Thank you all so much for your caring and encouraging words.
Twit, thank you, thank you for hanging here with me to try saving my much loved Semps. As for having a cool & dark place, I do not. I have a cool place (sun room) but that really is a SUN room. Have just finished spreading them on paper towels in the garage and have a fan blowing on them. Hopefully the heat in the garage will help them dry out sooner. (Wishful thinking, grasping at anything to try saving my babies. They really do look like babies since I stripped them of anything I thought was a danger to them.) Gosh, being a Semp. Mom can be hard work and very heart breaking.
Lynn, these I know are gone from those you sent me Summer 2011..I have the labels and will try replacing every one of them.
Semps from Lynn (Summer 2011) that didn't make it. As of 7/7/12
Atroviolaceum
Braunii
Dolle Dina's
Hirta Sobolifer
KoKo Flannel
Legolas
Olivette
Pacific Blazing Star
Pekinese
Regal
Westerlin. So many of those drying I'm afraid do not stand a chance of survival. The bed will be completely done over before replanting.




Thanks again, I love you all.
Faye

Faye, Hang in there. I see a lot of green on the tables, which is a good sign.

with twit. Faye those should all make it with the loving care you are giving them.
Let me know when your weather decides to cool down, I can send you all of those that are gone.
Afraid if I send them now it will only stress you further trying to keep them going with that kind of heat.
Let me know.

Faye, Since you are going to redo the bed you had the plants in, this would be the best time to come up with a strategy to modify their environment a bit to make the area safer for semps. I'm suggesting perhaps some plants that provide shade during hot sun times, perhaps a tall wall that would do the same, etc.

I have some potted small fruits, such a Nanking Cherry, blueberries, etc that I can move to different locations during the growing season. I find that some of them can be useful for shading sensitive plants. Of course, potted cherries and blueberries have to be watered more in the pot than if they are in the ground, so there is some extra effort involved.

This would also be a good time to increase soil drainage. You could also make sure the bed has a slope to it so that there is runoff, build tiers, use rock layouts, etc.

Think about what would work best for you. I think hotter than usual summers will be with us for a while to come.

I love y'all! Thank you so much for the advice Twit, I will try to do as you suggest. I have lots of potted Brugs. that I can take to the Semp. garden.
Lynn what a sweet offer. When this is all over, the replanting done and I have a pic. of the planted result, I will surely let you know.
I am getting a check in the mail tomorrow to Janice for some replacements.
104 here today and no rain in sight. The grass is so dry it hurts feet, and the ground has cracked open. Really is bad.

[...here is my Oddity, recently acquired. There are quite a few variations on the leaf shapes, and formations.]

This year some of mine are varying there leaf shape, and changing back to the tubes. Just like twit told us about.

mine seem to have become open tubes.. The bigger leaves are flatter too.. strange things, no wonder they're called Oddity!

I've been keeping an eye on the little ones Lynn sent me, too... they are fun to watch!

The weird spike appears to be just offsets, multiple on a single stolon and vertical, rather than the flower I had hoped. I still have yet to see any 'Oddity' bloom.

Here is one of my Oddity that is doing the changing leaf thing.


Here is a colony, which has several normal offsets that I need to remove. You can see one of the from last fall that I placed next to the colony, to see if it will produce offsets with the tube leaves. It looks like the normal rosette is producing an odd leafed offset. Or not, will have to wait until it gets larger to be able to tell.

[...here's my Oddity, losing outer leaves, but very healthy and green in the centre, I think it's adapting to its new environment! The centre also looks like it's bursting with new leaves!]

It is looking wonderful Pia. It is normal to have some leaf die off with new plants.
It is already taking off in growth. Good job.

Thank you Lynn! I'm really enjoying owning this one! :D I will keep you all updated on how it gets on!

here is my Oddity now, it is absolutely flourishing and getting a LOT more colour. Very nice plant to own.

A lovely specimen Pia. Next year you will have many of them, they reproduce nicely.
The leaf shape is so interesting.

[...thank you so much, I haven't had any other Semp that has settled in so fast and happy, shame it is Autumn so it will go into dormancy soon. It had hardly no purple on the tips of the leaves and now it is getting a wonderful vampy purple shade! It would appear that the leaves are also reverting to their flat state, and I can not see any new closed tubes coming from the centre.
Does anybody know if I can leave this one outside for the winter?]

Twit has reported that his will do that, and return to the tube state. I have had some of mine do that also.

Mine stays outside all year.