Houseleek care: the best places to plant sempervivum & how to keep it healthy

Sempervivum care does not require a lot of time or effort. If you have done everything right when planting houseleeks, in most cases it is even best to simply leave them to their own devices.

The fact that houseleeks (Sempervivum) are very hardy and require little care was known early. Thus, it has also been reflected in its botanical name, which translates as “always alive”. For this, there are some things to consider when planting sempervivum, because the requirements of houseleek to the quality of the soil are so low that in most cases you need to help and make the soil more permeable to water and with less nutrients.

In this article, you’ll find everything you need to know about planting houseleeks – from planting ideas, to sempervivum care and potential sempervivum pests and diseases.

Planting houseleeks

Once you have chosen a suitable location for your houseleek and done everything right when planting it, you will not need to do much and will still enjoy the decorative rosettes of leaves for years to come. Although there are countless houseleek species and varieties, their requirements for the site do not differ much from each other.

Tip: Sempervivum can be well combined with other plants for rock gardens. For example, you can cultivate them excellently together with stonecrops (Sedum), lilacbush (Aubrieta) or thyme (Thymus vulgaris).

The right location for houseleek

No matter where you plant your houseleek, there are a few basic things to keep in mind. Thus, the site should be sunny, as well as lean, slightly acidic and, above all, very well-drained soil. Ensuring heat and dryness is important, whereas dampness and shade are not tolerated.

Planting sempervivum on rocks

As typical plants for rock gardens, houseleeks are easy to establish on rocks. If you have already created a rock garden, you can easily put houseleeks in gaps between stones filled with a little substrate, in cairns or in walls. Houseleek can even be cultivated in ordinary gardens, however. To do this, at the planting site should first dig a hole at least 20cm deep, then place a drainage layer at the bottom about 10cm high, followed by a planting substrate mixed with stones.

Planting sempervivum on roof tiles

Houseleeks can grow even with hardly any soil at all. Thus, houseleeks are also suitable for green roofs or for enhancing dry stone walls. If you want to settle some sempervivum plants decoratively on roof tiles, they must first be prepared. This can be done, among other things, with quick cement, which is used to cement the ends closed. Leave a small hole at the bottom of each side so that water can drain off. Depending on the depth of the tiles, you then either fill with a drainage layer and soil, or a few centimetres high substrate layer is enough.

Cultivating houseleek in a pot

In the right location houseleeks can be easily cultivated in pots. Since you determine the soil conditions in the pot, you should ensure above all not to put your houseleek in the shade but in the sun. It is essential that planters for houseleeks have holes at the bottom, so that excess water can easily drain off. It is also important to put a layer of drainage at the bottom, for example using pieces of broken clay.

Sempervivum as an indoor plant: care tips

If you do not have space outside, you can cultivate houseleeks indoors. It is popular to grow houseleeks in a jar. Since jars usually do not have holes for water to drain, special attention must be paid to water management here. It is therefore important to ensure a thick drainage layer at the bottom. Also, make sure that the plants in the glass are not too dense and get good ventilation as it quickly becomes too humid for houseleeks cultivated in the home. For this reason, preferably choose a vessel without a lid. Decorative glass bowls or hanging glass spheres are also more suitable than bottle gardens. In winter, houseleeks should be placed in a spot that is as cool and bright as possible. This can be on a windowsill in an unheated room at about 16 to 18°C.

Tip: If inside space is limited, you can grow plants vertically. One way to do this is to plant a picture frame. Houseleeks are also suitable for this purpose.

How to plant houseleeks

Regardless of where you plant your houseplants, proper soil is critical for sempervivum. The soil should be, above all, permeable, well ventilated and low in nutrients. A good homemade mixture can be achieved, for example, by mixing our Plantura Organic Herb & Seeding Compost with mineral material such as gravel or expanded clay in a 1:1 ratio. Our potting soil is 100% peat-free and is sustainably produced in Germany. Once you have a suitable soil, you are ready to start planting Sempervivum. Outdoors, the best time for this is in the spring.

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1. If you purchased several rosettes in one pot, they can be divided before planting. This way, the individual seedlings not only have enough space themselves to spread out, you also achieve greater area coverage faster. In addition, in most cases, the substrate should be removed completely.
2. Make sure that water drains well at the planting site. In planters or normal garden soil, this is achieved by adding a drainage layer. This may be up to half the height of the planter for your houseleek and can be made of broken clay, pebbles or grit.
3. The drainage layer is followed by the planting substrate. You can either make this yourself as described above or use a suitable succulent soil.
4. Slightly moisten the planting substrate. However, in any case, it should not be penetrating wet.
5. Now it is time to plant the houseleeks. The required planting distance depends on the species and variety but is usually between 15 and 25cm.
6. It is best to place sempervivum a little higher, with a little space between the leaf rosette and the ground. In this way, the likelihood of the leaves starting to rot is lower. It may additionally help to spread small pebbles below and around the plant.

Sempervivum care: top tips

When caring for houseleeks, the motto “Less is more” applies. In the next paragraphs, we will explain what sempervivum care needs you should pay attention to and what special factors are involved when caring for houseleeks in pots or indoors.

Watering, fertilising and pruning sempervivum

Watering houseleeks in the garden is virtually unnecessary, because the plants can tolerate even extreme drought for a long time. Houseleek care in rooms, on the contrary, involves watering at regular intervals. But this should be done only when the soil feels completely dry. Therefore, remove any excess water that collects in the dish after a few minutes. When cultivating houseleeks in glass, do not allow water to accumulate at the bottom of the drainage layer. In this case, therefore, watering sempervivum sparingly is of particular importance.

When fertilising indoor sempervivum, the same applies as when watering. For most species and varieties, no fertiliser at all should be used. The plants would grow faster but in most cases, the leaf rosettes would stretch up more and become more susceptible to disease and cold temperatures. Few varieties are a little more hungry for nutrients and can be supplied once a year in the spring with a slow-release fertiliser containing potassium. We recommend in this case our Plantura Tomato Food. In addition to its appropriate ratio between nitrogen and potassium, the fertiliser is primarily organic, completely animal-free and safe for pets.

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Pruning sempervivum is not necessary. However, withered rosettes should be removed, because after the flowering leaf rosette dies they no longer look attractive. If the houseleek takes up too much space, you can also simply remove individual rosettes. However, always make sure to leave a few of the offshoots alive. Otherwise, it may happen that at some point all the rosettes have bloomed, and the plant has died.

So the question of what is the best sempervivum care, in most cases, can be answered quite quickly with: “Almost none at all”. For this reason, houseleeks are among our top 10 low-maintenance indoor plants. The most important steps to be taken are quickly summarised:

• Houseplants in the garden actually never need watering, water houseplants in pots and indoors only when the soil feels dry even 1 cm below the surface.
• It is not usually necessary to fertilise houseleeks.
• It is not necessary to cut houseleeks.
• Withered rosettes and troublesome offshoots can be easily removed.

Repotting houseleek

Repotting houseleeks should be done approximately every 2 to 3 years. To do this, choose a planter slightly larger than the old one and also fill it with a drainage layer and permeable substrate as described above. Then you can carefully take the houseleek out of its old container, lightly shake off old substrate, and then plant it in the new pot. It can then be lightly watered.

Tip: Repotting is a good time to propagate houseleeks. The best way to do this is described in more detail in our general article on houseleeks.

Common diseases and pests

Most pests leave houseleeks alone. The houseleek is thus one of the most snail-resistant plants for your garden. Only young rosettes are sometimes visited by snails.

If humidity is too high, which occurs especially in homes, infestations of aphids (Aphidoidea) may occur. Against this, fortunately, you are not powerless, because there are several ways to combat aphids.

Rarely, vine weevils (Otiorhynchus) also take a liking to the beautiful leaf rosettes. But against these little pests you can also use HB nematodes as a natural way to combat them.

You are powerless, on the other hand, if your plants are affected by a fungus called Endophyllum sempervivi. This fungus only affects houseleeks and is first noticeable in extremely elongated leaves that can be up to three times longer than usual. Later, rusty brown pustules appear, in which there are spores for reproduction. Remove infested specimens immediately and destroy them. Otherwise, the fungus can spread to surrounding houseleeks. However, the plants should not simply be thrown on the compost but preferably into the bin.

Another unusual plant for rock gardens or green roofs is Festuca gautieri. However, unlike the houseleek, you should give it a rather shady place.