Common name: Hens-and-Chicks, Houseleeks
Family: Crassulaceae, Orpine
Height x width: 3-4" x 4-12"
Growth rate: moderate
Foliage: rosettes ½"-4" across, leaves thick and fleshy and glabrous, ½-2" long, cuneate-obvate, 50-60 per rosette
Flowers: purple red on stems 6-15" above rosettes, summer
Hardiness: 3-8
Soil: well-drained, plants prefer poor, rocky or gravelly soil
Light: sun, tolerate part shade
Pests and Problems: rust, crown rot
Landscape habit, uses: rock garden, dry wall, edging, bedding in dry gardens, containers such as strawberry jars
Other interest: native to Europe; genus name from the Latin semper meaning forever and vivo meaning to live, refering to it seeming to live forever; it is often grown on tile roofs in Europe as superstition says that houseleek repels lightning and prevents fires; when flower stem dies in central "hen" rosette, open space is created for future "chick" rosettes
Other culture:
Propagation:division of outer rosettes from "mother" rosette, seed with 3 years to flower
Species:
• x giuseppi (gue-sep' pee)--medium green tight heads on short stolons, small to medium size, tinged purple, hairy
• marmoreum (mar-more' ee-um)--similar tectorum only 8" flower stem
• montanum (mon-ta- num)--dark green, dull, very fleshy, finely hairy, 4" tall flower stem
• tectorum (tec-tor' um)--parent of many hybrids, large
and open rosettes, hairy flower stem to 12" tall, thick leaves with dark
tips
Of the over 1000 cultivars worldwide, the following are the most commonly
found in U.S. commerce. Most are hybrids of tectorum with a couple
exceptions noted.
| Cultivar | rosettes | other |
| 'Alpha' | bluish green. large, open | some cobwebbing |
| 'Ashes of Roses' | fuzzy gray, pink tint | |
| 'Beta' | blue green, red edges, tight | |
| 'Blood Tip' | sharp blood red tips | |
| 'Brunneifolium' | pinkish brown, compact | marmoreum |
| 'Cobweb' | pale green, silvery web of hairs | |
| 'Engles Rubrum' | green, rose base, red in spring | hairy edges |
| 'Granada' | pink and green, medium size | |
| 'Imperial' | pale green brushed rose | |
| 'Laggeri':subsp. tomentosum | arachnoideum | |
| 'Oddity' | bright green, rolled leaves, tight | |
| 'Olivette' | gray green tipped red, tight | |
| 'Othello' | red, large | |
| 'Pilosella' | green, medium size, semi-loose | |
| 'Purple Beauty' | green, deep purple tips, semi-open | |
| 'Pyrenaceum' | pink gray | |
| 'Red Beauty' | gray green, tipped red, open | |
| 'Rubicundrum' | green tipped red, small heads, tight | marmoreum |
| 'Rubrifolium' | vivid red, tipped and edged green | marmoreum |
| 'Sanford's Hybrid' | deep red, large | |
| 'Silverine' | pale green, red blended | |
| subsp. tomentosum | pale blue green cobweb | arachnoideum |
| 'Twilight Blues' | olive green, lavender tint, purple tips | |
| 'Wolcott's Variety' | silvery pink | |
©Authored by Dr. Leonard Perry, Professor, University of Vermont as part of PSS123 course.
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