sempervivum

I brought a couple of large packets of sempervivum Species Mixed seeds

They have all come through and there all green, what i want to know is do they get there colour straight away or do they develop their colour with time.

 

They will probably colour up as they get older.

As you probably know, they get the best colours when stressed slightly and best outside, they just grow very lush and green in a greenhouse.

 

As Pete says their colours chage throughout the year - but so also do their appearances. For instance, some Semps, such as S. arachnoideum, will produce a cobwebesque white covering (hence their Latin name) which, in the wild, protects the rosette from scorching in the summer. In the winter, this will disappear. Soil types, weather, and the plants' ages will affect the rate and noticeability of alterations such as coour changes. Many Sempervivums will turn a juicy green in the winter or in poor light; some on a table about a ft. beneath my window sill are currently as green frogs. Some species reach their potential in terms of colour and appearance in summer others in winter or the autumn.

You'll notice also the development of stolons or "offshoots" by which new plants grow vegetatively from the parent. Sometimes these are so short that they are only seenwhen the new rosette is seperated from the parent. In other species the rosettes have very obvious strands emerging from them like outgrowing dreadlocks.