I was shocked today to see these stalks growing out of my Hens & Chicks. They grow well in this rocky sidewalk border on the East side of my home.

Good news is they are bloomiing. Bad news is they die after blooming so hopefully, they have grown some little Semps to replace themselves.

Plenty of youngsters at the base(s) already.

Thank you! I've never seen them bloom before.

Usually they will only bloom when the rosette is around 4 or 5 years old, sometimes older. Yours is such a soft green color, lovely. If you want to you can let the seed self sow and with luck little seedlings will come up next spring. Or you can harvest the seed and plant just before your growing season starts. If you do this you need to keep the seed in the frig over winter.

@valleylynn, thank you for the tips. How do I go about collecting the seed? Is there an obvious pod or should I use the paper bag method? I am desperately trying to learn how to grow succulents and have had iffy success. These guys however have been mostly forgotten outside and lived through several winters. They are also in front of a gutter downspout which makes no sense to me since i've heard that it's better to starve them of water than give too much. Oh well, nature knows best! I'm glad they are happy enough to blossom. Maybe I should take the ones I am trying to grow in my sunroom and plop them out there with the others!?

Oh no, you have some in the house? They would be much happier outside.
Okay, on collecting the seed, the seed is so tiny it is like dust. So wait until the blooms are all finished the the seed capsules (the the bloom petals where attached) turn brown and almost crispy. Carefully cut the bloom stalk making sure to hold it upright. Place a paper bag over the top and quickly turn the whole thing (bag and bloomstalk) upside down, so the bloomstalk is now upside down in the bag. Fold the top over and place in a cool dry place in your garage or house. In a few weeks they should be finished drying. Once they are nice and crispy dry, gentle massage the sides of the bag so the tiny seeds will fall from the capsules. Open the bag and hold the end of the bloomstalk and gently shake it against the inside of the bag. Remove bloomstalk and throw it away.
Using a piece of white printer paper, folded in the middle, empty the bag of seeds very gently (remember the seed is like dust) onto the white paper. You should do this in the house where there is not breeze/fans going, or you will lose your seed.
You will need an air tight container (small envelop, small glasine envelop, or the tiny zip lock bags), gather the edges of the paper together using the fold down the center to pour your seeds into your container. If it is a paper envelop place it in a ziplock bag, seal and place in the frig until the end of winter. That is when you will plant the seed.
The winter sow method works very well for sempervivum seed.
https://garden.org/ideas/view/...

Lynn, thank you so much for your kind and perfectly detailed instructions; I was easily able to visualize each step. Bless you! I would like to keep you up to date with the success or not that I have with these plants if you are interested?

Have a happy Thursday! Terri

I would love to keep up with what you are doing. And photos along the process would be awesome. I love photos. I am such a visual person. I'll go out and see if I can get you a photo of a seed stalk ready to harvest.

And you have a happy Thursday also Terri.

Here is a photo taken this morning. It is not ready to harvest. It still has a soft feel to the touch, you can still see green in places, down in the middle of the seed heads. This will probably be ready to harvest in a couple of weeks.