The Roof Garden-continued

Here's the roof garden about 1/2 done--in place after the rains.

The kalanchoes, both  lavender and and  red, have almost doubled in size. Winter is the growing time for many of the succulents, but remember  --- some rest in the winter, and need summer water, and a dry winter (you've already heard the sad story about the mammallaria who got watered at the wrong time.)

There are no sempervivums in this  particular roof garden, as it's too hot a spot for them. The west sun beats on the plants from noon until sundown. 

However, it's "growing from seed" time for sempervivums . The plan is to have another roof garden facing east which gets little or no direct sun, but lots of light. The semps should be happy there. The seed is here , and has been planted. It's an experiment. Otherwise the plants will be ordered in sufficient quantity for the east facing roof garden as suggested by Gwen  Kelaidis.in her book. The ones in the picture came from Squaw Mountain and are growing in a pot until the East Roof Garden (move over Michelle) is ready for them.

The "chicks" root right away if planted elsewhere. Some are growing on the  planting mix of a stag horn fern. The semps  never missed a beat- started growing right away.

Sempervivums-small but powerful (semper-always, vivum- living

This is a lively book with lots of information about sempervivums. These plants were a recent discovery for me---turns out they are the principal ingredient in green roofs. And enchanting small jewels if you look at them  closely. In So Cal this species is  not so easy to find in many varieties, but  this nursery offers 262 different kinds.  http://www.squawmountaingardens.com/

Gwen Moore Kelaidis has written a most readable,  entertaining book and the photos by Saxon Holt are.... dazzling.  /www.amazon.com/books

 Keliadis  says: "I don't admit to being a collector....once when shopping at a nursery offering 2,000 varieties (of sempervivums) I only bought 120 kinds."

Sempervivums are, as my astute readers already know, called  hens and chicks. Esheverias are close relatives; we have lots of them available in So Cal.  Sempervivums,being a lot smaller, don't get much recognition around here.(This is the land of Bigger is Better.)

 The only semp available at local nurseries was  s. calcareum ( see next photo). Now that global warming  is bringing much colder weather to the Central Coast , frost proof is becoming an issue. These  liliputians  are not only frost-proof, they reproduce at the drop of--water. The one in the picture produced those chicks in a week. This means not only green roofs butgroundcovers that are cold hardy.

If you are an admitted plant addict like myself think of what  a delirious project --- plant  a parking strip with lots of varieties of groundcover semps under larger succulents. More about parking strips later.