Sempervivum Purple Beauty

Sempervivum ‘Purple Beauty’ is a variety of houseleek with intriguing and subtle colours, evolving through the seasons. In spring and summer, its rosettes will be a beautiful blue-green with silver reflections. With the first sign of cold weather, its leaves will take on a misty coppery-purple hue. The compact development of this medium-sized houseleek is particularly suitable for pot cultivation. However, it will form a striking mound when nestled in stones. This succulent perennial is robust and hardy, but excessive moisture in winter will kill it. Clinging with all its might to life, even when abandoned on a pile of stones, the houseleek is an endearing plant that manages to conquer the gardener's heart.

Sempervivum is a succulent perennial plant in the Crassulaceae family. All Sempervivum grow spontaneously in rocky grasslands, on rocks and scree, in open and sunny situations, mainly in mountainous areas. Their vegetation persists all year round, even in winter.

The hybrid variety ‘Purple Beauty’ has thick and long roots that penetrate deeply into rock crevices, ensuring a good attachment to the walls while drawing water from deep down. The plant quickly forms superb colonies of rosettes of different sizes, juxtaposed, reaching 8 to 10cm (3 to 4in) in diameter at maturity, and not exceeding 10cm (4in) in height. Over time, this houseleek can form a mound or a dense carpet spreading over 20 to 30cm (8 to 12in) on the ground, perfectly following the terrain. Resembling a sea urchin, each rosette is composed of numerous pointed, fleshy, upright leaves, tightly packed together and without petioles. In summer, the leaves will be a blue-green colour with a light silver veil. The cold will complete this delicate colour palette by tinting the leaves with coppery-purple at their tips, intensifying over the season. The flowering appears sporadically, on rosettes that are 2 or 3 years old, which will then disappear, having ensured the plant's perpetuity through the production of numerous small rosettes on the periphery. The 12cm (5in) tall flower stalks develop from June to August, formed by thick stems that bear 1 to 5 star-shaped flowers with 8 to 10 deep pink petals.

Sempervivum ‘Purple Beauty’, like all houseleeks, is a boon for alpine gardens, as well as in all rocky areas where the soil lacks depth. It thrives in places where few species survive, colonising abandoned spaces. If your soil is poor, rather dry, rocky, stony, or even slightly chalky, you can still enjoy this hardy perennial (which withstands temperatures below -15°C (5°F)). It requires no maintenance and promises to bring life to any pile of stones, a low wall, or even a green roof. Houseleeks are unusual and easy-to-care-for succulent plants. Their flowers and foliage in various shades inspire the desire to collect them, propagate them, and create astonishing compositions in the most inhospitable places. They are magnificent in pot arrangements, especially in low terrine-type containers, and they are irreplaceable in borders, troughs, or rockeries, along with wall bellflowers or Lewisia cotyledon. Consider choosing companions with staggered flowering (sedums, thyme), or play with contrasts by associating it with lighter foliage (Sedum oreganum, Delosperma 'Wheels of Wonder') to create a colourful and joyful rockery.