Categories
Great Plants this Month Winter

Frosted Sempervivums

Profile image of Louise Sims
Louise Sims

Sempervivums are of course a massive subject, and although usually I’m a stickler for correct horticultural nomenclature I am afraid that I fall into that category of gardener who loves sempervivums but fails to remember all their names.

This is due to a number of reasons: some are remarkably similar to each other and I don’t usually retain their labels in situ because this doesn’t look very attractive – my mother used to say rather fiercely that if you can’t remember a plant’s name when you plant it, you don’t deserve to grow it – but I do almost always record their names in my gardening diary! 

Also I tend to move sempervivums about within the garden: some just fall by the wayside, others get crowded out by over enthusiastic neighbours and there are those that don’t survive the winter due to wet conditions or poor drainage in combination with very heavy frosts.

One of the reasons I enjoy growing these mostly hardy succulents is because it’s so easy to detach the odd rosette and give it to a friend, and in the same way I am not shy of begging a tiny cutting if I see an interesting one in someone else’s garden! Even if you don’t know or remember its name, you will certainly remember who gave it to you!

I will always carefully nurture a selection of sempervivums in a container, (making sure that the growing medium is very free draining) so that during the winter I may occasionally enjoy their miniature glacial landscape – when it happens it’s very special.

NB Louise has published a beautifully produced book of her plant profiles – A Plant for Each Week of the Year. It costs £9.99 and is for sale in our online shop here.

More NB If you’re not already a subscriber and you’d like a bit more gardening chitchat from the3growbags, please type your email address here and we’ll send you a new post every Saturday morning.

By the3growbags

We're three sisters who love gardening, plants and even the science of horticulture but we're not all experts. We'd love everyone even remotely interested in their gardens to be part of our blogsite.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.