Garage Sale

There is a garage sale of sorts next to my greenhouse Saturday, June 6 and I am planning to set up a table to sell an old bike and some ice machines from various shoulder/knee surgeries in the family. And some succulents. Unless I get cold feet, I will offer some of my best succulents for sale to free up some room. My propagation bowl will be A PROBLEM soon as some of the 30+ sprouts are approaching an inch high with multiple sets of leaves. Here is what I'm planning to put on the block. Sure you can get examples of these for less...in a 2-inch plastic pot that hasn't seen the sun for weeks. These are my best plants which have spent the past month in my greenhouse and the months before that under grow lights. They are well-rooted and mostly in terra cotta pots. I'll probably go right out and buy a small 'Lola' to replace the big one if it sells.

Description and prices, from upper left:

• Sempervivum, unknown webbed variety, $25.
• Echeveria 'Lola,' $25.
• Echeveria 'Red Sky,' $25
• Aeonium 'Floresens,' $30
• Next row, Sempervivum, unknown variety, $25.
• Echeveria 'Neon Breakers,' $25.
• Echeveria 'Perle Von Nurnberg,' $25.
• Echeveria 'Blue Curls,' $25.
• Next row, Haworthia 'Fairy Washboard,' $20.
• Sempervivum heuffelii, unknown variety $20.
• Pachyphytum compactum 'Little Jewel,' $20.
• Jade, $15.
• Echeveria, unknown from Trader Joe's, $20.
• Not pictured, Graptopetalum paraguayense 'Ghost Plant,' format and price not set yet.
• Not pictured, Echeveria 'Lilac Mist,' three rosettes in 6-inch terra cotta pot, $30.
• Not pictured, Pachyphytum 'Apricot Beauty,' $20 in 4-inch terra cotta pot.
• And of course, multiple examples of Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic,' $15 in 6-inch plastic pot, $7 well rooted (potted 3 months ago) in 4-inch plastic pot, and $4 recent cuttings (3 weeks ago) in 4-inch plastic pot. I have 12 of the recent cutting pots and will throw one in for free with any other purchase, limit one and while supplies last.
• Also some herbs in 6-inch pots: Rosemary $10, Peppermint $5, one chive plant $5.

I have mixed feelings about doing this. I want to keep everything and see what these plants will do this summer, but my collection cannot be static. There is too much in the pipeline. I'm not planning on dickering; the price is the price. Maybe I'll let a Peppermint go for $3. I only raised them because they are easy to grow and the deer don't eat them.

I accept cash, Venmo and Paypal. The event is sponsored by local Realtors who I happen to know quite well.

Potting Up

The Sempervivum I refer to as Unknown #3 has grown considerably and has developed three stolons that were spilling out of the 4-inch pot in which it had resided since January. Today I potted it up in a 6-inch squat pot...and the stolons are still overhanging the sides. I'm not going to put it in an 8-inch, so it is going to have to figure it out. My goal for this year to to convert one of the greenhouse beds to a hardy succulent bed so these plants can spread out, but that is a project for late summer since I have to replace at least half the soil with pumice and coir to improve the drainage. I stuck pepper and tomato plants in that soil today, and it is almost mud when it is wet.

Here #3 is at center with five other succulents I potted up two days ago. The five were all in 2-inch plastic pots and they moved up to 4-inch terra cotta, except the Haworthia Cooperii on the right which got 4-inch plastic. I already have way too many Cooperii offsets to deal with from the plant I received from Ramsey's March 7 and I'm not giving this one a real pot. The other four are, from left, Crassula 'Campfire,' Jade, Pachyphytum 'Apricot Beauty,' and Haworthia limifolia 'Fairy Washboard.' Like a good little succulent propagator, none of these plants had been watered in the days after potting...but I drenched them after the photo was taken. The 'Fairy Washboard' in particular is rather small in a 4" pot, but 2" pots are hard to keep watered so I made the move.

Here is little #3 back in January, a green rosette with no other color and no distinguishing features.

Each of these plants have their own story. Unknown #3 is a survivor of the Semperpocalypse. 'Campfire' was a sickly little pup next to the main plant when it came out of the Ramsey's box March 7. The Jade is a cutting. The 'Fairy Washboard' is one of several pups that were harvested March 8, less than a month after I got the original plant at Home Depot.

And then there is 'Apricot Beauty.' I received it from The Next Gardener on March 17, and coming out of the box it looked like it had been hit with a grenade. All of the leaves were missing from one side of the main stalk, and in fact the main stalk eventually died. There was a little side shoot that was on a stalk that was decaying, so I beheaded it and hoped for the best. It grew, and that is what you see in the image. The Next Gardener sent me a replacement plant, and that one is doing OK but is tilted at a severe angle and it is still in garage rehab. I'll probably have to behead that one also to get it to grow straight. The 'Apricot Beauty' that is making the transition to the greenhouse tomorrow is the one pictured above. It already has its ID tag, #105. So 10 weeks after I was supposed to get it, I now have a small but presentable 'Apricot Beauty.' I also took a cutting of an offshoot of the replacement plant (see below).

Also going back to the greenhouse, of course, is Sempervivum #3. Several other Semps are sending out stolons, including 'Berry Blues.' Some of the stolons are overspilling the edge of the pot, but this one stopped short and is putting down roots. It is one of the two Semps I have in 8-inch pots, but if I did that for all of them I would have no room.

In other propagation news, I went through the succulent pots in the greenhouse and scooped out any fallen leaves that were growing roots or little leaves. I now have almost 30 tiny plants in the bowl in my office. There's another 30 leaves in the other bowl, some of which have roots but no little leaves yet. This seems like it is about to get real and I really won't have any room. I'm actually contemplating the sale of some of my larger succulents in part to manage the available space.

And finally, Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy' is the most recent to develop a flower stalk. It hasn't extended beyond the body of the plant yet, but it's coming.

More #105: This is the replacement 'Apricot Beauty' order. It's not real apparent from this angle, but as I mentioned, the main plant is tilted about 30 degrees. The situation wasn't quite as dire as with the original plant, but I beheaded a side shoot and waited for it to put out roots before putting it in a 4" plastic pot. The plant on the right looks very much like the one I potted yesterday, just a few weeks behind.

Crassulas

The Jade may be the only Crassula with which many are familiar, but it is a diverse genus of 200 species. Some Crassulas take quite unusual forms that look nothing like the classic Jade, like this 'Coastal Coral' I found at Garden Avenue in Billings last month. I put it in a 3D-printed pot. Plastic pots do not dry out quickly so I have to be careful not to overwater it.

These two came out of Home Depot bowls a couple months ago and were not identified. I believe the one on the left is a type of 'Gollum' and the other one is 'Ogre Ears.' Comparing this older image with the ones I got yesterday, these are not fast-growing plants. The biggest change is the top half of 'Ogre Ears' was very yellow when I first got it. That started to fade to green after I put it in good light.

At the other end of the growth spectrum, this one doubled in size in the 10 weeks since I acquired it from Ramsey's Succulents, Crassula sarmentosa f. variegata 'Comet,' The leaves are thinner compared to other Crassulas, and it could be used in a hanging basket as a spiller.

Crassula capitella 'Campfire' also is showing growth in recent weeks, but has not developed its trademark bright red coloring yet. This plant dies after flowering (monocarpic, like Sempervivums) so its pups should be propagated. I have one little one that I salvaged out of the original shipping pot from Ramsey's.

Next is Crassula cv. 'Buddha's Temple.' I have two of these, the larger one pictured here (The Next Gardener) and a smaller one I acquired separately (Garden Avenue, Billings) that I stuck in one of the big bowls. This one doesn't do much and is showing some wilting toward the top, so I am uncertain of its future. I may have to dig the little one out of the bowl if this one declines.

Here is Crassula perforata variegata, Variegated 'String of Buttons' from Walmart. I forget about it because I had it stuck in a big bowl for the longest time, but it really is one of the highlights of my group of Crassulas.

Not pictured, Crassula rupestris 'Rosary Plant' (Home Depot) which doesn't look as good as it did three months ago, and Crassula capitella ssp. Thyrsiflora 'Pagoda Village' which was featured in the recent Grow Lights post. Of course I have to end with the classic Jade, of which I have two in real pots and several others propagating in plastic pots and trays. The larger pot (Ace Hardware) has five stalks and I really should divide it. To make room, I should find a good home for my smaller pot (Walmart). Comparing the images, they are not the same shade of green and never have been. The smaller one has always been darker and shows a bit more character. The largest cutting I have came from this pot, so if I dispose of this one I still have the diversity.

My favorite YouTube channel for Jades is Everything Plants, produced by a Canadian dude named Jeff who posts about different types of houseplants but in reality is mostly about Jades. If you are squeamish about pruning your Jade, watch him chop the hell out of his and come out the other side with big plants with thick trunks. Developing a tree-like trunk takes years and I'm a long way from that point.

Recents

I have a routine when I get a new succulent. I take a snapshot the day I get it and pot it up within a day. I wait a few days before watering, then I take a better picture. If I go with the full focus-stacking and a tripod, it can be tedious and I might procrastinate. I was looking for a good image of Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy' acquired locally April 14 and realized I had never taken one. So here are two. These are snapshots with my small camera, but they are better than what I had from last month. This is an example of a local store (in this case Nana's Bloomers in Laurel, Montana) having plants that look far better than anything I have ever received through the mail.

The next two are from a Mountain Crest Gardens order received May 16, Graptoveria 'Titubans Variegata' and Echeveria 'Muesli.' Both were potted in large coffee cups with holes drilled in them, the Grapto in a yellow Menard's cup and the Echeveria in a Badlands National Park cup. The first was cheap, the second was not.

Sometimes I delay taking pictures because the plant looks lousy at unboxing. That was the case with Echeveria 'Linda Jean' aka 'Rob Roy' which was in rough shape when I got it from The Next Gardener March 17. Two months of neglect and it looks fine now.

There are a couple of other plants from an April 30 Succulents Depot order that I'm waiting on to take images. Echeveria 'Atlantis' had some leaf damage it just needs to grow out of. I got two copies of Echeveria 'Blue Rose' that I want to grow just a little bit more.

And now for something completely different. One of the survivors of the February Semperpocalypse was this roller named 'Budai Mountains' (Mountain Crest Gardens). The purple balls are the rollers that have been attached to the plant ever since I got it Feb. 7. The green balls are new rollers that started forming this spring. I don't know if the purple balls will ever roll away to form new plants or if it is up to the new crop of green balls. The purple balls that are still attached look viable; I'm not so sure about the one off to the right that has detached, which seems smaller.

Grow Lights and Plant Retailers

Your typical succulents YouTuber is in southern California or Australia. Maybe northern California. As I watch their videos, I am stunned that they can leave their tender succulents outside all the time and sometimes even plant them in the ground. These are concepts that I can't wrap my mind around. My tender succulents spent the winter in a garage heated to between 50 and 55 Fahrenheit. My hardy succulents spent part of the winter in an unheated greenhouse and half of them froze to death.

Also, up north, our winter nights are longer than those down south. In the depth of winter, southern California gets more than an hour more daylight than southern Montana. The succulents in my garage were under grow lights 14 hours per day.

When shopping for grow lights, you quickly discover you have to sort through hundreds of choices. The first one I got is an imposing FECiDA full spectrum panel (8.4 inch by 12.4 inch) with a dimming switch and its own cooling fan. I use it with an external timer. It's an excellent light and it kept a lot of plants alive in my garage closet this winter, but it would be clumsy to deploy a bunch of them. So my next acquisition was a mistake. It is two lights on a flimsy stand and not much power. The brand name is LBW, as if that means anything. If you adjust the light heads at all, you have to dig out the little wrench that came with them and re-tighten the nuts. The timer can only be set for 3, 6 and 12 hours, which is not useful when most advice is to run 14-16 hours a day. It cannot be connected to an external timer.

The next lights I got were SANSI LED bulbs, which are excellent lights. But they are like spotlights and do not cover a wide area. Finally I discovered Barrina Grow Lights, which are long LED strips that simulate tubes. I got the 2-footers in a package of six and attached them to my 3-foot-wide garage shelves. The reason I got the shorter lights was I figured I could transfer them back and forth winter/summer to the narrower shelves I have in the greenhouse. And recently I did move the two-footers to the greenhouse, where they fit perfectly. But I don't want to move them back, so today I received and installed in the garage Barrina 3-footers, also a package of six. I saved $25 (about 25%) versus new by ordering "Used - very good" from Amazon. One light had a big dent in it and there were lots of cosmetic scrapes on the light reflectors, so the description of the condition was dishonest in my opinion. But they work fine and I'm not going to go through the hassle of returning them and reordering at a higher price. Just remember when you see a 25% discount on Amazon that Bezos did not get rich by giving stuff away.

Here are two of the 2-foot Barrinas lighting up a shelf in the greenhouse.

This is not a comprehensive review of grow lights. There are plenty of those on the internet already. I would just caution anyone who happens to read this not to buy the grow lights that have the most reviews on Amazon, which the LBW lights did compared to the others I also bought. Three of the four I bought are brands worth considering; from there, spend some time on research.

In the greenhouse: I recently potted up an order from Mountain Crest Gardens, and here are a few images. No. 1 on my list when assembling this order was Echeveria 'Doris Taylor' aka 'Wooly Rose.' It's a big fuzzy plant and this one already has a couple of offsets forming. I blew off a lot of the dirt from shipping, but those fuzzy leaves hold on to quite a bit of debris.

Next is Echeveria elegans 'Mexican Snowball.' It may get more pink as it basks in the sunshine. The little scrapes show how green it is now under the farina.

Another one from the order was Crassula capitella ssp. Thyrsiflora 'Pagoda Village.' It got tossed around in the shipping box and I waited a while to pot it up. It should be interesting to watch it grow.

This one is not new, but I wanted to take its portrait now because it is finally looking like what was described when I ordered it from Mountain Crest three months ago, Pachyphytum compactum 'Little Jewel.' It lost a lot of leaves in transit (some of which are now sprouting in my propagation bowl) and took a while to recover.

After ordering from different online succulent dealers, in my opinion Mountain Crest Gardens is the best, but their prices are not the cheapest. Ramsey's Succulents is significantly cheaper and has good quality plants, but doesn't have quite the selection. My advice to anyone building a succulents collection is to start at your local stores. There you can actually see what you are buying and you don't have to worry about shipping damage. The US Postal Service does not care about your plants and ALL of the online orders I have placed have had some shipping damage. After you see what the truly local stores have, next head to Home Depot, which I think is consistently the best of the big box stores in my area for succulents. Walmart can be good if they have just received a shipment, but their older inventory gets ragged because they place the plants on the most awful crowded and dark shelves. Lowe's also carries succulents, but I'm quite sure I saw a mealy bug infestation (white fuzzy spots) at the store in Billings, MT.

All of the retail stores get their plants shipped in from wholesalers, Altman and Costa Farms for example, and you might even find a few succulents at your local grocery store. Two of my better looking Echeverias are an unknown from Trader Joe's in Austin, TX, and an Echeveria agavoides 'Miranda Red' from Albertsons in Billings. Albertsons has absolutely no selection. Right now, it is 'Miranda Red,' one other one I wasn't interested in, and nothing else. Maybe in a few weeks they will get a shipment of something else.

Only after you get what you can locally, go online and check out Ramsey's. For anything you can't get elsewhere, head to Mountain Crest and expect to pay a bit more. There are others I have ordered from and are mentioned in these pages, but I'm not planning on using any of them again.

The Trader Joe's Echeveria has grown a lot and is a lot more red than when I picked it up in February. The first image is from April 1, followed by a phone photo I snapped on the purchase date Feb. 28.

Here is the grocery store 'Miranda Red' on the left, along with another agavoides 'Ebony' I got at Menard's home center a few days earlier. Neither one is showing much of the deep color yet on the edges and tips for which agavoides are known.

Purple - Echeverias

Pastel purple is a beautiful color associated with many varieties of Echeverias. These Echeverias have a coating of farina, a white powdery wax that softens the color. The most popular of these Echeverias, perhaps the most popular of all Echeverias, is 'Perle von Nurnberg.' When I was building my collection, I found a nice example of 'Perle' in a 3.5-inch pot at Home Depot. I was going to put it in the cart, then I spotted one that I thought looked slightly better, so I took that one instead. When I got home I was surprised to see 'Red Sky' on the label. Oops, more on that in a minute. I returned to the store a week later and got the one I originally had in my hand. Here is 'Perle' three months later.

I thought 'Perle' and 'Red Sky' looked the same in the store, and they are related. 'Red Sky' spent that first week alone under under better light than 'Perle' was getting in the store. When I compared them after I got 'Perle' home, it appeared to me that 'Red Sky' had changed and was more reddish and no longer as dark as 'Perle.' Now, three months later the two are easily distinguishable. For one, 'Perle' has lots of farina on the leaves, while the 'Red Sky' leaves are more glossy. I don't regret getting either one. Here is Red Sky:

The next purple plant is 'Neon Breakers' which I found at Walmart. I posted an image of its stalk a few days ago, but today I gave it the full photographic treatment, shooting 36 exposures for focus stacking. The farina is fragile and you don't want to touch the leaves, but I always take succulents out of their saucers to water them and things happen. Eventually the marks go away...when the leaves fall off and are replaced by new leaves.

Next up is 'Chroma' (Ramsey's Succulents), which is a smaller than the previous three. I put in a bright blue 3D-printed pot.

And then there is this one. It probably is an Echeveria-Graptopetalum hybrid, Graptoveria 'Debbie,' received from Succulents Depot on April 30. It was very dinged up and I didn't take a good picture of it at the time. Apparently I potted it up and forgot about it. If this is 'Debbie,' she is looking a lot better now than less than a month ago. I try to document everything as I'm unboxing but sometimes things slip through the cracks.

And finally, here are the 87 succulent pots stashed on the bench and shelves in my greenhouse. In the pots with single plants, there are a few repeats: Jade, Graptopetalum paraguayense 'Ghost Plant', Echeveria 'Blue Rose' and Haworthia 'Fairy Washboard.' (The first three were multiple purchases and the last one resulted from harvesting a pup.) But there also are multiple plants in two bowls that are not repeated elsewhere, so the number of unique plants here is about 90. Add in two bowls and some other individuals at home, and the number is about 100. On the right-hand menu is a Succulent List static page which lists all of my succulents and pictures of most of them.

The big purple plants are easy to pick out just below and to the right of center. I also have a few succulents at home, but those are mostly propagations or are just not ready for prime time, all of my aloes for example. There also are two large succulent bowls at home that haven't made it over yet. The greenhouse is not on my property; it's about a mile away.

On the left side of the bench are four plants not included in the total: Oregano, Rosemary, English Thyme, and what I call Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic'™. All four thrive when treated like succulents, with planting in well-draining soil and letting the soil dry out between waterings. With the strawberries in my greenhouse planting beds struggling this year while the same variety is thriving in hanging baskets, I am becoming more and more vigilant about having good drainage and not overwatering any plant, not just succulents.

The 'Velveteen' and Aloe Vera are the only plants that I have had continuously for the past 30 years. I am continuously propagating them, but at the moment I don't have a good copy of the aloe. I need to harvest some pups out of a rough-looking pot.

In other news: 'Perle von Nurnberg' has a variegated variety called 'Rainbow.' I ordered one from The Next Gardener a few months ago, paying the most I ever have for a succulent, more than $22. When it arrived, it did not look great out of the box, and deteriorated from there. The company sent me a replacement, it did not look great out of the box, and it deteriorated from there. I give up. Somehow the company got these plants to grow long enough to send them to me, but they both just fell apart when they got here. A problem with variegated plants in general is they have less chlorophyll than the standard varieties, and they tend to be more sensitive as a result. I have some variegated succulents, including a Crassula 'String of Buttons' and the recently-received Graptoveria 'Titubans Variegata.' So far neither of them has decided to die. But this experience with 'Rainbow' has made me less likely to pursue unusual plants that may not be very robust.

Leaf propagation, flower stalks

Succulents can reproduce in a multitude of ways: Offsets, seeds, stem cuttings, and leaf propagation. "Succulent" is a description of a plant's characteristics and is not a plant family. The term embodies thousands of plants that are not necessarily closely related, so not all succulents have each of these methods available. For Sempervivums (as mentioned in the previous post), producing offsets is one of its primary means of reproduction. On the other hand, leaf propagation rarely works. For Echeverias, it is impossible to generalize because there are more than 200 species, but leaf propagation usually is a viable method along with all the others.

Leaf propagation often occurs without any intervention from humans. A leaf gets knocked off the plant, and a few months later it has roots in the ground and tiny leaves extending into the air. There may be hundreds of YouTube videos devoted to leaf propagation, some of which imply that it is a foolproof process. Not all of attempts will work, but a lot of them will. Everyone has their favorite method, whether it is just throwing the leaves into a box and forgetting about them for a while, or meticulously arranging them on a thin bed of soil and misting them methodically. I fall somewhere in between.

The past few months I've been putting the leaves in a plastic tray on a bit of soil and placing it in an east-facing window inside the house, temperature 60-70 and 35% humidity. I decided to class things up just a little bit and replace the plastic trays with two stoneware bowls, nine-inches in diamater and 1.75 inches deep. I got these bowls with matching saucers/plates at Goodwill for less than $6. Originally they were a Target product. The bowls are a bit too shallow for mature succulents (3 to 6 inches is recommended), but they should work for propagation.

Using a diamond-tipped drill, in one of the bowls I drilled three holes and covered them with drywall mesh to keep soil from falling out. I'm using this bowl for leaves which have developed roots and leaves. The second bowl I left intact and will use it for new leaves which have shown few signs of life yet. The second bowl doesn't need drainage because the leaves don't need any water at this stage. (And drilling holes in stoneware is a tedious process.) If they are developing roots and little leaves, they are drawing upon the nutrition and water reserves inside the original leaf. If the propagation is successful in producing a new plant, the original leaf dries up and falls off. That is when the plant needs water.

Above the drilled bowl is the other saucer and bowl:

Filled with succulent soil and moved to its final location in the east-facing window inside the house, the bowl on the right contains at least 15 plants with roots and leaves. The big Jade leaves just have roots, but I put them in that bowl because there was some room. The bowl on the left doesn't have any little plants, but many of the leaves do have roots. (BTW, in the background of this image are three plants that have grown from cuttings. But that's another story.)

This plant has been my most successful leaf propagation to date. It is now about an inch and a quarter wide, 3/4ths of an inch high. I believe it came from a leaf I stole from my nephew in Texas about 14 weeks ago. The original leaf has shriveled up and fallen away. It is not a quick process, but with some patience (or neglect), a fallen leaf can turn into a new plant. It is hard to pin down how long it takes to get a fully mature plant, but it could be years not months in many cases.

There are some important caveats about obtaining leaves for propagation. The leaf must be removed cleanly from the plant; a leaf fragment will not work. Do not use a scissors or knife; twist and pull the leaf to remove it. With my Pachyphytums, the leaves fall off (too) easily. With some big Echeverias, I have found that getting an intact leaf is a challenge. The leaf should be mature but not too old.

Today at the greenhouse: I have an Echeveria Purpusorum (The Next Gardener) that has had a flower stalk for quite some time. Some enthusiasts remove flower stalks when they develop because they change the look of the plant, and because the buds can attract aphids. I can attest that the latter is true. Rather than chop off the stalk and be done with it, I spray with soap every few days. They haven't attacked any other part of the plant.

Another plant developing a stalk is my Echeveria 'Neon Breakers' (Walmart). It developed in a matter of days, then seemed to be drooping, but I watered the plant and the stalk has perked up. We will see what develops. Hopefully not aphids.

Montana Succulents - Sempervivums

Very few succulents are native to Montana, specifically the foothills of the Beartooth Mountains in southern Montana where I live, altitude 5,588 feet. There are a few cacti and that is about it. As I am typing this today (May 21), it is snowing, which may or may not be the last snow of the season. When I got into succulents, it quickly became evident I needed to be aware that there are succulents that are hardy, and there are succulents that are not. This is not a comprehensive list, but some types of each include:

• Hardy Succulents: Sempervivum, Delosperma, many types of Sedum, some types of Cacti.
• Tender Succulents: Echeveria, Crassula, Haworthia, most types of Cacti. Some varieties may survive an overnight frost, but not the -20 to -30 Fahrenheit that a truly hardy succulent can endure.

My succulent collection numbers almost 100 different plants. And although 75% of them are not hardy, I'll start with a genus that is. At a quick glance, Sempervivums look similar to Echeverias and other rosette succulents, but they are quite different. Being cold hardy, they hug the ground and do not get tall like many non-hardy succulents. They are commonly referred to as "Hen and Chicks," which is a phrase I detest for some reason and this is the only time I am ever going to type that in this blog. They are called that because one way the plants reproduce is with offsets that grow from the mother and eventually become independent plants. There are about 40 species and hundreds (or thousands) of varieties and cultivars. There are different definitions for these terms, but for the sake of simplicity I'll just say I have 16 different varieties. Sempervivums are native to the mountains in and near Europe and many are hardy to Zone 4, which is defined as cold temperatures in winter down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit. It is Zone 5a where I live, which means temperatures typically down to -20 degrees.

However, as I learned, you can't put Sempervivums in small terra cotta pots (4-6 inches) on a shelf in an unheated greenhouse and expect them to survive the winter. I lost six of ten Sempervivums I had when it got down to +6 degrees inside the greenhouse on Feb. 19, supposedly a survivable temperature. I refer to this catastrophe as "The Semperpocalypse." In light of that, I would would issue the following caveats: Sempervivums are hardy if they are established in well-draining soil that is dry most of the winter. I have heard that a plant sitting in a pot rather than planted in the ground loses three USDA hardiness zones, which would mean Zone 5 becomes Zone 8, +10 degrees as the minimum. That seems to match my experience.

This Sempervivum heuffelii was one of six unidentified Semps received in an order from Plants for Pets via Amazon in January, and is a survivor of the Semperpocalypse. I refer to it as Unknown #5, but I know it is a heuffelii because the offset is bound to the stem of the mother plant. The image shows a closeup of one of the two offsets with the main plant in the background.

Many Sempervivums have purple leaves or tips, and offsets developing around the base. Sempervivum calcareum (Home Depot) has what I would call a classic look. Some (but not all) calcareums have variety names, and this one did not have one on the label.

Here is an example of offsets forming on long solons that extend several inches from the plant. It is a branded variety from Chick Charms, 'Appletini,' purchased from Mountain Crest Gardens.

Anther type of offsets is rollers that fall off, land wherever, and hopefully take root. This is Sempervivum globiferum 'Budai Mountains,' another survivor of the Semperpocalypse, purchased from Mountain Crest Gardens.

From these examples, it is apparent that Sempervivums have a variety of ways of producing offsets. In summary, they can have crown division where the offset develops in the center of the main plant (heuffelii), have short stolons close to the plant (calcareum), long stolons that extend several inches ('Appletini'), or rollers that fall off the main plant and try to sprout where they roll to ('Budai Mountains').

Many Sempervivums have webbing on the leaves. I usually don't like getting unknown varieties of succulents, but this one has such thick webbing that I made an exception when I saw it at Nana's Bloomers in Laurel, MT. I refer to it as Unknown #7.

Here is an example of webbing that isn't quite as thick, Chick Charms 'Powdered Pastry,' also from Nana's.

My plan is to convert one of my greenhouse beds to a hardy succulent garden. I don't plan on heating the greenhouse in the long term, although the first winter I might try to keep it above +5 as the plants become established. Since succulents thrive in well-draining, gritty soil, I figure I will have to remove the top 12 inches of the existing garden soil. I would then take some of this garden soil and mix it with an equal amount of pumice and some coco coir. I'm thinking percentages of 40-40-20, but I will do more research. Pumice is a gritty volcanic rock that maximizes drainage and promotes aeration. I'm using pumice instead of the more widely-available perlite because it does not float or break down, and I have a local source which seems to be reliable and not too expensive. Coco coir made from coconut husks provides some moisture retention and resists compaction, keeping the soil loose.

Currently I have 16 different Sempervivums (eight from the branded Chick Charms line, one called 'Hurricane' and seven unidentified), three hardy Sedums from the branded SunSparkler line, and two pots of a branded Delosperma variety called 'Fire Spinner.' The Sempervivums came from various places that I will mention as I go along. The SunSparklers were from Nana's and Succulents Depot, although the latter sent me a very tiny pot compared to the two from Nana's. The 'Fire Spinners' came from The Three Company via Amazon. The greenhouse bed is about 13 square feet and I doubt that is enough for everything, so next year I might do an additional bed which is slightly larger, 16 square feet.

My plan for this blog is to post my trials and tribulations with trying to raise all types of succulents in a dry, cold place. I have a lot of tender succulents, which cannot live outside for three-fourths of the year, such as this Echeveria 'Lola.' The selection of succulents at local retailers in Montana isn't always the best, so for those in similar circumstances I plan on including where I got the plants I mention. In this case, 'Lola' came from Walmart in Laurel, MT.