Hello!
I stumbled upon this website several times but never realised the photo database and the forum etc were actually from the same website
only today when looking for more info about a sempervivum did I end up on the forum from the photo database!
I read a couple of threads about sempervivum soil and care in general.
What a thorough source of information. Usually I just read through threads to find the piece of information I'm looking for, it's my first time registering on a forum.
I got into succulents after getting back from my parent's house 2 years ago a crassula ovata bought at Ikea in 2005. It had been badly neglected for all those years (looking back, it's probably the only reason it was still alive) and suffered from severe etiolation and dehydration. I've been bringing it back to health and it's finally starting to look nice now.
Anyway I was terrified of losing it and really wanted to root a cutting in case it didn't make it, and also to test its preferences with the cuttings instead of the main plant. I couldn't for the life of me root a cutting, but that got me interested into 2 huge containers of sedum palmeri that were here when we had bought the house a year before that. They rooted just fine. Eventually the jade rooted just fine the way jades are supposed to do, it was just too unhealthy in the beginning. But that picked my interest into propagation which I found really fun and I've started propagating everything.
Mostly cuttings and leaves given by friends or leaves fallen from nursery plants.
That picked my interest into houseplants in general and I bought a few tropicals.
Bought a porch shelf which I filled with succulents.
But I've lost several plants 2 years in a row due to unexpected frost and decided the frost tender ones would come indoors much earlier. But all winter my porch was 90% sedum palmeri which was a bit boring
That's when I got a huge container of sempervivum from a neighbor. They had been neglected (yes, TOO neglected, left in burning sun without water all summer) for years and had been growing using old dead leaves and dead roots as substrate
After pulling the dead leaves and pulling out a few rosettes they recovered very quickly though.
That picked my interest into sempervivum: a cute and colourful succulent I can keep outside all year round
So I started purchasing online a few nice sempervivum from Franck Poly (sempervivum et cie) who grow tons of amazing cultivars.
My project is to make a few raised garden beds and plants sempervivum and a few other hardy succulents.
Here is my current collection - the pictures were taken with my phone and aren't great, I'll gradually make better pictures of individual plants!
Thanks for reading me
