Habitat: dry rocks, open site
Soil: gritty, well-drained
Height: 10 cm
Flowering: summer
Width: 20 cm
Question: what is the plural of Sempervivum? Anyway, the houseleeks all form tight rosettes of fleshy leaves, each rosette producing a number of offsets each year, so that a spreading, tight mat soon forms. After a few years a rosette may decide to flower, in which case it sends up a short stem, topped with a cluster of flowers, pink or yellow. It then dies, its place in the mat taken by youngsters. There are hundreds of named varieties, of which we offer some of the more distinctive ones.
Jovibarba sobolifera is an unusual alpine, closely related to the Sempervivums. The tight rosettes of foliage are blushed pinky-red and the yellow-green flower spikes appear in summer. Because the rosettes are almost ball-shaped, the baby plants literally roll away to form new clusters.
9 cm pot £3.00
| Sempervivum arachnoideum is a wild form of the cobweb houseleek, with small rosettes, duly cobwebbed, with red and green leaves. | |
| Sempervivum 'Black Mini' produces bright green foliage with russet outer leaves. | |
| Sempervivum 'Black Mountain' has distinctive rosettes of bright green, with clear red edges to the leaves - or, if you prefer, red rosettes with green centres, | |
| Sempervivum 'Blood Tip' forms huge olive green rosettes with dark red tips. | |
| Sempervivum calcareum is a vigorous species with rosettes that are glaucous-green in the centre and fuchsia-pink tipped on the outside. | |
| Sempervivum ciliosum var. borisii is very hairy, and looks as if it should resent wet, but it flourishes unprotected outside. It has pale yellow flowers. | |
| Sempervivum 'Commander Hay' is a deep maroon red for most of the year and produces pink flowers. | |
| Sempervivum 'Engle's' has leaves covered in soft bloom, so that the new leaves in the centre are dusky grey green, and the outer leaves are dusky rose pink. Gorgeous. | |
| Sempervivum guiseppii is a fine species, with large rosettes of light green leaves, lined along the edges with short hairs, and tipped with dark, dusky pink. | |
| Sempervivum 'Heigham Red' has distinct pointed leaves, green tipped and red in the centre. The leaves turn a darker red in summer as the rosettes mature. | |
| Sempervivum 'Huggable Helen' is a new variety from Brynhyffryd, with large rosettes of deep red, almost maroon leaves, each leaf with a thin edge and broader tip zone of dusky green. At shows it attracts attention - something that not all sempervivums achieve! | |
| Sempervivum 'Jupiter' has dark red rosettes with green centres which are covered in small white hairs - hairier towards the centre. | |
| Sempervivum 'King George' produces lots of narrow and shiny dark red leaves, shading to quite a light green towards the centre of the rosette. | |
| Sempervivum 'Lord Alan' has a most unusual colour scheme, with grey leaves, shading to deep red at the base. Originating from Matthew Ruane at Brynhyffryd Nursery, this was immediately in demand when we first showed it. | |
| Sempervivum 'Mahogany' has yellow-green leaves with mahogany tips and pale pink flowers. | |
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| Sempervivum 'Matthew's Day Dream' has rosettes of deep red leaves, each one green at the outer pointed tip, but with the inner, younger leaves also green at the base, so that the rosette as a whole appears to be red with a green centre. Grown by Matthew Ruane at Brynhyffryd with the code MD, we named it in his honour. | |
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| Sempervivum 'Othello' has olive-green leaves with bright red edges. | |
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| Sempervivum 'Packardian' has bright, but rather dark red (if that isn't contradictory) rosettes, and lots of fine, short hairs give a hint of a greyish bloom to the leaves. | |
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| Sempervivum pumilum has small, pale green, hairy rosettes which turn red in full sun. The clusters of flowers in summer are rosy purple. | |
| Sempervivum 'Purple Beauty' must have the reddest leaves of them all, not dark maroon but bright, almost crimson, and hairless except for a tiny fringe along the leaf edges. The rosettes are large and fleshy, so it is a striking plant. | |
| Sempervivum 'Red Chief' has very dark red leaves, rather lighter towards the centre of the rosette, which may even be green. | |
| Sempervivum reginae-amaliae has open rosettes of lime-green leaves, tinged red at the tips. The clusters of flowers in summer are red. It comes from Greece, where it grows in crevices in limestone rocks. | |
| Sempervivum 'Rubin' has small rosettes of dark maroon leaves. The spikes of rose-red flowers in summer look particularly eye-catching. | |
| Sempervivum tectorum is the real houseleek (the name means 'of roofs'), with grey-green leaves, red at the tip. |