Adamič - Slovenia

Vrtnarija (nursery) Adamič (Adamic) has over 100 varieties, according to their website. Unfortunately, there is no list of varieties on their site, only some photographs without names. No information on mail ordering (presumably not?). They are situated near Maribor in NE Slovenia. Link to their website:

http://www.vrtnarija-adamic.si/index.php?portal_id=51

They have only "lost label" plants.

No mail order either - months ago I wrote to them asking about mail order and till this day I got no answer.

OK, that means the end of my hope to identify some of the plants which I bought last year, including a pittonii-lookalike which likely stems from this nursery.

One of their ...

Here's the link to their exhibition photo - a flower made of Sempervivums in pots:

http://www.vrtnarija-adamic.si/index.php?mod=gallery_detail&gallery_id=816

I've writen to the nursery twice, but still noooooo answer... (and it'be been months!)

In a garden center I found a plant labelled as Jovibarba sobolifera, from Adamič. It is also on the website from Adamič. In the pot is a Jovibarba for sure. However, on the picture (label) is a plant which is partly reddish, while the plant which I bought (= pot full of rosettes) is entirely pale green. This can of course be caused by a different season, but my other Jovibarba show at least some red at this time. I guess that the only thing to do is to wait and see if the plant which I bought is really the same as the plant on the label ...

The plant with # 56 seems to be a pittonii or a very-close-lookalike. But there are also a Rosularia (or 2?) and an Orostachys hiding between their assorted Semps ... On one hand certainly fun to "find" plants like this, on the other hand pity they are not labelled more exact.

The pittonii-lookalike which I mentioned before grew big and flowered like crazy, untill I lost it entirely. This was definately not a pittonii ... # 56 is a different plant.

The plants they are selling are ALL lost label. I guess they "made a step further" and start GUESSING the names.

To be clear, the "identification" of Adamič#56 is MY guess and will stay as a gues/uncertain. It is not far-fetched though, because I have a certain pittonii fromk Erwin Geiger right next to it and I suspect that it might be the same plant!

To be honest I'd rather not discuss how an individual nursery is working. In stead, I prefer to discuss specific plants. Part of a plant's "identity" is it's origin, including by whom it is grown. Meaning that "Adamič#56" refers to a specific plant as clearly as "Sempervivum ciliosum var octopodes "Apetalum". Of course the taxonomic status of the former is less clear than that of the latter.

In the case of "Jovibarba sobolifera from Adamič", I have no way to tell if at Adamič they were guessing it's identity. Even if all their other plants are lost-label, they can have obtained this specific plant with this name. If it is misidentified, it might or might not be their mistake. This, only they can clarify, not me.

I happen to like plants with a known identity and origin, but to most people this is irrelevant. And I decided to collect "anything which could be a S. pittonii, including lost-label ones". Note that the S. pittonii clones grown by well-respected nurseries* also lack a collection date and a name of a collector (not strange for a plant which is legally protected), so their identity is also not 100% certain.

* referring to an e-mail conversation with one of the leading Sempervivum-hybridisers.