Here are 11 potential candidates to become your next favorite Sempervivum:
1. Berry Blues
You might see blue but you won’t feel that way when this deep-hued hens and chicks plant is spreading raucously across the ground in your backyard or within a rock garden.
With blue-green foliage surrounding an almost burgundy center, Berry Blues™ reaches four inches tall and plants can produce offsets and spread as much as a foot before flowering.
This blue beauty is even more cold-tolerant than most, though not quite as heat tolerant as some varieties. It’s hardy in Zones 3 to 8.
Part of the Chick Charms® series from Garden Solutions, Berry Blues™ is available via Amazon or as part of the “grower’s choice” grab bag of selections available at Nature Hills Nursery in a four-pack of quart-sized containers.
2. Black Rose
The color isn’t true enough to match a little black dress, but this Sempervivum is as classic and handy as the beloved all-occasion garb.
It also swirls like one’s a favorite skirt, only upward.
‘Black Rose’ forms true green rosettes that grow about four inches tall and spread six inches, tops. They develop purple-black tips that become ever more prominent as the weather warms.
The color looks especially lovely in a container with other outdoor succulents that have red foliage.
This hens and chicks cultivar is often confused with Aeonium arboreum ‘Black Rose,’ another rosette-forming succulent from a different genus which has thicker stems and a more saturated, blacker color.
Sempervivum ‘Black Rose’ is available as a “grower’s choice” option from Succulent Gardens.
3. Commander Hay
‘Commander Hay’ is a Sempervivum hybrid that forms tight rosettes of green leaves brushed with deep burgundy, the color intensifies in cool weather for added seasonal interest.
Reaching about four to six inches tall and nine to 12 inches wide, this hens and chicks cultivar forms dense mats.
Hardy in Zones 3 to 8, ‘Commander Hay’ is ideal for rock gardens or container growing.
4. Desert Bloom
Wish you could bring the sunny sand and succulent plants from arid regions home to grow in cooler climes?
This hens and chicks variety has a definite desert vibe, but grows far more quickly than most types of cacti and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9.
‘Desert Bloom’ produces rosettes about three-inches square at maturity, with baby offsets surrounding the mass at the base in clusters. The plant will spread about eight inches.
Its pointy leaves are light green kissed with a dusky pink in spring. The hue becomes bright lilac in winter.
Like a jade plant, it has a protective waxy coating that makes the surface smoother than that of some other varieties.
‘Desert Bloom’ is available from Hirt’s Gardens via Walmart in quart-size pots.
5. Greenii
‘Greenii’ is a cultivar of S. calcareum, a hens and chicks species characterized by large rosettes.
Its sharply pointed leaves can form rosettes that are six inches across and the plants reach about the same height. They can spread up to a foot at maturity.
Each point is tinged with a mahogany hue, and the overall effect is big and bold.
