Sempervivum 'Purple Beauty' Hens & Chicks

Sempervivum 'Purple Beauty' is an herbaceous evergreen perennial, commonly called hens and chicks or houseleek. A mat-forming succulent, 'Purple Beauty' has medium-sized, semi-open rosettes with green centers and deep purple tips. Under ideal conditions, the plant may bloom in midsummer. It grows as one large rosette (hen) and spreads in all directions by sprouting smaller rosettes (chicks) that cluster around it. A monocarpic plant, the hen naturally dies after flowering, allowing the chicks to take over and become hens themselves. Plants can be divided easily at any time by pulling up some of the chicks and replanting them elsewhere.

Hens and chicks are excellent structural plants for the garden, and their architectural form and extreme versatility creates unusual planting opportunities. These succulents are particularly effective planted in the cracks and crevices of dry stone walls or of rock gardens and are well-suited to xeriscapes and alpine gardens. They create a nice ground cover when massed in small spaces, and they are also attractive container plants, indoors or out.

Adaptable, cold hardy, no maintenance plants, hens and chicks grow almost anywhere. They grow well in hot, sunny locations but may benefit from some light shade, especially in the afternoon in hot summer climates. They adapt to a variety of soils but prefer average, dry to medium moist, very well-draining gritty soils, having a slightly acidic pH (5.8-6.5). Hens and chicks are drought tolerant, virtually pest and disease free, and deer and rabbits resistant. About the only thing that can destroy these plants is wet feet, and 'Purple Beauty' requires especially sharp drainage.