# My Hens and Chicks Plants



## Sameer (Sep 30, 2007)

So, Ive been in the aquatic plants/scaping for a few years now, into aquariums ever since I was a kid and recently into plants. I got all these interests from my parents. Theyve been keeping non aquatic plants their whole life and my dad was into aquariums. He built his own and kept fishes. As a child, I kept red eared sliders. All the way up to maybe when I was 15. After that I just started keeping fish. I had a 25 gal tall. After a little while my dads friend gave us many anubius and crypts. Our whole tank was filled with these beautiful plants. After that, I bought ghost and amano shrimps. For the first time in my life I had living shrimps!!!! After that things picked up. Fish just got kinda boring. I had the usual community fishes. I used to look at the planted tanks online and used to drool. The foreground plants, red plants, so awsome!!! So I ended up going DIY high tech. hmm, perhaps I should end the story here and make another thread in the planted tank journals, because its quiet a story.

Ill skip to non aquatic plants for now. So recently, I became interested in growing good looking, normal, easy to grow plants. So I ended up ordering a few different types of seeds from Africa. It was so darn cheap that it wouldnt hurt trying. Its funny actually. I was searching for one of the aquatic plants on google and typed "lobelia". Because I had the cardinalis but didnt know the last name. What I saw on google images was the most beautiful plant Ive seen so far (I think). It was amazing, fell in love with it. It was a Lobelia Deckenii. Its still my dream plant to grow. The seeds come very rarely and usually only avail. from a few sites thru out the world. So I got seeds for Lobelia Gibberoa and a few others. I read the instructions and gave it a shot. They sprouted to beautiful little leafs. But they all eventually died. I recently gave up. I tried growing succulents from seeds too but its just too hard. I had a closed glass bottle with soil and a little moisture. Its just not good enough.

Sooo I moved away from seeds and wanted to try growing from clippings or something. I was at a walmart and saw a really nice bonsai for $7. Grabbed it. I mist it everyday and water it once a week. Its doing well, its flowering too! Im interested in succulents since they are easy to keep. Dry conditions and little maintenance. Hens and Chicks, or Sempervivum got my eye. These beautiful plants not only are drought tolerant, they have many different colourful varieties and they propagate in an interesting way.

Recently, after searching ever single nursery in US and sites around the globe (to the most part), I finally found a nursery in US that was really well priced. Im not interested in Hens, because they are expensive. I wanted to try the chicks and grow them up. Itl be so much more rewarding and if I end up killing them, I wont feel too bad. I bought about 25 chicks of many different variety. I dont know the variety names. It took me maybe 2 hours to set these guys up.

I have the succulent soil mix along with gravel. 3/4 of the pots are filled with soil. Then a short layer of gravel. Then an inch thick layer of soil and as the ground cover, more gravel. I really dont want to over water them or have root rot from too much water. Ive already killed a succulent this way before.

So, here are the images.

My Bonsai








Another tropical plant I have, dont know the name









Note I ran out of gravel, thats why the long brown pot is boring. Im still searching for nice glass shallow containers to keep these hens in. They need almost no soil and are used in rock gardens. Which is what I want to do.


































































































































These macro pics show most of the varieties, there are more different ones in the brown container.


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## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Those are nice!

The second plant you posted is some kind of _Tradescantia_, possibly. _T. zebrina_.

You should also check out _Lithops_. I'm a big fan. They're really neat.


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

You collect chicks n hens aswell? Are those your pics of them, my dad collected them, and I've takin babies of all them coming back for me every year there pretty awesome plants


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## Sameer (Sep 30, 2007)

characinfan said:


> Those are nice!
> 
> The second plant you posted is some kind of _Tradescantia_, possibly. _T. zebrina_.
> 
> You should also check out _Lithops_. I'm a big fan. They're really neat.


Thanks. I like the lithops, I wouldnt mind giving them a try if I find one.

Dman, I just started out. They look really nice. They are all chicks atm. I really hope they grow and fast. ehehe I really want to see a hen. Maybe we can swap species in the future.


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## Sameer (Sep 30, 2007)

Big wooping update. My thread has been alot more active on plantedtank.net so you might want to check the thread out there. Ive posted alot more pics and updates as to what happened along the way. I update the thread there today, will c p here

atm my succulents and semps are growing strong. Ill try to get a pic. I will be moving my succulents, aloe, sago palm and agaves inside. My semps will stay outside. Not only are semps very hardy to the cold but they did terrible when I had them inside this past winter. About 10 to 15 have dried/shriveled out. They were in bad shape when I brought them out in the spring and the heat only made it worse.

In terms of wintering, Im very worried. Im not sure how my succulents will do indoor. Ill be placing T8 light over them, they will be at room temp of 23 to 26c, I will be watering them once every 2 weeks and they will get little to moderate indirect sunlight. Im worried because you are suppose to keep them in a cool spot so they go dormant. Since Im in an apartment, I seriously dont have much space. I have too many tropical plants that are taking space and all the window spaces are occupied. From next year my agaves will be outdoors for their lifetime, atm they seem damaged so Im not taking any chances.

Here are 2 pics comparing them. To be honest, they have grown a bit since Aug 30th.

June 30th









Aug 30th









Ill try to get pics today of them all.

EDIT: PICS from today!!!


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## 10G (Sep 15, 2013)

beautiful shots, looks like u put a lot of hard work into this, it definitely shows


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