Sempervivum Chick Charms Cosmic Candy

The Sempervivum 'Chick Charms Cotton Candy', with its rosettes covered in a thick veil of bristles at the heart, is a very pretty descendant of the spiderweb houseleek. These are very pretty little tightly packed rosettes, with fleshy almond green leaves, the tips of which are more or less brick-colored. This prolific variety produces numerous daughter rosettes, forming carpets with extraordinary patterns. Perfect in dry and sunny rockeries, ideal for embellishing arid and mineral areas, this small succulent perennial is hardy and requires no maintenance. 'Chick Charms' houseleeks are very endearing perennials that quickly inspire the desire to collect them!

All houseleeks grow spontaneously in rocky lawns, on rocks and scree, in open and sunny locations, mainly in mountainous areas. They are hardy succulent perennial plants of the Crassulaceae family that retain their foliage even in winter. The Sempervivum from the 'Chick Charm' series are carefully selected hybrids in the USA for their unusual colors and ease of cultivation: they are hardy and resist root rot.

The 'Chick Charms Cotton Candy' houseleek has thick and long roots that infiltrate deeply into the crevices of rocks, ensuring good attachment to the walls while drawing water from deep within. The plant quickly forms beautiful colonies of rosettes of different sizes, juxtaposed, reaching 5-6 cm (2in) in height and 6 cm (2in) in diameter at maturity. Over time, this houseleek can form a dense carpet, spreading over 30-40 cm (12-16in) on the ground, perfectly adapting to the relief. Resembling a small artichoke, each rosette is composed of numerous fleshy, pointed leaves without petioles, connected to each other by a silky, very dense weaving at the heart. The white threads, stretched between the leaves, glisten in the sun. The color changes according to the season and climatic conditions, with the tips of the leaves turning brick-colored. The flowering appears on rosettes aged 2 or 3 years, which will then disappear, not without ensuring their perpetuity by producing numerous small daughter rosettes on the periphery. The fluffy flower stalks, 15-20 cm (6-8in) tall, develop from June to August, formed by thick stems that bear flat heads with 1 to 8 star-shaped flowers with 8-12 petals in shades of purple-pink.

The 'Chick Charms' Sempervivum is a boon for gardens where the soil lacks thickness : where few species survive, it colonizes abandoned spaces. If your soil is poor, rather dry, stony, rocky, or even slightly chalky, you can still enjoy this hardy perennial (which withstands temperatures below -15°C (5°F)), which requires no maintenance and promises to bring life to any pile of stones, a wall or even a green roof. Chick Charms houseleeks are indeed very easy-to-care-for succulent plants, offering flowers and foliage in various shades that allow for stunning compositions. Beautiful in their pot arrangements, especially in low terrine-type pots, they are irreplaceable in borders, troughs, or rockeries, alongside London Pride (Saxifraga umbrosa), wall bellflowers, or Lewisia cotyledon. Consider choosing companions with staggered bloom times (Antennaria, small sedums, Delosperma) and colorful foliage (Tanacetum densum subsp. amanii, Ajania pacifia, Hertia cheirifolia), for a variegated and joyful rockery.