New to all of this; not new to gardening or breeding, although the genetics I've always worked with have been pedigreed Saanen dairy goats... I've been a master gardener, gardening seriously since I became a 4-Her at the age of 10 (got my gold 10-year pin!) but found sempervivums through luck and chance ( to get heavy, we could call it Providence). To introduce my sometimes sad little self, I've been fighting my way through getting older (I turn the big 70 this fall), fighting cancer ((I'm 1 year in remission) and a horrible condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia. The last is here to stay and probably the main reason I've managed to get my focus switched to semps...
I have the fortune to live in NY State's beautiful Northern Catskills (think Cooperstown/Baseball Hall of Fame). We are elevated enough to somewhat mimic the Alpine conditions I find these little guys love. While gardening has been my side hobby (the sisters chose me as abbess about 10 years ago and I've even given over the care of our goats to another sister) I never paid much attention to the few "hens and chicks" we've always had mixed in amongst the other flowers in our landscape borders although we learned over the years that these do well when we keep them raised up out of the mud. But end-stage TN means I'm housebound when the temperature goes below 68 and/or the wind blows, which is at least 80% of the time here, and at least 90% this year (I just read it's the most severe weather in Central NY since 1998).
So this winter, thumbing through seed catalogs, for some reason I focused on Park Seeds' offer of "Hardy Mix of Hens and Chicks" and thought "why not try something fun while I'm starting seeds for Mother Michaela's vegetable garden?" I keep my sanity through the winter since TN came to stay by having a large, home-built light stand in my room and I'm still the person who raises as many of our garden seedlings as possible each year.
Somewhat to my surprise (having read the negative ratings for Park since the family sold out) the seeds began sprouting in a week or so, and kept on sprouting until I called a halt to them by dividing and planting all the ones I could realistically make room for. 6 months later, I have about 130 , with very few duplicates. Some (Lynn has seen the photos) are large enough to have graduated to six to ten in 6" pots; the rest are happily living 15 to 30 in duplicate pots. The sisters indulged me in getting a handful from North Hills Nursery this spring that I'm keeping in another pot that is outside and somewhat sheltered from the very extreme thunderstorm deluges that have been the norm this summer.
I'm glad to see that "addiction" is the term others have used with these little guys. Truly -- I'm on some very heavy pain medication, but I can keep the pressure/pain at bay with minimal pills when I'm working with or looking at these little guys (most through the jeweler's loupe I'd normally use to track bugs and blights on other plants...).
I would love to attend this hybridizing clinic, although at first glance that's pie-in-the-sky. For whatever reason, while searching for info about these little guys on the internet, trying to keep the pain at bay without taking more pills (and learning a lot -- it's amazing what's out there -- and I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before an international Sempervivum Society starts up, working with the wreckage of past groups and what survives on sites such as this, the Alpine Gardening site, etc.), I've fallen in love with the attached variety "Elaine" photographed by the Czech photographer, Jan Soućek. It is not the "Elaine" available here, hybridized by André Smits of Belgium in 1996, so of course, I begin dreaming of what I could cross with what to create a similar cultivar... And realize I know squat about how to pollinate semps... So I will learn what I can from this thread, and am grateful for the luck/fortune/providence that led me to Lynn and this web site.
Enough for one day! Go with God.
