from Manuel Werner, Nürtingen, Germany
In the last years sempervivum-enthusiasm in Germany took a dynamic uplift. The times before the sempervivum-hobby almost was sunken into deep sleepiness - into a „stone-rose-sleepiness" I would have said nearly (in Germany houseleeks are sometimes called „Steinrosen" (= „stone-roses"), and a deep sleepyness is called „Dornröschenschlaf" (= sleepiness of Dornröschen, a hundred-years-sleeping princess in a fairytale of the Grimm-brothers, which collected traditional german fairytales). But this sleep didn’t reach a stadium of absolute coma, because of the energetic enthusiasm of such motivating and imposant „old masters" like Martin Haberer, Fritz Köhlein, and so on.
But in the last thirteen years I saw myself always as the only enraptured visitor of the amazing collection in Martin Haberer’s garden. At the same time a more and more sorrowful fate of the more and more neglected Sempervivum-collection in the botanical garden Tübingen showed me in a drastic way the further sunkness and oblivion of the from me so beloved houseleeks. This lasts so long til I was aware from a further sempervivum-addicted in Martin’s garden: A culturist, who drove exactly to this place from Bavaria, the luggage-space of his car full with his own creations: it was Volkmar Schara from Herrieden. The starting and establishment of the „Fachgruppe Sempervivum and Jovibarba" (specialized group Sempervivum) in Germany at spring 1999 marked completely this turn full of hope, in which for me personally the discovery of Gérard Dumonts Homepage „Sempervivophilia" a scarce year before made me very happy, because a further „relative-in-soul" and a lot of exciting and knowledgeable stuff to read was found, after the death of the venerable „Sempervivum-society" - in such a high and good niveau I never read and saw before: a real gold-mine for my Sempervivum-interest.
Actually this „new" enthusiasm is not so surprising, because
the relationship between houseleeks and man is - so Gérard Dumont
- a love-story, which is reaching long into the past ... . Since the classical
antiquity - so Gérard Dumont, on which the following paragraphs
are entirely founded being a summary of his "Houseleeks and Man", houseleeks
were used as vegetarian/vegetable protective substances against plants
vermins, later than as magic plants, as a protection against bolt of lightning,
then as plants against hurts, and because of their ornamental value also.
And "old love does not rust ", one at least says in Germany.
| Is it surprising, that this plants are admired since eldest times?
S. arachnoideum var. arachnoideum, cultivated as S. arachnoideum 'Major', in cultivation. You see very good the white "cobwebs", leading from leaf-tip to leaf-tip. |
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The oldest traces in the antiquity
The farther one turns back in the album of this relationship of a long love, the cloudier and more blurred the documentation becomes to be. With the first written mentions from the Greek antiquity we are not sure which plants exactly are meant with the term "aeizoon" (= always living), in any case these were evergreen succulent plants, which grew in walls and on roofs, Houseleeks or Sedum-plants, and Aeonium (arboreum?) most likely. The sight and the order of life at that time was another than nowadays: the plants were divided after their use, and after their size, and not to show their more or less obvious relationship as we do nowadays.
Roman agronomists name the juice of Sedum - in other sources the juice from aizoon - as useful against plant vermins, and particularly as useful against caterpillars. And then, in one of these sources there for the first time the notion Sempervivum emerges: The Sempervivum-juice is useful against caterpillar's infestation, and one should the seeds/semen, which one wants to sow, put in this juice before sowing.
If one reflects the context of this source, the meaning of the notion Sempervivum receives another „slip of the tongue" than in the explanations read otherwise. The first meaning of Sempervivum is: The juice makes always living, makes resistant against caterpillar's infestation, this juice is a "Sempervivum-juice".
Other explanations of the notion Sempervivum go along that these plants are evergreen (it is meant: also in winter), and therefore like other evergreens than symbol of eternal life. It is also a hint in this direction, that these plants are resistant against dryness and frost, then, that the rosette-clusters of these plants keep themselves by themselves: If one individual plant dies, which has flowered and let out its seeds, then the daughter's-rosettes, the „kiddies" live further, and they do this on and from the substance of the died rosette, which is slowly rotting. So their substance gets again in the food-cycle, into the circle of life.
Middle Ages and modern times
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Left: An old picture of a houseleek that we know from a herbar of 1578
(Lyte). It may be a Jovibarba, because of the campanulaforme blossoms.
On the other hand it may be the old cultivar Sempervivum tectorum
'Murale', which has campanulaforme blossoms too. In Gérard Dumont's
Nomenclatural Explorer this sort cultivated for long time is given as Sempervivum
tectorum subsp. tectorum var. murale. But if the Sempervivum-Blossums
are dry, they are campanulaform too ...
From: Mary and Peter Mitchell: Houseleeks - an introduction. England 1983: 6. Right: Stem of a Sempervivum in winter, 22.12.03
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At least up from the Middle Ages it seems that houseleeks have been cultivated there, because they retained roofs, which were covered with straw, and thatched roofs like the top of walls from erosion losses once as useful plants, and for other because they were considered as magic plants, as magic plants which should guarantee protection from bolt of lightning.
The designations "Donarsbart", "Jupiter’s beard" (= "Jovibarba"), Joubarbe, Barba di Giove, Garda Casa, thunder herb, Donnerwurz, roof leek, Dachwurz, Houseleek point etc to the fact that they were cultivated on the roof, and / or that they were considered as a protection from bolt of lightning - nevertheless, the Germanic God Donar/Thor, as well as the Roman father of the gods Jupiter, as well as also the Greek father of the gods Zeus to the phenomena is a flash and thunder assigned. What led the way in each case? The custom the cultivation on the ridge, or the believes in preservation from bolt of lightning? We do not know it. All reminds of the question what was first, "the hen or the egg "?
These connections between houseleeks and protection from bolt of lightning seem to be of Germanic origin. And „Karl der Große" (Charlemagne, Carolus magnus e on the basis of traditional the instruction that the roofs of his possions/buildings of a person of high standing should be equipped with "Jupiter beard" (" Iovis barbam ").
This custom outlasted through the centuries and also led to the fact, that the Swedish botanist Carl von Linné in the 18th century (in 1753), in his "Species Plantarum", what tells the latin speaker so much like "the species of the plants") for the mostly widespread houseleek-type took the sort name Sempervivum tectorum L.: what means houseleek of the roofs, roof-houseleek, i.e. common houseleek. It is somehow curious, that the S. tectorum at the stations in the alps have the same name, although they don't grow there on roofs, but on slopes, so that Urs Eggli names this subspecies and varieties and local forms as S. alpinum.
Linné applied, in this connection, the so called
binary nomenclature (= scientific designation of the animals and plants
with big-written generic name and small written species-name). The generic
name is here Sempervivum, the sort designation (species) tectorum,
the "L." is standing for the name of the one who gives the name and described
the living being as first one: Linnaeus (= latinized form from: Linné).
Then the third Latin notion which followed on it, would mark the subspecies
or race and then comes the variety (e.g. Sempervivum tectorum subsp.
tectorum var. glaucum). Cultivars, i.e. garden sorts on account of
artificial crossings (hybridising) or choices (selections) from plants,
which are grown from seeds, sometimes unfortunately even „selections" made
by the collecting semp-hunter in nature in the past were given such Cultivar-Names
too, which would better given as „coll. XY") get a special term in quotation
marks (= sort names, from human hand created culture variety), e.g. Sempervivum
marmoreum subsp. marmoreum 'Rubicundum Ornatum' or Sempervivum
tectorum subsp. tectorum 'Murale'. Under latter one understands
this since eldest times known common houseleek-Cultivar growing on walls
and roofs with monstrous green, often misshappened, faulty carpels (carpicus
leaves) in the centre of the blossom instead of the inside stamen circle,
and a stunted exterior stamen circle. Also, otherwise, the blossoms are
formed in a different way (rather pale, upwards bent petals, look in Gérard
Dumonts "Sempervivograph") as it is with the wild common-houseleek-forms
of the mountains, who have normal stamens and carpels. The exact origin
of this oldest houseleek-cultivars loses itself in the darkness of last
times.
One may be angry at the Latin notions, however, please
look to the fact that they are necessary for the international communication
and understanding. Hybrids are marked by an x between the species names
of their parents.
Probably it will lead here too far if I give expression
to my opinion, that the wild members of the genus Sempervivum seem
to withdraw themselve sometimes of such a classification and definition.
If one studies the scientific definition of the notion "species", which
I would like to spare you here, then, for example, the "alpine trio" Common
Houseleek (S. tectorum) , Mountain Houseleek (S. montanum)
and Cobweb Houseleek (S. arachnoideum) behave for example in a manner,
as if there would be no species-barriers between them, for it there occurs
every form of the crossing, which is able and thinkable ("puzzling intermediates"),
but this is a heretical insertion of me and at the field, in the regnum
of the plants the species-barriers are not as necessary for the definition
of species than in the field (regnum) of the animals, and there are the
different chromosome-numbers.... Even the definition and determination
of subspecies and varieties and local-forms are often more than vague at
the Semperviva, and that is the reason why Gérard Dumont
in his recommendable "Sempervivophilia" has chosen sometimes the symbol
§ for such subdivisions. But now have a look to his great work „Nomenclatural
Explorer", which as in a dynamic but very useful and helpful state, the
best nomenclature of Sempervivum I know ...
But let’s go back in our train of thougt to the use of
these plants. Houseleeks, particularly Common Houseleeks (S. tectorum),
were planted usualy - as their name already tells, on roofs. With it Sempervivum
became in the Middle Ages and the modern times an unhurt plant (Herba Sempervivi)
- and today Sempervivum will also be used like this, I don’t know.
| From: Pater Hilarion (=Joseph Richter): Bildergalerie weltlicher Misbräuche.
Leipzig und Frankfurt 1785.
The german sentence means: "A remedy that helps every man" This comment to the picture could have however ironical meaning. The picture is given to me from Horst-Dieter Röhr, the "Sandalensemper" from Wedel in Germany. |
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The boom in the 19th and at the beginning of 20th century - and the confusion which is connected with it...
In the 19th century houseleeks were applied obviously first for bordering flower beds or other edgings. Then the so named mosaic-cultivation had come to fashion for what also gladly houseleek-rosettes were and are applied, as for example Sempervivum calcareum.
The boom of the houseleeks, the "stone roses", is registered at the end of the 19.th / at the beginning of 20th century and is connected closely with the occuring of the rock gardens and the first colourful cultivars. Garden lovers were really enthusiastic concerning these plants. Botanical gardens soon possessed extensive collections and tried to excel themselves mutually. In this time the Alps were also opened up, journeys and excursions were soon ultramodern in the Alps, with the consequence that Botanists occupied themselves everywhere with the alpines. And in their overeagerness they wanted to describe new „species" where it were often "only" location forms, natural hybrids, subspecies, varieties, etc. Praeger named this sprawling behavior appropriately "an orgy of species-making".
In the Francophone area, in which French is spoken, Henry Correvon with his work „Les Joubarbes" (1927 or 1929) is outstanding. He writes in his introduction of this magnificent work: "... One of my friends who studied medicine has possessed from his youth several Sempervivums (arachnoideum, tectorum and other) that he cared for in pots. He left for Paris in 1860, where he had to finish his studies, and carried his plants with him. There he kept them in his window in the graet uproar of the city where they spoke to him of the countryside and the mountains. Very recently this doctor, who has a ´long and fine career behind him, showed me the pots odf sempervivum and said: "These are the very ones I carried with me to Paris; they are still here and will remain faithfull to the end...."
Yes, this is it what constitutes the fascination of these plants! However, the manifold and often manic employment of the botanists and gardners with this plants group also often led to confusion.
Nomina nuda appeared, the terminology became repeatedly
altered - even nowadays. So the first description
and designation of the plant was, which is to see in the photography under
this paragraph: Sempervivum globiferum LINNAEUS 1753. About sixty
years later it is called Sempervivum soboliferum
SIMS 1812. Forty years later this plant is found in teh botanical literature
as Jovibarba sobolifera (L). OPIZ 1852. By the way: In a lot of
recent books, cultivation-lists, and so on you will find this designation
... . Twenty years later the official designation of this plant was
Sempervivum
hirtum (var.) b soboliferum (Sims) Hazsl. in 1872. In 1963 this
plant is called Diopogon hirtus (L.) Fuchs ex Huber, subsp. borealis
H. Huber. And so on, and so on. From the ambiguous Sempervivum globiferum
about Jovibarba hirta borealis is the last official state Jovibarba
globifera (L.) J. Parnell ssp. globifera J. PARNELL 1990. Oh,
no, wait, it is Sempervivum globiferum subsp. globiferum T'HART
& BLEIJ 1999... .By the (having given up?) semp-lovers the plant is
called nevertheless Jovibarba sobolifera how she was called in the
second half of the 19th century, and in a lot of botanical books you can
find this plant under this designation. And - mea culpa - in my documentation
about the Jovibarba of the Lochen, a hill in the Suebian Alb, Baden-Württemberg,
Germany, which is hosted as guest in G. Dumont’s Homepage „Sempervivophilia"
it is called again
Sempervivum hirtum soboliferum, because I had
thought in that time, that soboliferum was the eldest designation
and I had wanted to express, that hirtum and soboliferum
are not two different species, and wanted to name it soon
S. soboliferum soboliferum because under this naming the correct
relationship relations were expressed, as far as I know this today, and
because I had thought first, that there are used the old names too. Nowadays
the correct term is - see above - Sempervivum globiferum ssp. globiferum.
But, however, the term "globiferum" inaugured misunderstandings
for a long time like I have shown in my Internet-treatise about the Lochen-Jovibarba
(see there, pubescent species from the eastern region of the genus Sempervivum
(Kaukasus, Anatolien, Turkey) were called like this, and even S. grandiflorum
was called so once). But if globiferum is the first term used for
this plant (1753), then this is the correct naming, which should be used
international to avoid misunderstanding and confusion. So I will use Sempervivum
globiferum subsp. globiferum T'HART & BLEIJ 1999 in this web-site
from now on too, as you will see.
| Sempervivum globiferum subsp. globiferum from the Lochenstein, Schwäbische Alb, in situ. |
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The Englishmen name the "Sprossende Donarsbart" (Prolifering Donar’s beard) simply "Hen and Chicken Houseleek". This is admittedly a complete chaos, a tohu-wa-bohu, what does not make the affair just light and friendly to beginners, and that with a plant well known since immemorial times! Shall I list also the different german designations of this plant? It is obviously better not to do so!
One can see this and smile, however, consider that, certainly, changes of name are annoying, but in view of the big number of Semperviva and the constant advancement of the state of knowledge and the research it is attached to raise understanding for the again and again innovations that appear. Of course: besides, one should not exaggerate it....
Additional false copying of the writing on plant labels, illegible writing and ... ignorance led to such abstruse designations like "Sempervivum californicum" (from Sempervivum calcareum, the „Limestone Houseleek" from the mountains of SE-France). Although Henry Correvon already in 1929 pointed out that there is no houseleek in California and lists "S. californicum" therefore strictly as a wrong name in his piblication I have still read Sempervivum californicum in one edition of the german plant-shopping-guide (plant-finder)! But fairly one must say that the work of Correvon, unfortunately, is not translated into the german language.
The „golden" 20s and 30s in Germany
Georg Arends is to be mentioned first in this time. His old-respectable cultivar-trio 'Alpha', 'Beta' and 'Gamma' (all hybrids between forms of Cobweb-Houseleeks and forms of Common-Houseleeks) also appeared in 1929. Karl Foerster promoted the rock garden and Semperviva-idea in the thirties also. He swarmed really about the "quiet, unspeakable beauty of the rose-like forms built with thick-fleshy, in multi-coloured green and brown roesette-leaves" and meant, in this connection, the Semperviva-rosettes which he named gladly as "stone roses". Farther Goos and Koenemann "with the cultivation S. 'Rubin' is to be mentioned in Germany, with which also the fitting color of a pure "red" was brought into the game.
In the English speaker’s area it is R. Lloyd Praeger, who published in 1932 a great monography about these fascinating plants with unique drawings ("An Account of the Sempervivum Group"). The "Royal Horticultural Society" had instructed him to do so. It was and is a standard work, often used as source, in 1967 printed again, but unfortunately not in german language...
The rejection of the botanists
It didn’t last long til there were creations of more than thousand cultivars whose variety almost nobody had under control. There was no overview! See in addition the numerous and always again discovered "species", the practice to provide wild forms from the nature with names of cultivars also (for example S. 'Sunset' is obviously a wild form/local form from the Val Minera, S. 'Red Flush' is obviously a selection (from the nature or a selection from seeds of this wild form?) from the French mountains, S. 'Nigrum' is most likely also a wild form/local form, etc), In addition the crossing activity applying in the infinite/endless of the wild ones as well as the cultivated Houseleeks, and the confusion was complete. One often „stepped on the spot". Quickly the botany turned to other plants, the Semperviva were seen as "difficult" and badly transparent. And as „out" concerning the scientific fashion. Now the "mainstream" flows elsewhere. Not later than from the 60s it seems, as if nobody more in the botany was to be lured out with these plants "from behind the stove". And the botanists showed the Semperviva "their cold shoulder", when with them "was to be done no more stitch" any more.
The 70s and 80s - semp-lovers form up boundless and international
The "Sempervivum Society" in England under administration of Peter J. Mitchell summarized in the seventies and eighties with a lot of diligence the state of knowledge the Semperviva into journals and pamphlets and a big collection. In 1978 the Sempervivum Society with the international registration the Cultivars was instructed by Sempervivum, Jovibarba and Rosularia. Colour prints at that time werevery expensive - and therefore rare! They were respected as an expensive treasure, because descriptions could not often be equivalent. There were engaged growers in the 60s, 70s and 80s - so far I overlook this - in Great Britain, the USA, the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. From Germany Kayser and Seibert is to be named mainly and naturally Martin Haberer, as well as Fritz Köhlein and Helen von Stein-Zeppelin. And then Switzerland: Creations came from Jakob Eschmann, from Great Britain I mention David T. Ford and Nicholas Moore, from the States Ed Skrocki, Helen Payne and Carl Purdy, from Belgium Gustaaf van the Steen, from Czechoslovakia Otokar Cmiral - and these are only some of the most important growers who are actually in my remembrance.
A milestone in Germany is the valuable book of Fritz Köhlein: "Freilandsukkulenten" (in 1977). Although Dr. Ben Zonneveld, Belgium, judged in a book review in the Journal 9/78 of the Sempervivum Society in my opinion a little bit severely about this book (so. he criticized that some photos are not given with the most exact designations), is this book - in my opinion - a masterly achievement, which one also reads even nowadays with enormous profit. Naturally the current state of knowledge is now and then another, but this is not relevant in the judging, you have to see the state of knowledge of that time. And this knowledge is summarized in this book quite well. Fritz Köhlein very exactly knew that he often moved "on ramshackle ice", and in spite of this he wrote the book - a basis work!
In 1975 there was established in the german „Gesellschaft für Staudenfreunde" (= society of the friends of the perennials) a specialised group called „Arbeitsgruppe für Sempervivum und Sukkulenten", under the leadership of Martin Haberer. But after some time this specialised group did no more exist - because of missing interest and because of private reasons.
Going down of interest also at the semp-lovers
Nevertheless, end of the 80th, beginning he of 90th there was also to recognise a going-down of interest concerning the garden-lovers . The houseleeks were considered as stalely and simply, and - what is the same like a death judgement - as "simple" plants, as primitive, easy growers without any afforts of cultivation. The "Sempervivum Society" resolved itself. And the same fate had the US-american „Sempervivum Fanciers Association", which had been founded in the late 70ies. The interest of the botanists had gone out anyway already not later than from the 60s. But from the end of the 90s there is to feel again a certain „awake of the spring": Henk t'Hart, Ben J. M. Zonneveld, Philipp Neeff and others give new signals.
Only some growers like Andre Smits and Gaston Wuyts, Belgium, Ben J. M. Zonnefeld and Cornelis Versteeg, in the Netherlands, as well as Gary Gosset, in the USA, and Martin Haberer, Germany, continued in 80ern and the 90s - with superb creations.
In a lot of collections the "eternal living" outlasted, what they can well in fact (compare the name Sempervivum). Many collections are furnished again with big commitment, roofs of every sort are planted with hardy sukkulents and/or grass, and the entry the Sempervivum in the gardens began. And new instituted Alpina (rock gardens) of the botanical garden Tübingen, geographically ordered, show well-cultivated Semperviva sorted well in the midst of the other alpine plants. The houseleek of the serpentin (german/austrian: Serpentin-Hauswurz, Sempervivum pittonii) from the Murtal (valley of the Mur, see for informations about this striking plant and it’s stations the chapter S. pittonii at Kraubath in Gérard Dumonts „Sempervivophilia") in Styria is to be found there even in real Serpentin. So a mild „smell of spring" concerning the Sempervivum-interest blows around and announces salutary atmosphere of departure....
It is very amazing that at the numerous Succulent-lovers the exotic succulents are so high in interest while the interest in our hardy succulents see a sad shadowy existence (I try to express it carefully/understating). Besides, Semperviva to some of their subtropic cousins „can hand absolutely the water", they are able to surpass them not only sometimes. But you can note, that the Semperviva astonishingly are not to see around or betwenn the succulent-lover's plants. Why? And you can see: "The prophet is considered nothing in his own country..." So one finds in the Alpine governments hardly/scarcely Semperviva as garden plants - exceptions confirm this rule, because I have seen cultivated Semperviva in Brülisau and in Randolins in Switzerland, this was it, however, then also already., there also still is the market garden of Jakob Eschmann in Switzerland. And there is as an expelled authority of the native succulents, what includes the houseleeks, as well as the succulents generally Urs Eggli, who makes accessible the attraction of these alpine plants to a lot of tourists also in botanic trips in Switzerland. And not to forget Ralf Hillmann from Chur, a real Sempervivum-lover.
The main spreading of the Sempervivum-Cultivation lies already rather in North Germany, the Netherlands, in Belgium (which shows, certainly, a wildly living population of Semperivum x funckii which arises, however, probably from a naturalization), the Brittany, Great Britain and Übersee - is connected more with the "fish heads" than with the "Alpine yodels". Fortunately the salty air does not harm the houseleeks...
Hopeful signs and outlook
A renaissance on botanic side Gérard Dumont’s brilliant work and project "Sempervivophilia" presents, look particularly to his brandnew „Nomenclatural explorer" and his descriptions of stations, and, and, and, ..., a renaisance is marked by "new" growers/breeders like Volkmar Schara and some other (see in Erwin Geigers homepage www.semper-vivum.de) and is marked by the establishment of the specialized group "Sempervivum and Jovibarba" or „Sempervivum" („Fachgruppe Sempervivum", leader: Hans-Jörg Gensch) within the german "Gesellschaft der Staudenfreunde". It is important that the amateurs distance themselves from commercial behaviour within this group - so my opinion. And then it is to wish this group a longer life than it was to see in the foregoing german group in the middle of the 70s.
The high squaremeter-prices in our extending overcrouded
areas (Stuttgart, middle Neckar, München, ...) lead more and more
to the fact that one has no more big gardens, as well one can see them
so often in sumptuous garden magazines. Many people must establish their
plants in the „land of balcony" (in German called "Balkonien") or in rather
small gardens. For them Semperviva are ideal plants: Already on the smallest
space one can form beautiful plantations. My own collection began therefore
in a balcony chest which copied a mountain landscape with stones, roots
and Semperviva. How happily I was, when the flowering houseleeks, their
nectar, and the sandy-loamy ground attracted the first wild bees! And how
gladly I was that I had something which brought over a little reflection
of my so loved mountains in the everyday life and a breath of nature in
the „wasteland" of the balcony.
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Part of my balcony chest. Right, yellow flowering, Sempervivum grandiflorum,
left, yellow-reddish flowering hybrids between S. grandiflorum und
S. montanum, the Mountain Houseleek, between these S. montanum
subsp. montanum, beginning of flowering, right, in the background,
a garden-sort of the Cobweb Houseleek
(S. arachnoideum).
The houseleeks here are very compact because of not "fat" substrat. |
Yes, Semperviva have the potential to become the "Plants
of the future", to play at least a big role, besides.
Addicted and enthusiasths from the whole world are brought
together by the Internet. One gets to know in the north of Germany what
gets rid in the south and vice versa (conversely) one gets in the east
what runs in the west, and vice versa colored photos can be shown just
like that and be called by each at every place, in a multiplicity of which
was not to be thought earlier. Information is transmitted in lightning
speed. And what in early times was not printed because of to little readers
or what was cut by "great commissions" and editorial staffs now can be
placed uncensored in the net (web), for the more and more growing lovers
of the Semperviva. This induces an enormous thrust and increase
of knowledge.
Naturally the "passion for the ‘stone roses’... is not a hobby like postage stamp collecting..., but an alive, delightful affair which can fulfill a whole big human life with excitation and tension", so Karl Foerster already recognized, the german old master of such perennial treasures of the garden. However, perhaps one also can do more than collecting "Semps like stamps". There are a lot of projects and fields of work waiting for the engaged amateur: For example to review and to order the cultivars and the natural forms, or to support Martin Miklaneks great Internet-list of all the cultivars (he had the first idea to do so), or to send missing photos for the monumental work "Diehmor" (= Horst Diehms overview about the cultivars of the whole world, to contribute see under www.semperhorst.de), to emphasize real innovations in the world of cultivars, which have to be exceptional or not to be, to pronounce recommendations and to exchange tips and hints. Farther it would be good to give impulses to the scientific investigation, to translate other pages of Gérard Dumonts worthful and wonderful "Sempervivophilia" into the English and the German language, to try to register the wild growing houseleeks of our home and to understand better their importance salary and relations. It would be interesting to document the relationship between flourish guests (f.e. hymenoptera like wild bees) and houseleeks, to bring light in some darkness of the wildly growing houseleeks in other countries (for example in south Italy, Kopaonik Gora in the border area of Serbia / Kosovo, Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran...), to gather such informations and then to inform the others. It is always marvellous to admire the rich Sempervivum-World in all her dynamic diversity (biological diversity), to perceive main features of the evolution in the field of the quickly developing and evolutionary young genus Sempervivum, to be able to take pleasure in all aspects of Sempervivum, and, and, and...
A phenomenon which was preserved through long times now revives, blossoms and gets upward wind! Good so!
Above: A phenomenon which was preserved through long times now revives, blossoms and gets upward wind, blossoms like this magnificent blossoms of a hybrid between the Cobweb Houseleek and the Mountain Houseleek (S. arachnoideum x montanum x ?) coll. Lys (ubi?), in cultivation.
This short document has a certain south-western-german and subjective point of view. Naturally all of the growers (breeders) in the whole world are not listed here. Their possibly absence means no disdain! Please forgive me for too strong simplifications. Only the coarsest lines of development could be drawn, exceptions confirm like so often the rule. The historic part of the overview is based nearly fully - especially the first chapters - on the recommendable treatise of Gérard Dumont's "Houseleeks and Man" in "Sempervivophilia", under http://gdumont.multimania.com/hist_gb.htm. This first part is like a summary of Gèrard Dumonts treatise. There and in the other pages of him is much more information - read it! Some parts of my text are founded on Gérard Dumonts trains of thoughts, caught by me and leaded on. If there will be mistakes in this continue of mine, then it are entirely my mistakes ...
State: 22.12.03
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