Today's Hen and Chicks of the Day is Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum 'Oddity') .
This is a fun and interesting form of sempervivum that forms leaves fused into tubes with open tips, medium green leaves with dark tips. Occasionally a rosette will open from tube shape to a rosette with normal looking flat leaves. After time this rosette will again return to the fused (tube shaped) leaves.
Oddity rarely blooms, and when it does the flowers are misshaped, and usually sterile.
It is of garden origins and was introduced by Sandy McPherson in 1972, and received the Bronze Rosette award in 1978 for best new variety.
It can make very large, mounded colonies.

I have had this sempervivum since 2005, it bloomed in 2013 resulting in 3 seedlings. One died and two remain, one of which is producing offsets this year.

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Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum 'Oddity')

My Oddity was bought as a noid in April 2015 . I divided up the clump and planted up the pieces in a container. Four months later it's taking over the place and swamping it's neighbours. Here's the photo sequence, the leaves are mostly open just now .

Wow, that is impressive growth Paddy. Are you fertilizing them?
The photos are beautiful. Love the close ups.

Lynn,

'Oddity' can sport back to 'Albidum' and those plants tend to produce more 'Albidum'. 'Oddity' is a chimera so that the epidermal cell lineages are mutant but not the core of the plant. That's why I was so excited with your very abnormal bloomstalk from a few years ago as it appeared to affect the deeper tissues and could give fully mutant seedlings. In the meristem of 'Oddity' plants the leaf primordia fuse at their backs, rather than staying as flattened structures. Very cool.

The date is wrong too. I had that plant in '72 as a gift from Sandy with the question ("What do you think?" Of course I wrote back "AMAZING!!!") and it's in Helen Payne's book that was published in '72. It's in Helen's 1973 catalog too. I don't have the copies of Sandy's list from that year.

Kevin

Thank you so much for the information Kevin.

When I look at the entry for S. 'Albidum' I see this information. Can you give us some insight into what is correct?

Other Details: Albidum is one of the parents of S. 'Oditty', a natural hybrid of S. archnoideum and S. calcareum gray-green leaves, leaf bases and peaks in purple temporarily. Good winter coloring

History of species or Cultivar: Natural hybrid of S. tectorum x S. wulfenii.

Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum x comollii (x albidum))

Lynn,

NO arachnoideum in Oddity for sure. The 'Albidum' parent plant is ether a pure tectorum or X wulfenii. I have never seen anything I would call great winter coloring in it either. Certainly nothing special to be noted.

Hope that helps!

Am not sure where the dates of introduction of these plants was put into the data base. It mist have come from one of the European lists.

Kevin

Yes, the introduction date is from a European source. I will make the changes to our database entry. I sure appreciate your knowledge Kevin, thank you so much.

valleylynn said:Wow, that is impressive growth Paddy. Are you fertilizing them?
The photos are beautiful. Love the close ups.

Yes Lynn I gave all my semps a weekly feed of liquid fertilizer, but have stopped feeding now to let them settle before hibernation sets in . We can't get the Miracle Gro Quick Start stuff you have in the US so I'm using a cheap alternative from the bargain store

That might also be why the leaves are more open in form. That is major fast growth.

I find 'Oddity' to be quite fragile here in the ground in winter - tends to rot easily. I built a bit of a mound for it this summer with lots of grit incorporated into the soil. We'll see if that helps.

Great information Chris. Keep us updated on the results.

Will do!

Hello!
I'm a new collector and came across your site because I was researching an interesting Sempervivum that has me a little confused and I wanted to make sure I got it right as I have a few of them and was going to post a couple for sale on eBay and didn't want to pass them off with incorrect names. I am uploading what my tags call Albidum Oddity. Are these correct? Thanks so much for your help!

Hi NorCalCollector. to ATP.

Some of your photos appears to be S. 'Grigg's Surprise', and some look like S. 'Oddity'.
Are these all from the same source, or clones from an original plant?
Go to these links and you will see the difference between them.
Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum calcareum 'Grigg's Surprise')
Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum 'Oddity')