Your website has always been a huge resource for me! Thanks for keeping it up and improving it.

They don't have to be "old" to bloom - just mature enough and growing in suitable conditions. I even have them blooming in 4" containers at the nusery and mine bloom at home consistantly. Sempervivum tanslates loosely to "live forever" and these are some of the hardiest of the commonly grown sedums and succulents, most species adaptable to conditions from zone 4 to 9 and from full sun to dense shade. They are not fussy about soil conditions as long as drainage is good. They propagate themselves most commonly from offsets - the "chicks" - and can spread densely and rapidly in areas where they are happy. Many plants produce unusual inflorescenses - I'm not sure I'd label them as strongly as alien life forms.....LOL! Yours are only still in bud and I'd recommend allowing the flowers to develop fully before you remove them. They are really very attractive and bloom in shades of pink and yellow.

I love it! Actually you are really hitting on the whole "feel" I will be going for. I tell you what ... I will give you a pic of the backyard in progress. We are putting up a fence at the moment. But .. on the slope I am thinking I want to do something involving a natural looking setting with some sort of water feature. A natural looking waterfall type feature?? There will be a gate at the top of the hill and I would like to build on the cinder block stairs someone put in once. Any ideas would be appreciated if you still feel like working with your new SW program! Hill: I want to terrace the slope - have some natural stairs a water feature and some screening behind what will be the fence. I need a lawn area for the dogs to run and play. I have no idea how I will plant along the fence ... perhaps some grasses and flower gardens. Not sure yet! Back of house: I am thinking we will put lattice up under the deck and I will grow confederate jasmine up it ... something evergreen. Then who knows. I have a lot of space to work with. =) Front with the beautiful dogwood!! I can not WAIT to see it in the spring!! THANK YOU -- really for all your ideas =)

Image by: Garden Junk Forum Members A Variety of Chairs Planted Chairs - A Variety of Options There are so many options for planting chairs, below the Garden Junk forum members talk about their chairs, where they found them and what they planted them with: Posted by chaos_quilt: I just got the flowers in the chair for this year...some Yellow Symphony osteospurmum in the back, purple heliotrope for the bees, red purslane in one corner, pink verbena in the middle front, and blue total mind blank, forgot the names of such a common flower, am worried about my memory in all four corners. As with last year, I'm expecting to water this dang thing a LOT, but will enjoy watching it take off in bloom. The chair was fifty cents at a yard sale, with a ten cent basket set inside and held with wire to the frame... (This is the wooden chair in front of the white brick wall in the picture) Posted by littleredhen: Dh and I were riding around one day when we stumbled upon a yard sale. I am not in love with my particular style of chair, but the price was too good to pass up ($3). It did have a seat when purchased, but it rotted overtime, so I decided to take advantage of the planting hole. I stapled in chicken wire, but wouldn't do it again. It was hard to bend down in there and get stapled around. We used it for the fact that we had some left over from our coop. Small metal screen that can be folded would have been way easier to work with. Even easier still, I probably could have simply stuck a pot in there - no stapling or anything strenuous! The sedum usually comes back. It's the type that you can literally fling anywhere and it grows. Then every year I get the joy of planting some type of annual. For some reason I always flock to the spike and the Coleus. (lrh's owns the white chair in the picture with the frame resting against the leg) Posted by pplantlady: I found my chair at a Junque store for $5 and took off the seat and painted it butter yellow. I used two pieces of chicken wire woven together to form the basket and stapled it to the rim of the seat. I lined the basket with newspaper....then soil and planted Colieus, Sweet potato vines (2) Green and Black, and a Dusty Miller. I moistened the Spagnum moss in a bucket of water and pushed bits through the holes in the chicken wire. It's held up nicely except for the birds pulling the moss out now and then and is sitting out in the yard near my fairy garden. (plantlady's chair has the fairy sitting to the right of the chair) Posted by cand: This is one of my first chairs that was gotten during bulk pickup days in our town. (Green chair with bucket planter and bacopa) Posted by simjen: I made my chair it last summer out of an old wooden chair thats been in the basement for years, painted it pink and planted it with sedums and hens and chicks. Its been sitting outside all winter and everything is growing so nicely now. (located at the top right in the picturewith the fairy sitting beside it) Posted by Bright199: Mine is a child's chair turned planter with a painted "welcome" greeting on it. This is located on the right, second picture down) Posted by Phillustrations: I made a mosaic chair for the garden. The picture doesn't show it, but I planted it with bocopa and snapdragons. (Phil's chair is shown unplanted in the picture) Posted by rylaff: An old chair I bought at an antique store became a trellis for one of my passionflower - To which earthpearls posted: That's looks great! Overcome by passion...I'm lookin for the wine bottle and straw hat, some gloves..... (shown covered with a vine in the picture, bottom right) Posted by hopeful_in_Brevard: I went to an estate sale and found an old icecream chair (white) for a dollar. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. Took the seat out, found a pot just the right size to fit in it. Planted a miniture pink rose and a cascading Bacopa "Giant Snowflake". It all fit so perfect and it really makes me feel good. Posted by bloominweeds: I made a couple chairs. First made a basket of sorts from chicken wire and stapled it around the chair frame. Lined it with moss I bought, and one I used a coconut liner for a hanging basket. Then the potting soil, plants and then more moss hopefully to hold the moisture in this year. They do like to dry out fast.