Sempervivum

A firm favourite on our nursery for their sheer resilience. Sempervivums, or Houseleeks, are evergreen succulents that form geometric, rose-like rosettes. Their leaves are the main attraction, coming in a wide range of colours from greens and greys to deep reds and purples, often changing with the seasons. After a few years, a rosette will send up a taller stem bearing star-shaped flowers in summer, typically in shades of pink or red.

These are wonderfully low-maintenance plants. A single rosette can be as small as a few centimetres or up to 10cm across, but they spread via offsets (or ‘chicks’) to form a dense, ground-hugging mat up to 50cm wide. They thrive in a spot with full sun and need very well-drained, gritty soil. They are perfectly happy in poor soils and are extremely drought tolerant once they’ve settled in.

Once established, they need very little attention. The main thing is to avoid overwatering, as they hate sitting in wet soil, especially over winter. After a rosette flowers it will die back, but the surrounding ‘chicks’ will quickly fill the space. We think they look fantastic tucked into the crevices of a wall or spilling out of a terracotta pot.