looks like 4 different varieties and the last one looks like Bronco when it has had too much sum and not enough water
Lynn, I can see why you think my pic looks velvety but I am sure the plant is not.
I will go and check tomorrow and get some more pics. I got it from Wayne. We are both Tolkein fans and we got a lot of them when they first became available. Some have gone by the wayside. and Treebeard which is similar is about to go as it blooms befrore producing chicks to the point where it is hard to get enough to sell. I thought I could select away from that trait and perhaps i could if i kept at it for another 10 years. We'll see. pics tomorrow

First the sun was too bright even in the shade ...then it was too dark. Will try again tomottow for pic. Checked the leaves. not velvety but not shiny smooth either. hmmm

@ricos Jo Ann can you bring some of your Strider to clinic? Very pretty.

Should it look something like this?

Wow, I love a good mystery, this is a good mystery. In the semp world, surprised there isn't a much higher level of mis-ID. Looking back through my own old records and catalogs, the catalogs offered little info, it was in the "featured cultivar" articles in SFAN newsletters that serves as substantial evidence of what these early cultivars were.

Melissa that is not 'Strider'.

This is a photo of 'Strider' from Howards Wills.


And Chris' photos look like the same thing as Fernwood's photos.

Mark, do you have a written description of 'Strider' in one of those old catalogs?

valleylynn said:Mark, do you have a written description of 'Strider' in one of those old catalogs?

I have a lot of old catalogs, would take a while to go through them all, and not all of my catalogs were preserved. From Red's Rhodies & Alpine Gardens catalog in 1985 (6 years after Betty Bronow's registration of 'Strider'), I was living in the Seattle area at the time, 'Strider' is described as "long strap like shiny blood-red leaves with a fine white edge of hairs. Large. (B. Bronow)".

In the 1986 catalog the following year, the description of 'Strider' added the detail "Open rosette that becomes quite large".

Jo Ann's fits the description? What do you think?

That certainly fits more to Jo Ann's semp that what we have in the database.

@JungleShadows, Kevin do you have any written descriptions in any of your old catalogs?