to valleylynn :
An honor and a priviledge to meet you!
Unfortunately some of the links you posted, such as for Perennial Obsessions, my Safari browser denies me access (the message posted as an image below) … so strange that I have no problem with websites such as this >
https://yt.suwon.go.kr/
which is the government website in the city in Korea that my daughter's mother is from!
I remember that many years ago there was a place near Dallas (the exact name of the community I do not remember) that I did purchase sedums and sempervivums - at the time there were several choice cultivars being offered.
I am truly amazed at what's out there now (in 2019) ! It looks like another planet as far as sempervivum cultivars have come, with such fascinating "outer space" forms and neon colors. My daughter mentioned that she was interested in some kind of plants that would do OK in tiny pots, and weren't very fussy about too dry for too long, etc. Besides some miniature cactus maybe, I thought that sedum and sempervivum fit that bill exactly.
In Europe, where slate roofs are common, northern Europe especially, and Scandinavia, they are thrown on the roof purposefully to seal the joints between the slates; why some people call them "house leeks"
Tai's mother knew what they were when I said "hen and chicks" - I introduced them to her when I had a nursery in SE Portland in the mid-1980s. I don't know what the Korean name is yet, but they sure know what they are in Korea (amazingly popular there, and in Japan and China also - almost like a fetish), so I will learn it and teach it to her (and daughter).
Anyway, I'm going to buy a hundred "fairy garden" size clay pots (1 3/8") on ebay, some super nice cultivars, and get her started, and she can take it from there. That is the plan, anyway. I know that all of you knowledgeable and cordial people will assist her, and I am grateful.
to ediblelandscaping : Hi Daniel in Catawba SC and family. Hope the rain from Dorian comes as a blessing for your drought, while others are suffering so greatly in the Bahamas.
to pardalinum : those look like slates to me (your flat rocks), what they use in parts of Europe on the roofs of buildings. Perfect for growing sempervivum and sedum on. In all of the villages, towns and cities of Europe that I've been through, I've never actually seen them growing on roofs, since the buildings are so tall and the streets so narrow; often so narrow that only pedestrians can use them. But I don't doubt it to be true, since here at my house they (a type of sedum, and some encroaching sempervivum along with them) are growing on the edges of concrete steps and sidewalks where it was bare concrete before. And very hot in the Summertime.
The sedum is green during part of the year, and quite red during other seasons, and some of you probably know which one I'm talking about. I found it in the mid-1970s growing on basalt outcroppings and cliffside along the Willamette River in Oregon City and further south toward Canby, in the vicinity of Canemah and New Era. I brought back maybe half a pound of them here in a backpack, planted them in a small rock garden planter, and since then, they've spread far and wide on this property, often appearing in surprising places. For many years the spread had been slow, but in the last 10 years, they have really stepped it up in their self-propagation; mainly since I think now, for some reason, they have begun to produce viable seeds and are now spreading that way, instead of purely vegetatively.
I notice that bees of several kinds constantly visit the plants now when they are flowering - before they were not that much interested in the flowers. So that's a change worth noting.
The sempervivum species that I have growing here, by the hundreds, is the common green "hen-and-chicks" with the reddish blush at the leaf terminals. Again, right away many of you know which one it is (the botanical & common name). I purchased a few cultivars from that nursery near Dallas, Oregon (that I mentioned previously) in the late 1970s or early 1980s and they've established themselves very well on the sides of retaining walls in several locations.
I told a neighbor many many years ago, giving him some "chicks", how people throw them on roofs to stop the leaks ("house leeks") and sure enough, a few years later, his shed in the back yard was completely covered with them! I was really sad to see that he had torn the shed down and hauled it off (30 years ago), and that beautiful roof along with it, but I wasn't here at the time to rescue the plants.
Well, shortly I'll be back in it, in a small way, with my daughter and her two daughters, since I have one bench mostly cleared in my 15 ft. square fiberglass greenhouse, built in the early 1970s, the original fiberglass and structural redwood framing still intact. Dad and I did an excellent job building it while I was taking a course in Ornamental Horticulture at Clackamas Community College. Dad, you did a great job, instructing me all the way (R.I.P.) Steve Jobs, what a marvelous invention, your computer and OS (operating system) - all I did when I bought it in 2009 was plug it in, and it began prompting me what to do next! Next step, next step, etc. and finally ON the WWW. It's still working just as well as the day I bought it ~ Steve R.I.P.
