Those Shifty Sempervivum

Today, I'm going to demostrate how changeable in color the Sempervivum can be.

We'll start with the variety 'Black.' I've talked about this one quite a bit, and was rather disgruntled that it wasn't anything approaching black all last year. However, after overwintering, it was very dark in the spring. You might remember that I was pleased to pair it with the pink Lewisia.

However, here's what it looks like now, in July. So I clearly made a good choice to pair it with something contrasting that blooms in spring.

Here's what it looked like when I bought it.



Now lets switch to the other end of the color spectrum. This one is called 'Gold Nugget.' Here's what the plant tag suggests it's going to look like.

I bought one last year, and another this year. Here's the one that overwintered. It was light maroon up until a couple of weeks ago, but now it seems to be lightening and brightening a bit. Still, not as gold as I had hoped. Or maybe it will be in August-September. We'll watch and see.

Here's the one I bought this year. They are very pale yellow-green when purchased. This has been in the ground for two months and is a bit more green than it started. I've decided you can't forn an opinion about colors until they've overwintered outside.

The 'Gold Nugget' was purchased in response to dissatisfaction with 'Gold Rush' which was also supposed to be golden in color, but hasn't quite lived up to the description. You can see that 'Gold Rush' is going to bloom, but it only has hints of gold in the leaves.

By contrast, it was very golden last year in August, so we'll see what happens this year.



But the point is, they aren't very consistent in the coloration, so if that is important to me (and it is), I need to understand what it looks like at various times of the season.

Those are the most variable ones I have. 'Ruby Heart' was disappointing- not very red. 'Red Heart' is a nice bright maroon all the time, so there's a lesson learned. The 'Red Heart' multiplies quickly, so I can get some other patches started.

We got a half inch of rain last night! And it was cool and breezy all day. Wonderful for weeding. I got a lot done. I'm close to having a full rock garden report.

Also did my editing and some computer work. Played piano a few minutes. I'm currently not feeling obsessed with the music, but I'm sure that will happen at some point. Probably when I find the box of music I want.

One of the flickers came and just sat on the deck for about 20 minutes today. I have no idea why. The baby rabbit was in the rock garden again. Sneaky little bugger.

See Semper Vi