I like it when the little hens-and-chicks plants around the yard start blooming. The flowers are highly photogenic. I've heard people here refer to them as petits artichauts, but they're not artichokes at all.
Back in June, the plants started looking like the ones below. Some seems to start reaching for the sky, and then a few weeks later the flowers appear. The photos are from June 23.
The first photo above and the two below are different views of the same cluster of flowers. I took all of them on July 21. So the flowering has gone on for a month.
The news just reported that the grain harvest in France is the worst in four decades. That's because of all the rain we had between January and mid-June. Now it's extemely dry here. The weather is fickle, that's for sure.
So that's what "hens and chicks" looks like. I've heard occasional mentions, but never seen a picture.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the scientific name for these is Sempervivum tectorum, or "common houseleek". A woman who lives on the other side of our village gave me a few of them a dozen years ago and they have thrived here.
DeleteIn the UK they are known by the far less descriptive name of "house leeks"...
ReplyDeletebut I agree with Ken... they are very photogenic....
we've got a darker tipped one... and it has bright pink flowers.
Just as you think the flower stem is about to finish...
it uncurls more and continues flowering...wonderful!!
My Mum had... so my bro probably still has...
a wonderfully dark red leafed one...that one was hairy/fluffy down the leaflet edges.
Offspring of that one moved with my parents... and went to other family members...
I'd never seen it flower...it just produced chicks aplenty.
It may not flower in the UK... it might be too cold?
I love them !
ReplyDeleteSo they are a succulent, and I thought they needed warm dry conditions to thrive but that is obviously wrong :)
I should try to get some for my porch and let them try out the warm/hot/humid conditions here !
These sempervivum plants happily spend the winter outdoors here in Saint-Aignan. Snow doesn't bother them.
DeleteForgive me if I end up leaving double comments. I seem to have some odd glitch where I cannot comment using Chrome so I have to remember to switch to Safari to comment .. sigh ... the computer is conspiring against me ..
ReplyDeleteBlogger often posts duplicate comments. I don't know why. I just delete the extra ones when I see them.
DeleteHave you heard Flanders & Swann's "A Song of the Weather"?
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't know that, Simon. I'll look it up.
DeleteThey do resemble artichokes. They are popular here in LA for their drought tolorance.
ReplyDeleteToo bad they're not edible. As far as I know...
DeleteI'm not sure if it is a regional thing, but I always heard them called "hens and biddies" by my kinfolk in Georgia.
ReplyDeleteI know that name too, and in Morehead we used to get "Easter biddies" as presents at Eastertime. Biddies is a Southern term, I think.
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