Hens and chicks - help needed

2 years ago

My son and his girlfriend got me this plant last year. It did great over the summer and really flourished, so much so that I re-potted the plant. I live in southwest Ohio so I brought the plant indoors for the winter. Over the winter months a lot of the larger leaves died off and I would take them off the plant. It was starting to look pretty ragged and also had some long growth. I found a blog post on Pinterest on how to re-plant hens and chicks. I followed the instructions and cleaned all the plants up and repotted them hoping it would help them flourish once again. I had trimmed off all the long growth and got a grow light. I have the light set to 12 hrs a day, thinking the long growth was a sign it was not getting enough light. Now that it is spring, I brought the plant back outside and just found it looking pretty sad. Is there any chance I can get this back to being a healthy plant again?

Featured Answer

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

2 years ago

Hen and chicks is the common name for a number of unrelated plants. Yours look to be a Sempervivum or the most common plant with that name. And it is not happy being indoors over winter. These are some of the hardiest perennial succulents you could encounter, rated down to a zone 3, so will easily tolerate even an Ohio winter. All they want is as much sunlight as possible and fast draining soil/protection from heavy rainfall.

The extensions you see forming are actually flower stalks.....a bit early but being indoors is probably the cause of that. Once that plant (the hen) flowers, it dies and should be removed but with luck all the little offsets (chicks) will replace it.

It would have been ideal to gradually acclimate it to being outdoors in the sun again. I'd maybe move the pot to an area that gets very bright light but not necessarily direct sunlight for a week or two. I'd also recommend when/if you replant that you use a much shallower pot and a very fast draining cactus potting mix. These plants grow naturally in the cracks of rocks or in very thin, stony soil and too much rich, water retentive soil in too large a pot is not to their liking.

I can't honestly say how well yours will recover. It's hard to consider that the first and last photos are actually of the same plant.

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Comments (10)

mjwillsey (zone 6b)
Original Author
2 years ago
I know I’m so sad. I layered the bottom of the pot with multi sized rocks so there would be plenty of drainage and the soil I used was a succulent soil. I only watered when the soil was completely dry. I have a moisture measure thing that would help me know when it was bone dry. I may need to start over.
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mjwillsey (zone 6b)
Original Author
2 years ago
Can they survive the winter outside if in pots?
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
2 years ago
They'll survive much better than the pot will!! They grow in very cold winter climates in virtually no soil or just enough to anchor their roots. Try them in a plastic nursery pot that can withstand the cold and then you can slip the whole works into a more decorative pot during the growing season. Or just plant them in the ground..
41 North (Zone 7a/b, NE, coastal)
2 years ago
They are NOT indoor plants at all, not sure about in pots. What is your zone?
mjwillsey (zone 6b)
Original Author
2 years ago
I am in zone 6b
woodrose77
2 years ago
Hen and Chicks do not like wet soil. Like most succulents, they would rather be too dry, than watered as soon as the soil gets dry. I killed some by putting them in a spot that stayed too damp.
41 North (Zone 7a/b, NE, coastal)
2 years ago
I also don't think they enjoy life indoors in the winter, they should be hardy outdoors for you there.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
2 years ago
My USDA zone is 5b-6a. To get a sense of how hardy these plants are, I grow the following outdoors, and I leave them outdoors, all winter, full sun. Some growing on rocks and wood and they get no supplemental water other than rain/snow.

Kernel of corn ^^^ provided to illustrate how small this variety is.

Just for fun:

Growing in Chapstick caps ^^^. The other is an Aeonium.

Al
mjwillsey (zone 6b)
Original Author
2 years ago
Very nice!