I love hypertufa pots. Needed pots for my sedums and semps so I jumped in and went crazy. I made some containers from concrete back in the 90's. Still doing well but heavy. Found recipe for hypertufa online.
bee hives, my daughter in law got me into making those.
pumpkins are left over mix


first try at leaf molding


crushed sea shells embedded


fulda glow fuldaglut
voodoo

coral reef, plant is gone will it come back out?
dragon's blood
ogon, plant is gone will it come back out?
sexangular
chocolate ball


little missy, brought her in for the winter, glad I did the other pot looks dead, don't know if it will come back out. The pot beside it is what I call her sister-leaves are solid green. I bought both those plants in Townsend, Tn. Little Missy was labeled but the other one was not.


tricolor in first concrete pot, next bowl-pot is the green stems of tricolor that I pull out so it won't revert


green shoots of tricolor. By the way this always stays green it never tries to go back to tricolor

Nice collection of pots that you made ( ) and sedum plantings. I have a plant like "Little Missy" and never had a name for it. Now I do.
For those plants that seem gone, check real close for small sprouts/signs of greenery within the mass of dead looking leaves and stems. They might have appeared if their wintering over has ended.

Thank you Bev. have been checking on Little Missy and her sister. Scratching around in top of soil lightly in case I disturb any signs of life but no luck yet. 46 sedums with most in hypertufa pots Linda

Love all your hypertufa pots! I have quite a few of those too. Aren't they fun to make? Do the bees actually live in the hives?

goldfinch4
yes to the pots. Last year I made 80, sold 15. The hives are for fun unless some bees want to move in.

Gorgeous containers! Well done

Gemini_sage going to try leaf casting this year

Boy, am I late in finding this thread. Awesome photos chickhill. Love the leaf casting on the side of the containers. How to you accomplish the scalloped edges?

I read that Sedum 'Little Missy' is only hardy to zone 8 and will tolerate lite frost. It is suppose to be evergreen, but I would watch the dead container to see if it will come back from the roots. Would sure be wonderful if it does. Keep us posted on what happens with it.
It is a beautiful sedum, I'll have to see where I can find that one. Maybe it would over winter on my covered deck?

Coral Reef goes dormant here in my zone 8 winters, yours should come back from the roots and maybe even some of the dead looking stems. Gorgeous photo of a happy and healthy Coral Reef.

Ogon is another one that goes dormant in the winter.

Is your Tricolor in full sun? The ones I have in shade/partial shade tend to be green, the ones in full sun have lots of color.

Great pots and plants!

Valleylynn Tricolor / full sun-I keep all the green shoots pulled out to keep from reverting. I have a pic of the solid green posted in a concrete bowl pot.
Coral reef, ogon, zentaro all still missing.
Will trade Little Missy if your interested.
Make pot as tall as needed, then try to make same size balls and shape like half crescent, put on top edge and blend seam.

I would love to trade you something for some of the Little Missy.

I still have not made any hypertufa. I have all the ingredients in the garage.

Valleylynn when frost danger is passes in April, I will connect with you about trading.

Sounds great. Just send me a treemail.

valleylynn will do

I love your pots. Containers.
I made some troughs, but I am a bit concerned. I read somewhere that if the recipe is not right, these containers may fall apart after a while, especially after freezing, de-freezing.
What would the best and strongest recipe be ???
I weighed mine when empty, and didn't feel that "light". I am not sure if they had been FULL-concrete they would have been much heavier. No idea!

Calin, I think for the most part the recipes are trial and error, but I have heard that the less water that is used, the stronger the mix. Here is a fantastic forum/website that has lots of great information and people who will be able to answer any questions you might have. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on it! http://www.thegardenartforum.c... Donald Tucker does amazing work!!

I used a 2 parts each peat & perlite, 2 parts cement. The bee hives I added the coarse sand. I covered mine with plastic, put in shade, kept damp for a week. Finish curing about 3 more weeks. I did find hairline cracks on one I forgot to cover after unmolding. All my pots made it through the 0 degree winter days we had this year, none broke. Fully cured they are lighter weight. One key to success is make sure you follow the curing process. The darker bee hive in first pic wasn't completely dry.
Yes, more cement does make them heavier. Years ago I made some with just concrete (not cement) & peat moss, very heavy on my "retired back".
Above noted website has the recipes I used.

Thank you !
The only problem I have is PEAT. No idea what the Romanian "translation" would be and where I could buy a couple big bags.
All dictionaries say "turbă" .
And I could find this stuff but it was looking just like potting mix, but darker, and it was wet, and I let it dry in the sun and then sifted it. Results were a fine brown powder, and long shreds or something like roots, fibers, etc.
Are you all using something else? Something ready to use?
Well, we don't have that around here!

Calin, your peat sounds like the same stuff we have. Once sifted, I avoid using the long shreds, but I don't sift mine too fine. I like some small pieces left in my mix (but not too many). They eventually rot or wear away from the surface leaving an interesting texture in the hypertufa. About half way down this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... is a picture of some that has the size/texture I like to use.

Oh really... I thought you were using something totally unobtainable here...
Why isn't someone bagging the stuff we need for these pots in "ready-to-use" peat?
:)