Who else loves the humble sempervivum

I used to smile when my OH talked about her lovely "semperviviums" (sic). Every time we went to a garden centre she would browse looking for new ones, at less than £1. I let her get on with it, buying, planting, replanting offshoots. But recently I have become a real fan. Some have really lovely leaf colour and shape, some with a fine cobweb like fur on top. What I really like is that they are a) evergreen, so good ground cover b) very hardy (we haven't lost one in the last two cold winters), c) withstand drought when most other plants are suffering, and d) so easy to propagate. They can die in the middle after flowering, but by this time 10 or 12 offshoots form a ring round the old parent, so you just do a little rearranging. 

Tomorrow we are off to the garden centre to seek out some more, and some baby bush tomato plants. 

I love them too!  For all the reasons you mention above.  They are brilliant for getting into nooks and crannies where other plants would struggle.  Over the past few years I have really come to appreciate succulents and I am slowly making a nice collection of them.

I'm fond of them too, particularly for their leaf colours.

I planted some last year in the roof garden on Insect Towers.  Looks like they've come through the winter OK and far better than the dwarf sedums so I'll be looking out for more this spring.

I expanded my collecting last year because I love the shape and forms as well as the colours. I take a lot of photos up close and personal as they have a slightly alien look. The common ones do fine all year round with me, but I brought a slightly tender blue type last year that I divided in the autumn and over wintered outside in pots. I should have protected them better because the snowy weather obliterated them, but now I've discovered they are shooting anew from further down the stems, so they're not actually dead, just knocked back. whoop whoop!

I love Sempervivums,too! This is one of my sinks

Well one does have a number to look out for, there are over 900 named cultivars in the national collection.