The author of the text is MSc. Barbara Bogacz
The great variety and ease of interbreeding of these plants has led to the creation of several hundred hybrids and varieties, the main decoration of which are thick leaves in colors ranging from light green to dark brown and purple.When choosing the species and varieties, let's be guided by the shape and color of the rosette.
The species with green leaves most often bloom yellow, and those with red leaves have red or pink inflorescences - they appear from May to September. Then, from the older rosettes sprouts about 5-15 centimeters long, on the tops of which a bunch of about ten tiny star-shaped flowers develop.
After the plant produces flowers and seeds, the old rosette dies, but before that it produces new, daughter-grown ones, growing at the ends of short runners.Separating such a rose from the mother plant, we can reproduce it very easily.The best time to carry out this treatment is April or August, but the colonies start at any time of the growing season. A young rosette takes root very quickly and grows densely (swarms) into dense pillows.
In nature, rosettes are often torn off by the wind and carried far away until they find favorable conditions for rooting. Swarms can grow even in small rock crevices.They don't need watering or fertilizing, it even hurts them. In the Alps, it was believed that swarms protect against lightning strikes, which is why you can often find roofs planted with these crassula there. Our highlanders hung rosettes in the windows connected with a thread - they lasted a long time without a substrate.
Succulent gardens on the balcony
A typical representative of this kind isrojnik murowysempervivum tectorum. It is the largest of the swarming species. Occurs in Europe, the Caucasus and Iran. It has large flat rosettes up to 20 cm in diameter. The tops of the leaves are characteristically red in color. Slightly smaller rosettes are issued byrojnik pospolitysempervivum soboliferum. In very sunny locations its leaves turn brown on the outside.
Rojnik mountainsempervivum montanum grows in Poland in the Tatra Mountains and the Bieszczady Mountains on a granite and quartzite substrate from the mountain pine to the rocky ground at a height of 2,500 m.a.s.l. It is under strict species protection.
Rojnikspiderwebsempervivum arachnoideum is a species that does not occur in our wild. It grows in the Alps, Pyrenees and the Carpathians. It has very small rosettes (1-2 cm) covered with white hairs resembling cobwebs. Before winter, cover it with a layer of leaves.
Rojnikmothssempervivum schlehanii produces medium-sized rosettes with maroon discolored leaves with green tips. Also requires a winter quilt of leaves.
Forever alive
Latin name of the genus, Sempervivum, means eternally alive, which perfectly characterizes the plants belonging to it. They are closely related to the mountain regions of Europe, the Caucasus and Asia Minor.All species are persistent and only a few, native to the Southeast, are susceptible to frost.Clematis are members of the Crassulaceae family.
They grow in poor, dry and sunny soils, mostly calcium-free. Thick leaves collected in decorative florets are evergreen and resist heat and drought.
