Here we are starting a new year and looking forward to spring.
It has been relatively warm here in the Willamette Valley, OR. Lots of rain and lows in the 30's and 40's with highs in the 40's and up to the high 50's. Normally we would have freezing temperatures by now. So far all the semps are doing really well and staying healthy.
Here are a few photos taken today:
'Charmed'


'Haberer Boy'


'Dracula', two yearling offsets and new offsets forming over winter. One is a cristate.


'Mikula'


With all of you, I look forward to the year ahead, and all that our gardens will reveal in this coming growing season.

'Haberer Boy' is so nice!

Alex, as you can see it does very well in our wet winter and spring. It doesn't produce very many offsets.

Happy 2024. Winter has been mild so far, not sure how the spring will unfold. Semps are alive, squirrel only got a tiny one

Glad to see the new thread, and I can hardly wait to see all the great semp pics in 2024!

Alice and Johannian, I hope this new years brings a wonderful gardening year for you both.

Same to you, Lynn!

Happy New Year everybody. I haven't been around much lately and most of my semps are looking like crap right now. I see lots of rot unfortunately.

But my seedlings are still doing good. Especially the 2023 seedlings that are still all jammed together. That is the way they will go through winter.

Look for them in the seedling chat!

And I have a new foster dog. Maeve is her name and she is a sweetie.

Happy New Year, Melissa. Sure have missed you, and good to see you posting.
I have 2 or 3 cultivars that are not looking good. 'Crimsonette' is one of them. Makes me sad, as it is such a pretty semp the rest of the year.
Can't wait to see your seedling photos. Tell Maeve I said hi.

Our winter here in Oregon City, OR will begin tomorrow. Temps at times into the high teens. Looks like we will be getting snow starting tomorrow night. Saturday will be the worst with lower temps and more moisture in the form of snow. The bad part is that the snow will not stay very long, maybe through Sunday. Then we get up and down temps.
We will see which of my semps proves to be the toughest. That goes for the two year old seedlings, and the 4 month old seedlings.

We finally got winter. My main bed is filled with at least 3 inches of frozen sleet and snow. If we had just fluffy snow we would probably have about 6 inches.
Photo take last month (December)


Photo from today, in this photo you can see (or not see) the large rock with the Kalmiopsis fragrans. It is in the lower right side of the bed. You can see the tops limbs of the Kalmiopsis sticking out.

I took these Saturday when the ice pellets were still accumulating, they are mostly buried now.

Curtis, all of mine are completely covered in the frozen mix. And tomorrow we are supposed to get freezing rain. I am not to worried about the perennials, but am concerned about the sempervivum because of all the freezing, thawing, then days of rain. And who know how much more freezing they will have to endure.
Hope you semps come through okay.

The freezing rain has arrived. Everyone in areas of bad weather stay safe and warm. I tried to go out and look around earlier, before the freezing rain started. It is already like a skating rink from this last weekends storm.

The two sempervivums I still have are inside. This past week it never got above -15F so I'm thinking it's a good thing I had them inside, since they're still small? They're dormant anyway.

I am ashamed that I have complained about our winter weather. Johannian that is so cold. And to think you have more of that to come.
So glad your little semps are safe. Stay safe.

We also got snow! The entire bed is covered in it, nothing is visible.

valleylynn said: I am ashamed that I have complained about our winter weather. Johannian that is so cold. And to think you have more of that to come.
So glad your little semps are safe. Stay safe.

Oh no, I assure you it's fine. It all has to do with where you live. 15F may be a deep freeze where you live, -30F is a deep freeze where I live. Either one is cold, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters!

The worst thing about living here isn't the cold temps; it's realizing you won't get to start your gardening year until late March. Until then, I usually have a bad case of cabin fever!

Hang in there, winter will be over soon.

Alex, bet your semps are happy with the snow blanket.

Johannian, yes spring is just around the corner. How exciting.

I am anxious to see how my semps did when all this ice melts. That is going to happen today. We are already 36 degrees and it's raining.

Well, our ice is sticking around much longer than we thought it would. I still have about 2 inches of ice in the raised beds. This photo is from this evening.

I'm hoping it will all be gone by the end of this weekend.

How are all of you doing?