While Wolfgang organizes semp shipments to far West, I decided to go far East with the topic of my next semp plate...

Being inspired by japanese dry or zen gardens where beds of fine gravel featuring single rocks are (daily) raked into geometric or organic patterns symbolizing waves in the sea around rocky islands, my plate will feature the same symbolic elements: fine gravel, rocks and a minimalistic selection of plants (Sempervivum in 3 varieties). Instead of raking my gravel daily in the right shape I decided to go for a more permanent way and plant my wave lines.

Meanwhile I selected my rocks (local shell limestone), sieved my 2-5 mm gravel to finer grade and decided for the plants I will use.
Sempervivum arachnoideum subsp. bryoides (from sapa) will be used for the rocky islands, a small noid S. hirtum (?) for solid ground, and a tiny grayish S. arachnoideum for the waves (I'm starting off with like 70 plants so it might take me a while till I have enough to finish the wave lines. But patience is part of zen philosophy...).

Starting off from my draft layout drawing I fixed the stones with mortar in my plate and then filled in a layer of gravel for drainage, soil mixture and then "marked" the parts that will be densely planted with fine gravel. With a finished hardscape I'm now "patiently" waiting for March to arrive...

Very cool Michael!! Love it! You're giving me ideas!

What an interesting way to use semps. I think that is going to be beautiful. I look forward to seeing the finished art piece.

Great idea Michael !
I look forward to your update photos .

An interesting concept! I, too, look forward to seeing it finished!

Nice. What's the diameter of that container?
IMO, I would prefer to see a few more drainage holes here and there. The flatness of the bottom of that container will make it difficult for water to drain, and the semp roots are going to flatten out across that bottom. You might even cover the drainage holes with a bit of window screen to prevent soil from falling through, not to mention roots escaping.

Hi Tim,

Diameter is about 45 cm (app. 1.5'), depth is about 2". I poured in about 1cm (app. 0.5") of fine gravel to reduce the amount of water that might settle on the bottom (3rd Picture). So far this set up works fine for all my semps. I tried to cut more holes, but when the first plate broke I decided to go for 1 central hole as in all my other plates...
Regarding flattening of the roots my semps should not care as they originate from places that sometimes hardly provide for 1" of soil layer.

Looking forward to see it planted.

That is going to look great. Can't wait to see the progress

My 'ZEN-pervivum Garden' is coming along nicely. I already traced the first wave lines, now I'm waiting for more arachnoideum offspring to get the right size fror transplanting. Once all lines are traced and the rosettes have grown a bit I will fill up the spaces in between the rosettes as required to create solid lines.
In the end I decided to go for two different type of arachnoideum of more or less the same size to speed up the development of the layout. One type will be used mainly around the smaller island in the foreground the other more around the bigger island in the background. If they turn out to be too different I will later re-arrange or replace one type by offspring of the other.
The small Jovibarba on the 'solid ground' of my 'garden' is heavily producing offspring that might be ready for transplant in fall.

Wow! Very nice Michael

Very cool Michael!

Michael you have the mind and eye of an artist. That is beautiful.

Very lovely Michael!!

Really neat
Thanks for the update!

WOW, that is really awesome!!! Will the semps actually live that shallow? Super cool!!!

You mean if they can stay in the shallow plate or if they grow much bigger than they are at the moment? Most of my semps are planted in shallower plates and grow happily. The varieties selected will remain small. The arachnoideum ssp. bryoides on the islands and the jovibarba on solid ground are more or less mature. The arachnoideum on the wave lines will get twice or three times the current size.

That will be looking so great! You are giving me ideas to try!

Terrific! You are really going to achieve the zen effect!

Oooooh, I see it now. When you said 2", I went back and looked again. At first I thought it was nearly flat. I just think that's one of the coolest things I've ever seen!