Just wanted to say, they are really coming along. Thanks, Thanks, for all your help. Will take new pictures soon..Have a great plant day.
Billy

Looking forward to the pictures.

Glad to hear they're doing well!

Billy I am so excited for you. I look forward to updated photos as the season progresses.

Thank you all for being so nice. This has been a blessing to me..

I am now working on a cover that I can have over my beds, so that the Hens and Chicks will not get all the rain, and less sun, before I put them in the beds. I have put everything I could find, to put in the beds, that will make them drain good. I still want some cover from the rain, I am just so worried, that they may get to wet.
I am sending pictures of my beds that are still being worked on. The big one in front goes down with the ground. I also putting a picture of my very first thing I ever build, my green house. It`s was a little of many ones I saw on YouTube . It may not be 100% right, but I sure have enjoyed having it for my plants..
Thank you all for sharing your love for plants with me.
Billy Perez

You've been working hard Billy! Looks like you have room for lots of plants now. Nice greenhouse too.

Oh boy, he's hooked.
You did a wonderful job on that Billy. It is easy to see that you are serious about growing sempervivum.

Looks like some good beds to plant, Billy. I like the small round bed in the first picture.
I have had my semp bed for 2 years now and it is never finished with all the plantings. Semps die, new ones get planted and then get moved and the planting never ends.

Here's my bed from September of last year. The coloring of the bed now is the same as everything now has become green; This year, I've also lost about 30 semps to the heat and I have since started to put a rock dressing on top so that the soil doesn't dry out so fast in the afternoon sun. I also place a shade cloth on top of the bed every afternoon until the sun moves off the bed.

Looks good Bev. I just put up a shade cloth on the new raised bed. Everything was frying!

That bed is looking good Bev. I think I am going to have to put up frames and shade cloth for my raised beds. The weather for the week is going to be brutal.

Wow Billy - your beds look great!!! Love the greenhouse also!
Bev love your bed also!! Everything looks good!

I, too, am new at growing semps. From reading the above, I've made mistake after mistake and am just lucky everything has lived in spite of me.

This is going to be a long horror story for most of you. Please forgive me, but I am leading up to a question.

On impulse I purchased a couple of hens and chicks, NOID, in four inch pots about a month ago. At the time, I didn't know I couldn't buy the materials I thought I needed to plant them. I live in an old gold mining town in the mountains and I can't buy sand, grit, rocks, etc. except by the ton. I don't need a ton of material for planting out 2 four inch pots.

I first put the pots on a bed near the patio which I thought was going to be their permanent spot, but have found out that they won't get enough afternoon shade in that spot. So, I grabbed them and stuck them in the woodshed, which I am using as kind of a gardening work area this summer because they would be protected from the afternoon sun. Yeah, I forgot to water them. Out of site, out of mind. I guess they didn't mind because they have kept growing and are now spilling out of the pot with lots of chicks.

You guessed it, I grabbed them and moved them over to the patio so I wouldn't forget them again and put them on the bench behind the picnic table where they would get the most shade.

When I remembered them a couple of days ago, they were totally dry and so packed in those small pots I couldn't water from the top, so I set them in a dish of water over night. They seemed to perk up nicely. Of course, I really don't know ... just guessing.

I managed to get some grit and had some light weight potting soil and some perlite in the garden shed and mixed up a batch and planted some of the chicks in small pots and put them under the redbud tree that is my only shade in this garden.

Of course, I watered them. I should have read this thread first.

I won't have time to do any more with the over crowded pots for a couple of days and am wondering if they will be OK in their over-crowded state until I can get to them.

I have vowed not to turn on the computer until tomorrow night because we are in the midst of triple digit temps and I have to do all of the deep watering on the house pad tomorrow. That will take several hours, so I'll get up early. Temps should be 90F by noon and I've got to get everything watered before it gets that hot. I'll check back as soon as I come in ... if my brain hasn't fried.

I know I need to pot them up, but as of now, I think I've made enough mistakes and should ask for a little help.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn - these plants are so forgiving, especially about under watering!!! So you did fine! And the fact that they're growing says that they're doing fine I'm sure! I have noticed that they don't mind being crowded in, they just seem to grow larger given more room!! I would love to see photos of your semp babies!!
Cheers and good luck with that heat wave! Here in Seattle we've reached into the low 90's and its a heat wave...although it does seem unusually muggy also (normally are humidity is way low!!)

Greg ...

Thank you for the encouragement. I feel like I am running a marathon and the next couple of days are going to be horrific.

This is a photo of one of the plants I purchased a while back .. and didn't get potted up because I couldn't get the right materials for planting. I took this photo when I first brought it home.



This is the other impulse purchase



A gardening friend gave me this tiny plant in a two inch pot in early spring. It's one of the plants I potted up tonight. One of the babies fell off so I put more soil in the 2" pot and just put it on top. I really don't know if it will live.



I have been planning to plant this out since last summer, but last year simply was not a good gardening year for me due to health. I want to find a place to put it in the ground. Right now, the pot is sitting under the redbud tree.



This is another one that a friend gave me last year that hasn't found it's home and is sitting under the redbud tree.



AND ....

This is 'Dragon's Bud', which I also want to get into the ground somewhere and the pot is under the redbud tree.




Of course, I don't know how to plant them out. It's just that I am having to re-mulch the whole garden because my mulch has disappeared in all of this heat and is no longer retaining moisture in the soil. Of course, I can't buy mulch up here either and have to go get it and haul it back to the house.

If they are safe, I won't worry about them and will just keep running. If I need to do something to get them through this week, until I can find time to work with them, I'll carve out the time. I just don't know what I am doing with these plants.

Smiles,
Lyn

Hi there Lyn and...
May I suggest to you that you give the potted plants that you want to move somewhere, a good deep watering first and then just move them, pot and all, to wherever you think you want them to be so that they can acclimate to that spot and its exposure without having to go thru the shock of transplanting yet. This way you can see if they can handle the new exposure. If they can't then try them somewhere else until you find the right spot. Then when it looks like they like it there for awhile, you can transplant them after you've prepared the site the way you want it.
If the exposure is harsh during part of the day and you've already planted them, , you can always put a temporary cover over them during the harshest time and uncover when the sun moves away from them.

Hi Bev ...

Thank you for the welcome.

For now, everything is in a holding pattern until I get the garden re-mulched.

Originally, I had planned to use them in one of the street beds out in front of the house in a rock garden I am slowly creating. Everything in that bed has to be deer resistant and be able to pretty much take care of itself because I am gardening on 5 levels and I don't get down there as often as I should. Then I found out that the deer just chomp off the chicks and spit them out. Time for plan B.

I created a bed on the house pad level that was fast draining.



While lurking here, I found out that the new bed wouldn't work because it would need to be shaded when temps got above 85F. So, I decided to put them in containers and move them around just as you suggested (Plan C). That's when I found out I couldn't get the planting materials for the containers.

After I get the garden mulched, I think I'll be able to come up with some specific questions. Just reading this thread I can see that I am not going to be able to figure this out on my own and that there is a lot of support for newbies like me and I am hoping for help in creating Plan D.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn - it sounds like you have been putting lots of thought into this!! That's nice!! For me I have replanted plants several times, for different reasons and they adjust just fine if they're in the "right" spot! Keep observing and figuring!
Not sure if you know the id's of the plants in the photos but the yellowie ground cover looks like 'Angelina' which is a pretty happy plant where ever it is!! I'd guess the rock with the brick surrounding it would work - for the first couple of weeks after transplanting you probably will have to water more often to let it get established, then it should be okay with just a couple times per week of watering! You can take clippings of this plant very easily to spread it around!!

Hi Lyn, and to the Sempervivum Forum.
Nice plants, looks like your doing something right. I agree with the wonderful advice from both Greg and Bev. Won't be long and you will have the perfect plan for them.

Thanks, Greg ...

I keep getting new information and then have to change plans ....

>>>I'd guess the rock with the brick surrounding it would work - for the first couple of weeks after transplanting you probably will have to water more often to let it get established,

I am not so sure. That's a west facing wall and gets direct hot sun for hours during the summer months. The reason I thought to plant them there, before I found out about their need for shade with temps above 85F is that bed was already a fast-draining bed. With my high summer temps and the reflected heat from that wall, I wonder if any plant can survive in that bed. It's 102F right now ...

I took a couple of lousy photos of how the plants look today between moving hoses, etc. They were tagged as "Hens and Chicks". btw ... I purchased them on June 6th ... can you tell I am behind ?

This one is supposed to be one of those with webbing



This is the other one purchased at the same time.



Do I need to get these potted up immediately or do you think they will hold for another week while I mulch the garden ?

Smiles,
Lyn