Houseleek in a pot gives the balcony a friendly look all year round. The secret to successful cultivation is the art of omission. These tips and tricks reveal how to properly plant and care for a potted Sempervivum.
How do you properly care for houseleeks in a pot?
For successful houseleek cultivation in a pot, you should choose a sunny location, fill the planter with drainage and succulent soil, water sparingly, do not fertilize and protect or keep cool in winter.
How do I properly plant and care for houseleeks in a pot?
The houseleek (Sempervivum) comes from the sun-drenched, barren mountains of Europe and Asia Minor. The thick-leaf plant (Crassulaceae) has adapted to Spartan living conditions with modest demands. Planting and caring for a houseleek in a pot is therefore based on ahorticultural minimal principle with these key data:
- The pot is ideally a flat, wide bowl with holes in the bottom for water drainage.
- A succulent soil (€12.00 on Amazon) and sand mixture over expanded clay drainage is suitable as a substrate.
- Do not fertilize houseleeks in pots.
- Water the potted stone rose sparingly with soft water when the soil is noticeably dry.
Which location is optimal for a houseleek in a pot?
The main pillar for the successful pot culture of a houseleek is the choice of location. Please place the vessel in asunny warm place. On the balcony, a rain-protected location under a canopy is ideal. It is important to note that there are no shadows cast at the location by neighboring plants or the house wall. As a houseplant, the stone rose feels best on the south-facing windowsill.
How should the houseleek overwinter in the pot?
Planted houseleeks are hardy down to -35° Celsius. In the limited substrate volume of planters, winter hardiness reaches its limits - 5° Celsius. You can overwinter a houseleek in a pot either outside or inside. How to do it right:
- Outside: Cover the pot with fleece and place it on wood, cover the leaf rosettes with straw or brushwood.
- Indoors: houseleekbright and cool tempered overwinter at 5° to 8° Celsius.
- Winter care: do not fertilize, do not water or water very sparingly.
When and how should I repot a houseleek?
Two occasions make it necessary to repot a houseleek. If the leaf rosettes collide with the edge of the pot or are already hanging over, the houseleek wants a larger container. Once the Sempervivum has flowered, the mother rosette dies. Numerous rosette offshoots have previously formed and continue to grow happily in the new, larger pot withfresh succulent soil. You can reuse the drainage material after cleaning. The best time is in spring.
Tip
Houseleek is open to pot experiments
Houseleek is the floral ace up the sleeve for extravagant planting ideas. The resilient thick-leaf plant thrives splendidly in containers that go beyond the rigid ideas of traditional plant pots. The stone rose has already been spotted in antique bathtubs, rustic washtubs, traditional galoshes and rustic wooden wheelbarrows. Planted with a colorful houseleek composition, great-grandma's old chair experiences a sensational second life in the trendy shabby look.
