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I love sempervivums for the extraordinary variety of texture and colour that they bring to the garden. This was raised by Ed Skrocki in the USA in 1973. It's a green one. It doesn't have many great attributes to my eyes but it would be perfect for a raised bed on a sunny terrace. Then on a sunny day you could sit on it comfortably and pretend it wasn't there. Horst Diehm summed it up succinctly: "6 cm rosettes, olive green, leaves with dark tip, flower height 15 cm". Even the boundlessly enthusiastic Erwin Geiger was struggling, quoted on Sempervivum List: "Large, up to approx. 9 cm Ø olive-green rosettes with fleshy leaves. This variety received a bronze medal from the American Sempervivum Society back in the 70s." Trawling the various online suppliers (there are a few, astonishingly) gives this from Cistus Nursery: "A very sweet succulent, symmetrical rosettes of tightly held leaves, pale green in summer and turning red in winter, finely cobwebbed over the surface. Easy in rock gardens or containers, quickly multiplying to form small colonies. Summer flowers are rich pink on spikes. Best in rich soil that drains well and occasional summer water. Frost hardy to -15F, mid USDA zone 5." Very sweet, very hardy, good for sitting on (I added that last bit). |
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| 7th November 2008 | ||
