Silverine forms rosettes of sharply pointed, silvery green leaves with a reddish-purple flush at the base. The coloring varies with the seasons. In midsummer, deep pink flowers rise on short, leafy stalks.
It is a tough, low-care succulent that thrives in hot, dry spots with good drainage. Tuck it into wall crevices, between stepping stones, into rock gardens or into a shallow pot, and let the chicks fill in around it.
What it looks like
Symmetrical rosettes 2 to 4 inches across of thick, sharply pointed, fleshy leaves in silvery green, each flushed reddish purple at the base, giving the rosette a dark center. Smaller offset rosettes cluster around the main one. In midsummer some rosettes send up short, leafy stalks topped with clusters of deep pink star-shaped flowers. The plant is a low cluster 3 to 4 inches tall and 6 to 8 inches wide. A group looks like silver-green stars with purple hearts.
Growing it with lavender
Hens and chicks love the same lean, gravelly, sun-baked ground as lavender, so tuck them along the edge of a lavender bed, between stones or in gravel mulch for a low, sculptural contrast to the upright lavender.
Care
Grow in full sun in poor to average soil with sharp drainage, such as gravel, sandy soil, rock crevices or a shallow container; it needs very little water and rots in wet soil. Hardy in zones 3-8; a rosette that flowers will die afterward, so pull it out and let the surrounding chicks fill the gap, and replant extra chicks anywhere.
At a glance
-
Botanical name: Sempervivum
-
Flower color: Deep pink
-
Foliage: Silvery green flushed reddish purple at the base
-
Growth habit: Low rosettes spreading by offsets
-
Mature size: 3–4 in tall × 6–8 in wide
-
USDA hardiness zones: 3–8
-
Light: full sun
-
Deer resistance: Resistant
-
Pollinator value: Fair
Sizes and shipping
Dormant bare-root plant, sold in boxes of 25 per variety (order in multiples of 25). Bare-root plants ship or are picked up March 1–May 31 only. They are soil-free, so they may ship to every state in that window. Dormant plants often show little or no top growth on arrival; plant or heel them in promptly.