I want to track how different my semps are from each other, but also from themselves through the year, and as they start to grow to where I divide them, how different they also are from themselves in different growing conditons.

I plan to use tables where I can insert photos and captions to describe the time of year and growing conditions, searchable by both.

How many times a year is reasonable to do this, will they change drastically more often than quarterly?

Thea,

The German web site (you can get the link on the reference page) chronicles spring and summer looks of the cultivar plus flowers. They also show plants from a number of different growers. So you might do winter, spring, summer plus flowers, when they occur.

Plants look very different in different gardens. I'm always amazed how much brighter the colors of Lynn's semps are compared to mine and she's about 10 miles away! Melissa grows mine so big that I can't believe them! I'm sure you'll find that many of your cultivars don't behave exactly the same either.

Kevin

And you can also add your photos to our database and view all the photos for each cultivar. People from all over the U.S. and around the world post photos.
I agree with Kevin, sometimes it is difficult to believe the changes from one area of the same county/state. Kevin and I have tested this out by starting out with the very same clones.
Here are some examples, if you hold your cursor over the photo it will give you where and when.
The Sempervivum Database
Hen and Chick (Sempervivum 'Positively Glowing')
Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum 'Bloody Mary')

And here is the home page for our database, have fun Thea.
The Sempervivum Database

You can also use your plant list, and create different categories to document each semp. https://garden.org/lists/view/...

Here is an example: https://garden.org/lists/view/...

Can't wait to see your results! I take photos quarterly. It's enough time to see significant changes. With about 400 cultivars in my demo plots, taking them more frequently would just take up too much time. But if you've got the time, there are definitely some striking one month changes to be captured in the growing season!

I think I'll do quarterly then, if that seems to be the norm, adding in any additional spectacular changes if they occur outside of those times. And definitely the flowers, though I hope I have a few years with them before that happens!

Thanks everyone!

(and yes of course I'll add them to the database!)

Thank you Annie for great advice.

Thea I look forward to watching your journey with semps.

My list isn't anywhere near complete, I still have many photos to take, and likely will be adding other plants, but here it is for now. Any recommendations if I'm missing tracking something now that I might wish I was later, please advise!

https://docs.google.com/spread...

Also, some of these don't appear in the database, do I just put it on my own plant list to add them?

It looks great Thea.

Let us see if we can get information from Mountain Crest Gardens for 'Red Purple' and 'Prilly's'. Once I get the information I can add them to the database.
@shrecka
Annie can you help us with this?

Thea also you will be able to see the changes as you look at your plants by week or sometimes days, often though the color changing is muddy and not a pretty sight, however like on Gold Nugget you get a reverse of the normal color on some semps, and that's pretty!
Almost like there's a continuous shifting of colors going on for these guys! Some more than others
I will be curious to see yours because your conditions - dry and cold at night, will give some dark bright colors I think - like Asa and Dirts colors

I do have pics for the rest of the sheet, I just haven't gotten around to uploading them yet, plan to this week. I'm already seeing big changes in the sedums, but only noticed intensity of the semps changing, not sure they really changed a lot so far but some seem brighter already.