Growing Hens and Chicks: How to Care for Sempervivum Plants

Sempervivum spp.

Hens and chicks is a funky little plant to add to your garden, one that is at its best when you’re too busy and can’t tend to the garden often enough.

Sometimes referred to as houseleeks, they’re ready to spread leisurely around your garden.

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It’s a plant that means a lot to me personally and I’d love to share a little about that, but if you’re here strictly for the hard facts, you will find exactly what you’re looking for!

As a quick note, this guide will serve as a general growing guide for the most common Sempervivum species.

Fortunately all Sempervivum have almost identical growing requirements!

To begin, you might be wondering – which came first, the hen or the chick?

I was maybe four or five years old when I first discovered Sempervivum.

Hard to recall clearly because I was so young at the time, but I do remember the fieldstone-lined garden-bed-above-a-ditch my aunt and uncle tended.

It was populated with a combination of marigolds, dusty miller, scattered weeds, and hens and chicks.

“They’re called hens ‘n’ chicks,” my uncle said. “You got the mother, the hen,” – he pointed at the giant, succulent rosette in the soil – “and you got the chicks” – he tapped one of the smaller rosettes, a miniature of the mother.

Idiot me-as-a-four/five-year-old bumped the giant rosette of the hen and accidentally released a chick, sending it rolling down to the ditch.

“That’s what they wanna do! Don’t be upset, you helped ’em along the way.”

I think it’s fair to say this defining moment was a deciding factor in my life ahead as a gardener.

They’ve been cultivated for a very long time, originating in southern Europe and northern Africa.

Hens and chicks are quintessential rock garden specimens. They will happily, readily, eagerly grow anywhere that’s mostly dry.

That makes Sempervivum a perfect candidate for containers and those dry corners of the yard or garden where you’ve got to have something to fill in the space.

They will grow well with other succulents that are hardy in your zone, but I think houseleeks grow best in a relatively naturalized setting.

I’ve had luck growing them with heuchera, ornamental grasses, and echinacea, as well as other hardy succulents like prickly pear cactus or sedum.

How to Grow

Sempervivum is one of those plants you risk killing only if you smother it with too much love and attention.

All it wants is to be left alone in an area that is never very wet, basking in as much sun as you can throw at it.

It can grow in most types of soil but is at its best when the soil quality is generally poor, rocky, and dry.

Houseleeks can grow in richer soil and more hospitable conditions, but they can’t tolerate much moisture or any standing water.

I’ve had success growing them in beds with some very nice soil that also supported sweet woodruff and foxglove, but hens and chicks are plants best suited to those neglected areas in the garden.

Don’t worry about fertilizing. Sempervivum prefers to figure out the nutrients on its own, which is fortunate – because it doesn’t need much.

Seriously, this is one of those garden inhabitants that will trip over its own feet if it gets any kind of fertilization.

Sempervivum won’t die from extra fertilization and will likely produce more runners and pups as a result, but generally, fertilization is mostly an issue of waste – hens and chicks just don’t need it.

You’ll be a very generous plant parent indeed if you merely provide some leaf mold or compost once or twice a year.

Cultivars to Select

You’ll find plenty of varieties of Sempervivum to fit your style and taste, as long as your style and taste favors rosettes with thick leaves covered with tiny white hairs.

That means they all look more or less the same with a few differences between from one to the next. That’s also called a bad joke.

We’ll take a gander at some of the more familiar varieties, and I’ll keep (most of) the inane commentary to myself.

For even more whimsical and intriguing suggestions, read our roundup of the best varieties of hens and chicks.

Cobweb

S. arachnoideum, commonly called cobweb or spiderweb hens and chicks, is unique for its fine, silvery-white hairs that cover the leaves, creating a web-like appearance.

These webs help to protect the plant from excessive sunlight, trap moisture to reduce water loss, and provide natural insulation.

The plant forms tight evergreen rosettes of pointed leaves with green or reddish coloration, growing up to three inches tall and 12 inches wide.

Cobweb Hens and Chicks

In late summer, this species produces flower stalks bearing star-shaped blooms in pink, red, or yellow.

You can find cobweb hens and chicks available at Planet Desert in two- and four-inch pots.

Mrs. Giuseppi

‘Mrs. Giuseppi’ forms compact rosettes up to four inches wide with fleshy, pointed leaves.

The foliage displays striking green coloring with contrasting dark red tips, shifting through the seasons from green to rich burgundy-red tones.

This variety produces numerous offsets on very short stolons, quickly spreading to form attractive ground cover.

‘Mrs. Giuseppi’

In summer, the plant sends up flower stalks eight to 10 inches high, with clusters of star-shaped, pinkish-purple flowers.

This hybrid was bred by British horticulturist Giuseppe Giuseppi in the early 20th century.

You can find ‘Mrs. Giuseppi’ in two- and four-inch pots available at Planet Desert.

Ruby Heart

‘Ruby Heart’ forms compact, heart-shaped rosettes of thick, sharply pointed leaves with serrated edges.

The leaves are deep silvery blue-green, developing striking ruby-red tones on their tips and edges during cool winter temperatures.

‘Ruby Heart’

This cultivar grows up to eight inches tall and 18 inches wide.

It produces pinkish-purple blooms during late spring through summer.

You can find ‘Ruby Heart’ in four-inch pots available from Planet Desert.

Royanum

In pleasing shades of green with purple-tipped rosettes measuring about five inches in diameter, ‘Royanum’ is a common find in the garden center because it’s got that iconic hens and chicks look.

Just as easy to grow as other varieties, the two-tone leaves here make it an easy fit among plants of a variety of other colors.

Maintenance

You don’t need to worry about maintenance here. Caring for your hens and chicks in the long term is about as easy as it gets.

You can weed around the rosettes if you’ve got an obnoxious or aggressive weed creeping in, but you can also leave those couple of sprigs of grass and purslane that are growing in the area if they don’t bother you.

Trust me, they aren’t bothering the plant.

A Note on Flowering

As monocarpic succulents, hens and chicks can produce a lovely flower, but this is also a signal that your plant is finishing its life cycle and about to die.

It’s okay, because the flower produces seeds, and it has surely produced plenty of chicks in its lifetime to carry on the cycle.

Enjoy the flower as a final show of gratitude from your hen and get ready for a new rosette to take its place in the garden.

You can choose whether to remove the fading rosette or simply leave it in place.

You can read more about flowering in Sempervivum plants here.

Propagation

Although it’s possible to grow hens and chicks from seed, it’s incredibly impractical compared to simply collecting a few chicks from a producing hen to propagate.

From Offsets

You’ve got a few options here:

Let your mother “hen” Sempervivum produce tiny babies on its own, and let those babies spread around your garden as they like.

Separated from the mother, they will naturally root in cracks in or spaces between stones, but the chicks are just as happy to grow anywhere you’ve got space for them.

Your other option is to snip a few “chicks” free when they’ve formed roots and place them precisely where you want more to grow.

The safest way to ensure both chick and hen survive is to wait for the runner, or stolon, that attaches them to dry completely and become brittle to the touch before separating the two.

Each runner will produce some tiny leaves that it holds onto while the hen is still supporting the chick. Wait to move the chicks until the leaves die and the runner grows dry, thin, and brittle.

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Transplanting

You’ll find plenty of Sempervivum options from your local nursery, most of them sold in familiar one-gallon plastic pots. When you take these plants out of their pots, do not be alarmed when most of the soil crumbles!

Hens and chicks don’t have very vigorous root systems.

Dig a shallow hole using your preferred digging tool and nestle the plant inside.

Lightly backfill the hole and give it a good drink of water. Voila, instant gratification.

Pests and Disease

You will be delighted to discover your hens and chicks don’t really face any common pest or disease issues, unless they’re experiencing conditions radically different from what they desire.

As such, Sempervivum is very resistant to insect problems, though in the wrong conditions it might grow stressed and become host to a swarm.

I’ve never experienced an aphid or mealybug infestation on hens and chicks growing in the garden, but it’s happened with every plant I’ve tried growing indoors.

Less is better in almost any situation – except in the case of ice cream, then it’s never enough…

The best way to prevent aphids or mealybugs from striking is to keep some air moving around your plants and to ensure they’re growing in sunny, dry locations with excellent drainage.

Disease

Your plants might contract a fungal infection if they’re growing in very wet conditions, whether that’s indoors or out.

Rust tends to be the most common culprit but infections are rare. You can ID this based on the telltale orange circles you’ll see scattered over the infected plant.

A copper fungicide spray is the best solution when handling these issues if they arise. But usually, it’s best to dispose of the plant in the trash to prevent it from infecting other greenery in your garden.

The ultimate tool to prevent fungal issues from happening in the first place is ensuring your hens and chicks are planted in dry conditions with fast-draining soil.

Flocking Towards Hens and Chicks

I’ve always loved these plants and look for any excuse to use them in the right environment.

They’re cute and quirky plants for the garden, something most people are going to instantly enjoy seeing and growing.

And these are perfect examples of that special plant that demands little and provides ample appeal and interest in exchange, as well as being the rare succulent that can tolerate growing outdoors year-round in regions with cooler winters.

Please share your own stories about hens and chicks in the comments below. I feel like it’s a plant with countless devoted fans full of memorable stories. Until next time!

And for more information about growing succulents, have a read of these guides yet:

• How to Grow Succulents Outdoors in the Garden
• How to Grow and Care for Haworthia Indoors
• 35 of the Best Hanging and Trailing Succulents and Cacti