Hey
@Natalie
I'm going to weigh in here too, not that I'm an expert or anything or even know very much about how we are *supposed* to grow these lovely plants, but I do know how I have been growing them and that is
like cute little weeds, tucked in here, there, and everywhere--on a whim, as part of some half-hatched plan, as a complete afterthought--in all manner of conditions from sun to shade, from good soil to crappy soil, and everything in between.
They really are amazingly tolerant of ignorance
I guess I just presumed that they don't like drowning, but other than that I just assumed that they could pretty much grow anywhere/anyhow because, well, they do, somehow, for me anyway...
I have only recently learned that they don't like to bake in the hot sun, all day... but really, my ones that fry in the sun all day actually do better than the ones that get choked out in the deep shade of competition when the other plants grow up and crowd them. So I find that it is those that end up being too shaded that I end up moving.
I'll bet you could make some fine planting pockets between rocks. Grit is better than sand for improving drainage. And semps are short so you can kinda shade them with the rocks themselves. Go for it!
This is a southwest facing street corner garden.
I didn't know any better, and I planted semps all around that big, broken shale rock, and in the rock.
No shade, nada, none.
Well okay, maybe a little bit from the fire hydrant
but really, this is brutally hot and dry here. We usually top out in the nineties, but occasionally hit triple digits for longer than anyone wants to, and it doesn't get watered (I am going to have to figure out how to water it some this year).
I ran around and took some sunset pics of abused semps for ya, after a dry winter and no spring rains either
...to encourage you to try whatever you want with your rocks and anything else
world's tiniest semp in the rock--on top, in a crevice, about 2in deep--it's still okay, and is just about to run out of crevice so I'll be spreading it around soon.
and a few of the kinda pretty ones from the rock pile
I tell myself that if they have a cool root run under the rocks that they don't mind so much
but I really don't know if that's true or not.
I also have quite a few in little dishes with no root run that get too much sun too.
like these are alive but they don't look as well right now as their counterparts in the ground
I think because they have nowhere to go to find water and I haven't been running around watering all the stuff desperate for water like I probably should
the rollers seem to be extraordinarily resilient and I tried 'planting' a few in this rock last fall
sorry it's kind of a bad picture, but you can see a few on this side, more on the other side--most of them rolled away over the winter and are down there with the tulips waaaaay happier than the ones struggling on this rock (okay, I'm going to run around tomorrow and water stuff--
weekend)
a rock 'bowl' someone split open for me and left laying around because the geode wasn't cool enough, and a sandstone dish my honey made for me
so yeah, they don't belong in the best pics thread
or look as great as well cared for sempy's but they can and do grow in a variety of adverse conditions and they are so very much fun you really should try some
