Rag2 - introduction

Hello, I'm Richard (rag2) from Malta, almost 62 years old, married with 2 daughters (1 married) and a son (who lives in England) and 2 grand daughters. I do not work any more so I've started collecting cacti and other succulents for about 18 months. I've have a collection of about 1000 species of different succulents. But unfortuneately I've only 1 species of sempervivum which seems to me that they are dead. I would like to build a collection of sempervivum because they look very nice and interesting. If there is anyone who got a surplus of sempervivum and wants to sell them to me, just email me the list on rag2@maltanet.net. In the beginning of the coming May I'm going to visit Venice and whilst I'm there I hope to visit the Dolomites to watch some sempervivum growing in in their local habitat.

Hi, Richard!

Ohhh, Malta!!! Malta!!!!! One must think I'm crazy, but I've been to Malta in July 2010 and I LOVE this small country. I definitely plan to go back one fine day, it might as well be at the end of 2011 (for X-mas holidays).

How are semps doing during mild Maltese winters? I guess they will never reveal their true winter red, but than again I myself do not mind much about winter colours - I prefer summer colorations!

Hi, Renata
All my Semps seem to be dead. Maybe bad cultivation or bad conditions! Let me know if you intend to come to Malta maybe I'll take you to visit some interesting places of Malta. We'll talk about it later. I would like to start a good collection of semps but I have to read more about them to keep them alive though most of my other succulents survived the winter.

I'm not sure about the weather you had in Malta last winter - but I imagine there was no frost and a lot of sunny days - so the plants might not have stop growing - taking a winter rest. See, semps do need winter rest, here where I live they have at least 3 months of temperatures below zero Celsius during nighttime. If they don't take a winter rest they have to be watered from time to time. I think it is harder to keep semps alive in places where there is "no real" winter with low temperatures and snow!

Do they look dried out or have they rotten?

Here in Malta the winter night temperatures are between 10 to 12 celcius, only dropping for a few days for about 6-8 celius in mid March. Now it's about 12 to 15 celcius. I looked very closely at the arachnoideum sempervivum which I have (about 5 in all) and now I think that they are still alive because the inner part of the plants is green only the outer part turned brownish. Usually I don't water plants during Winter but now I watered them a bit and they look a bit better and hope that they'll survive!
Bye & Thanks a lot.

The winter temperatures are just too high for the plants to stop growing and take winter rest. You'll have to find out yourself how to treat them over winter, but they sure need watering. It is somehow normal for the Sempervivums top lose outer leaves in fall / winter ...

It seems that all I have to do is to find a cooler place for the semps to have their Winter rest and wait to see if there will be an improvement in growth in the coming weeks. But I need to acquire more different species of semps and watch them grow.
Thanks again for your useful information.