Lynn,
I don't know how much weight I'll put on blooms, especially because you have to wait clear till the end of all the plants life cycles to make the appropriate selection, but I do have a Clairchin x self batch of seed. If I get some seedlings I may try for the biggest, roundest blooms I can get, using only this group to select from. It really is something to see a voluptuous bloom on any succulent, especially a sempervivum, if I can get a better size than the parent plant the offspring might be able to compete with Lewisia's!
Another bloom I was enamored with was 'Pacific Magic Knight', also a really big flower, the pistils are particularly wide, large and are also pink, adding to the appeal. 'PMK' also has short bloom stalks, with a big bloom it's an interesting contrast.
With respect to crossing Sempervivum ciliosum fr/ Ali Botusch, I think using it to add fur to a particularly large cultivar would be worthwhile especially because it sounds like it's the biggest Ciliosum. Another idea would be to cross it with a plant that has a lot of color, furry plants with good color are hard to come by. In my crosses with borisii this year I crossed with reds, velvets and firballs. I'm trying hard to get a distinctive fur pattern not already out there, and seeing as Ciliosum's are rarely hybridized I thought it would make a good candidate to accomplish that goal. In addition to the above I'd like to mention that it contributes its round shape and dense leaf build to it's offspring, so it might be a miracle cure for bad spindly form. Just a few thoughts
Kevin,
The 'Frosch Konig' bloom does sound pretty. I wonder what it's parents are.
This winter may not be as cold as the last but I think it's been much wetter. Voles and Moles sound like a big threat to young seedlings, I'm thankful not to have any here. However something has been eating my seedlings at a frustrating rate, I think it's slugs but its hard to imagine a slug eating a semp clear down to it's base. I used pesticides on the part of the garden that was getting hit the worst and chomp marks started showing up in other places of the garden, I may have to spray the whole thing! So far none of the effected plants have died, but as you can imagine little semp stumps don't look very attractive and won't be judgable any time soon.
-Sol
