Can anyone reccomend a good book on semps, with colour pictures of the varities or perhaps a company that has a good colour catalogue of semps that I could send for. I'd just like to have a "hard copy" of colour pictures to look at when deciding which semps to order instead of having to bounce around the pages of a web site. I know that Squaw Mountain has wonderful pictures on their website. Thanks!
I think you might find the Fernwood Nursery web site a valuable resource. The owner holds the National Collection of Sempervivums and related plants in the UK.
Thank you for the link to Fernwood Nurseries, Robert. They have a nice, little book I'm going to order as soon as I figure out the logistics of sending a money order in British Pounds. I wonder how long it will take to receive it here (Canada)? I might have it for next years gardening season :) I've looked at your website before but had another peek just now. What a beautiful collection you have. I marked the ones that are available to me here from a Canadian source and can hardly wait to order them. I can get S. 'Raspberry Ice', 'Reinhard', 'Rosie', 'Ford's Spring', 'Tordeur's Memory', 'Jewel Case', Jovibarbas hirta 'Emerald Spring' and others. I already have a number of Semps and Sedums in the ground in my alpine bed but think I'll begin collecting them in pots. The winters here are a little tougher than Britians' and I don't want to lose any. The semps survive OK, they just look a little rougher in the spring. The common houseleek laughs at our winters and I have it growing in pots and boots etc. that freeze solid and thaw again all winter. I have a coldframe and an unheated greenhouse. If I can just control the mouse problem in the coldframe!....They ate some cobweb types on me this winter that I was propogating :( plus the crowns of seaholly, Kings Spear and daylilies. The little devils. They are history now (evil laugh) but it was too late for some plants. I have grand schemes to make some hypertufa troughs this summer to put my semps and sedums in. There are some great English and Scottish websites on building troughs from fish boxes. Hmmm...maybe it was you who posted those links!? Thanks again.
Glad to be of help. To be honest I don't think your colder winters will be a problem to your semps. What kills them is cold combined with wet. We are talking here about alpine plants that are designed to take everything a mountain climate can throw at them at a high altitude.
