NEILMUIR1 said: … sometimes people get to such an obsession about naming things that they forget to look at the sheer beauty that nature gave us.

What's "wrong" with this picture?...Well, it's of a Noid.
A couple of years ago, on our way to an important medical appt., we passed by an unfamiliar nursery. Hubby said "Want to take a quick look?" The quick look resulted in the purchase of the pictured handsome Sempervivum with a label attached. I have, ever since, referred to that semp as the "Drive-By Semp Buy". Later on I found that the semp was mislabeled but that did not change how I felt about it. It was purchased on an important day as my hubby was diagnosed with cancer but that semp purchase was the one sliver of sunshine for that day.
I have never tried to ID it. I love the way it looks. It doesn't look like anything else I have; I found it and it's mine.

valleylynn said: We support you in whatever semp you want to own.

IN the mid 90's I started collecting semps and threw the ID tags away. For my projects, I chose to buy semps for their distinctive attributes of color, texture, size and ease of care.
Now my collection is 2/3 ID'ed and 1/3 not. It is the 1/3 with no names that draw me closer to take a good look and appreciate the distinctive features of each and every one.

Do any of you keep Noids? Why or why not?

A reminder: It is not the intent of this thread to identify any Noids shown here. Please let us just show off, discuss and enjoy their qualities!

Bev, this is such a lovely post. Yes I keep NOIDs. Some are just so pretty. I have a grouping of noids in my rockery that I pulled at Patty's when we all had breakfast there. I call that little planting Patty's Place. I walk by that several times a day walking the dog. Wonderful memories of a beautiful weekend with friends. I also have many planted under my upright sedums. Many are some of my first semps.

springcolor said:... my noid patch ... Love these guys, never give me a headache with tracking names....

Yes, I still stand by that. No reasurch either trying to see if your named semp is really the real deal.

haha so Bev are we going to get quoted as we post??? You don't need to quote me I'm okay! I love all of them named or not, it is truly a headache keeping the labels. I had one the other day that faded because it was just a written label, for the life of me I could not figure out what the heck it was! Turned out it was Positively Glowing - there was the P at the beginning that I could read (although for a moment I thought it was an F and therfore the semp could have been Fashion Diva, but the second word had too many letters...on and on...so much more relaxing with the NOIDs...With that said, trading NOIDs is a headache, taking pictures and comparing and then realizing that it is exactly what you already had but their growing conditions made it slightly different in the time frame of the share...So labels do serve their purpose for me and I try to keep them accurate, and if I lose a label, I have my NOID areas and pots to plant in and I no longer feel too bad about the loss of the label!
AND now I have to find a pic...

ooooh love that noid Bev nothing wrong with it at all not a thing!

(and yes, of course, I 'keep' noids, or they 'keep' me, or something--more on that later, the why question (why not?) and all that--but, much later, maybe like February when I take that kinda time )

Bev, what a beautiful NOID, and also an important memory attached to it. And yes, I do have a few NOIDs, and I love them every bit as much as the named semps. How could I not?

About half of my semps are NOIDs. At first I only had NOIDs until I found the first named ones in a local nursery.
(Correctly) Named ones are save - you can search them by name and you can easily find photo documentation about their colouring in different seasons. No surprises.
NOIDs lack this documentation completely - you find them in any small nursery and they're full of surprises. Some are very distinct, others just blend in and never get an interesting colour and shape.
I love stopping by at small nurseries that may sometimes only have a selection of 3 or 4 NOIDs and select the most beautiful one for my collection. I just came back from Italy with 4 NOIDs from different sources. No clue how they will look next year... but that makes them interesting all year round.

Michael how beautiful! Yes exactly what I like about them too!
Bev, sorry Lynn's post reminded me of your original post here - and yes it is nice to have a plant (or several) to commemorate a specific time!
Peace to all of us! I think semps are kind of the family plant, constant offsets so you have to give them away (especially if you're like me not wanting to compost any plants) they help us carry on community!
Thanks people for being a part of this!

I just gave away a variety of potted greenish NOIDs to my mother and as my nephew and niece ware also there I made them select their favourite ones to take home. My sister does not have a green thumb and my niece's first question was "are these plants that will never rot?". The next day my nephew told me the good news that the plants were out in the garden in their pots and still alive!
Before he had tried to keep a strawberry plant indoors - he never put it outdoors, "because it could get wet and cold in the rain". Unfortunately it did not survive his good care...
Hopefully they'll have more luck with the semps. For next year I promised some red ones to my niece. She asked for seeds, but it might make more sense to give her offsets instead.

CDsSister said:…To mix and mess with quotes "a semp is a semp is a semp and regardless the name would look as sweet"

I have about a dozen NOids and I try to keep them in the same area in hopes that, one day, someone will ID on or more of 'em. I can dream ...

The ones I've kept all have some reason to BE kept: color, shape, fecundity, and/or form. I have a large lavender one that is stunning for the entire season and I sell a lot of it - but I have no idea what its' name is. Customers don't mind, so I don't, either.

Oh Kate, do you have a photo of that lavender one?

Yes photo please!

I have 2 window boxes full of NOIDs, some happen because they were mislabeled when purchased, some happen cause label is lost, some happen cause they were given to me as NOIDs

valleylynn said:Even those of us that are into carefully keeping names with the semps have the occasional NOIDS...

Question: How does a NOID get into semp collections?

Weather?

clintbrown said:The storm blew away two of my Semp tags last night. I think I'll just call them Clint's Delight.

Happenstance?

CDsSister said:...Most of mine are gradually turning into NOIDs as I move things around and tags get lost. It is fun to just enjoy them isn't it?

Sherri said: ...I have a really pretty NOID from Twit ...Once upon a time it had a name, I just managed to lose it.....

Runaways?

Eviesmummy said:I agree with you and Bev, I have lots of noids since I planted my rockery, lots of babies fell off during moving and now I don't have a clue what they are lol...

Temptation?

stilldew said:This…NOID. I've been resisting buying it because I really just want name ones, but I gave in and brought it home today…

Consensus Taking?

twitcher said:... It is quite common to see no-id seedlings emerge in a pot or colony when the pot or colony is older. One will not notice a new seedling for whatever reason until it gets large enough to stand out. Thus it is likely that the odd one in the pot is but a stranger taking advantage of the opportunity to grow in a new home. To preserve the named variety, the odd ones should be moved to another home ...or weeded out.

Nature's Soldiers?

Patty said: ... The only ones I'm babying are the chicklettes that the night crawlers keep moving

Patty said:... they don't eat the semps or hurt them in any way. But they are so large that when they come up and move around they take my newly planted chicklets with them! Sometimes I find them 8-10" away. It can cause ID problems if I don't catch them right away, or if I'm not sure where it belongs. I have been trying to anchor them down with hairpins but sometimes they still manage to move them!

Mis-Spellings?

banker07 said:...sometimes you're talking about Rachel - sometimes about Rachael; but that are two different cultivars !! Sometimes a single letter makes the difference Peter

goldfinch4 said: Yes Peter, one letter can mean a completely different plant! I'd better do some more checking on this.

Browsing thru "small" nurseries?

parttimegardener said: NOIDs... - you find them in any small nursery and they're full of surprises. Some are very distinct, others just blend in and never get an interesting colour and shape.

Distraction and Magic?

TerriStanley said: .... Yet somehow, somewhere along the line someone made a mistake or wasn't paying attention or simply didn't know better. Abracadabra, I have another noid!

Wow Bev! You did some great research and collation there regarding the mystery of NOIDs! Good job .

What fun. Thank you so much Bev. Blasts from the past.

Yes... there are NOIDS in my garden.

A couple NOIDs I have were simply purchased without ID. But most were purchased but the wrong plant was delivered. The latter I prefer to dispose of as I consider them impostors, through no fault of their own. The ones I bought with no ID attached... I did that knowingly by my own choice.

Semps are the only plant that I have ever collected, at least to such a large number. It's the only plant I have bothered with labels.

I do keep some NOIDs but I admit that I prefer not to have any more going forward. Knowing what I have, and what I'm getting, and what I'm giving is now a real consideration. Of course if I saw something that I really wanted with no ID on it... I'll make an exception.

Another issue is that I may (ever so) occasionally get rid of a cultivar that I feel is not performing, or just is not my cup of tea. I want to know its ID so I don't repeat the experience.

Having said all this, the one cultivar that I selected from which to make a large colony, is in fact a NOID. I chose it because it looks great, performs in this relatively shady area, holds its color all year, and seems like a shy bloomer. I'm talking about the little Calcareum starts you can see in this picture. I am hoping for them to grow out and expand in the same way its "parent" did. So far, they seem to be on their way.
And BTW, the red one in the center is also a NOID.

Great read Bev! Thank you! Tim that is going to look great!