Last year, a group of people got together to make a group "trade" with Erwin Geiger, who is a noted breeder and collector of Sempervivum (among other things), who is located in Europe. I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate in a minor way with this project.

I'm creating this thread to have a place to discuss some of the plants we received and to post photos of them. As you can imagine, shipping plants half way around the world (or receiving them) is a difficult undertaking. While semps are very hardy and will take a lot of abuse, a couple of months in shipping, passing through customs, etc. can be difficult. We were fortunate that most of the plants arrived OK, although there were some losses as well. After arrival here, and after some resuscitation efforts, the plants were again shared out among a number of the participants for propagation and to increase chances of survival. We are now in the phase of growing them out and propagating them so that we can share back with each other the ones that people are missing from the group they received.

I'll let the others involved participate here or not as they wish. Here are some of my pics. I'm asking that these pics not be added to the database at this time, due to the unusual circumstances of their journey and history. I want to give them a chance to display their true appearance as they adapt and acclimate.

Sempervivum 'California' ............................... Sempervivum 'Cherry Tart' ........................... Sempervivum 'Issey Miyake'


Sempervivum 'Diavelo' .................................. Sempervivum 'Lucy Liu' ............................... Sempervivum 'Nephitos'


Sempervivum 'Solist'.................................... Sempervivum 'Giftzwerg'................................ Sempervivum 'August Cream' (a sobolifera variety)


Sempervivium minus..................................... Sempervivum 'Dr Fritz Kohlein'....................... Sempervivum 'Dornroschen' (Eng. S. Sleeping Beauty)


Sempervivum 'North Leigh'............................. Sempervivum 'Orange Glow'........................... Sempervivum 'Aaron'


Sempervivium 'Shauna'................................. Sempervivium 'Roseum'.................................. Sempervivum 'Bloody Mary'


More to follow.
(edited 5/31/13 to add more pictures)

Great photos twit. It will be great to watch them mature.

Sempervivum 'North Leigh'............................. Sempervivum 'Orange Glow'........................... Sempervivum 'Aaron'


Thanks, Lynn. Found my camera again and taking lots of pics - just have to get them properly labeled.

More to follow.

WOW you have some nice ones! Thanks for sharing the pics!

Patty, you're a fuzzy semp fan...what do you think of Twitch's Semp 'Nephitos'?

Diavolo is a stunning red with a great leaf shape.


Aaron has such a lovely gold color to the foliage during the summer.


And just look at the color combo that Lucy Liu has at some point in it's growing season.


Twit, I can't wait to see yours in the next year, showing us the seasonal color changes.

Lynn, yours are much further along than mine. Must be that Oregon climare or else your green thumb.

Those aren't my photo/plants twit. If you click on the photo it shows that Erwin took the photo, those are Erwin's plants.

Twit, I see your Aaron is making lots of chicks. As small as they are, your plants are showing beautiful colors already too.

It looks like Aaron is going to be a prolific producer of offset.

Some more:

Sempervivum nixonii (a species semp) .......... Sempervivum 'Chocolate Pepper' .................. Sempervivum 'Clipper'

Those are looking so good twit. You are so good nurturing fragile semps.

They look great. Choc. pepper is lovely, well I really like them all. What a long way to travel. Amazing how resilient these little plants are.

Oh, I love Sempervivum nixonii! It's hard to find the just green semps.

Wow! New to semps but even I can appreciate the color and form on these.

Diavolo - heart stopping red color
Lucy liu - love the shape and color break
Aaron - golden beauty

Ok, I keep looking and like them all

Thank you for sharing

Thanks Twit! Some of them are totally ones I've been "pining" for Love Aaron especially! Glad to know there may be a future source for these stateside I'm sure you'll make your money back if you do propagate enough to sell!

Beautiful ! Great photos too. I had no idea there were golden semps. Please do keep posting so we can see how things develop and thanks for sharing with us. Is there a good photo reference somewhere for identifying the more commonly available types? Or,more specifically, tips for narrowing down the possibilities ? I see there is a 50 page database here with many good photos, but, say how would one know the difference between 'Pascal' and 'Luca' which look very similar in the photos (to me, anyhow!). You don't have to be gentle if the answer is "it's hard to tell", I can deal with it....

Thanks to everybody, especially the ones that made it possible to receive these plants. I have more pics to post, just have to get them properly labeled and find good pics to share.

Desertkoigal, the answer actually is "it's impossible to tell". They change so much in appearance over time and with different growing conditions...

Now, if you knew you were dealing with a limited pool of two or three semps AND you knew what those had to be, you could probably sort them out using other pics and the db. That is why labeling is so important.

Well, it is hard to tell. But there are many experts here to help you out.

Just post the pictures and ask.... You'll get lots of advice.

Desertkoigal.
Great advice twit.
I agree with Marilyn, we would love to see to see your photos.