sempervivum

11 Mar '07 6:41 am

[quote="renee"]Susan,

I do understand your reasons about swapping and I respect them ... (thought I sometimes fracture the law - not break it! - by swapping tiny little cacti or seeds with people outside European community!).

If you haven't been to the Antipodes, Reneee, it's hard for us Europeans to appreciate just how incredibly stricter and more careful Australia and NZ are about biosecurity, plant imports and movements, etc. Even accidental ones, like having an apple in your airport handluggage, or weed seed on car tyres. It really is, zero tolerance. Visiting Australia from the UK (and moving from state to state internally) we were amazed, and impressed,at the far higher standard of care they take to avoid contaminating their ecology, agriculture etc.

I saw your swap-invitations on usenet gardening groups btw and can vouch there was not the faintest hint or suggestion of commercial intention.

Janet

12 Mar '07 10:10 am

I've grown up with these bio-border controls in NZ, and like JB was stunned with Australia's inter state laws - they seem even stricter than my own country's. Renee, if you have a moment, let us know how those sempervivums and assorted little treasures of yours are going! I loved your 'lots of pots' picture!

4 Jun '07 8:50 pm

some more photos ...

5 Jun '07 7:11 am

As long as you have labels on things,Renee,you have a highly ORGANISED mess !
Love your photos-very interesting plants with character.
Dixie

5 Jun '07 4:11 pm

It looks like you must have every interesting sempervivum known to man. Are you raising them to sell too? I've seen what look like living mosaics made with these on a flat garden bed. There are so many colors you could make almost anything. You must garden in a fairly benign climate, though I know many of these are hardy I'll bet your collection includes many that are not.

No fair hiding these beauties in the "welcome mat" forum. You need a space in the "Our Plants and Gardens" forum where I'll more easily be able to tell when you post more photos. Very nice to meet you by the way.

21 Jun '07 11:17 pm

Yes, my higly organized mess looks a bit like nursery ... With so many pots and trays ... But I only grow semps for my own pride & joy and I can only hope they will make enough chicks for all the swaps I plan this year! My semps go all around the globe and some of those in my garden are from Japan, Canada and USA! Not to mention those from Germany, Holland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Austria, Spain, UK, Ireland ....

21 Jun '07 11:20 pm

I'm back!

we have this extremly hot summer and my holidays on Croatian coast seems to be like 10 years ago.

Mostly all the sempervivum rosettes are closed due the extreme heath (they do not like such dry and hot weather), and I think that sometimes it is cooler in sauna.

My cat though, fell in love, and he only returns home to eat! Idea

Once a home, now a hotel.

7 Aug '07 10:20 pm

hi there ,now renee how do you manage to keep friendly with your garden, i find that i have 2 prickle cactus names unknown as i stay well away from them i find if i get within breaths distance ,it's got me i have lots of zygo ones [no prickles but i take my cap of to folk who can get around a garden of spikes loved looking at you pics

8 Aug '07 9:10 am

I haven't seen hide nor rosette from you in a while, Renee. You may be the only one of us with enough of this plant material to make a mosaic of them like this. This is from the Sherman Library and Garden in Southern California, US.

8 Aug '07 5:26 pm

Mrsk, plants on the photo are Echeverias, wrongly called sempervivums by most of Americans ... Most of Echeverias would not make it under 5 degrees celsius, while Sempervivums are quite capable tu survive temperetures down to minus 25 (with an exception of S. atlanticum from Morocco).

The idea of mosaic is nice, but not for me. I do not have a real garden, no plants planted in the bed or so ... Will never have one, simply because I do not like it. With such a huge collection I can not afford one, plants would mix up and all I would get would be many lost labeled semps ...

sempervivum

Sempers

Wow, what a collection!

prickles renee

An idea for your sempervivums, Renee.