Hen and Chicks

This plant must be extremely root bound. It has been growing in this same pot for at least twenty, gosh, maybe even closer to thirty years now. This pot of Hen and Chicks sat on my father's back deck surrounded by huge planters spilling over with pansies each summer for the longest time. Looking rather abandoned and dormant out there each winter as our Pacific Northwest rains, ice and snow pounded down, amazingly it always came back to life. It grew huge, spilling down the sides of its pot and sent up a flowering stem each summer. My kids and I liked it and often commented to Dad, Grandpa, what a cool plant it was.Delighted that he gave it to me when I purchased a house after I moved back from Africa, it's been with me since. It's been around the block a time or two, and for the last few years it's sat in the back yard at Sandy Point, pretty much ignored - but no longer. Now, with ample garden space at the Happy Valley Community Gardens, it has been moved to Garden Nbr. 02.

My son tells me that this is why he had to get himself a big pot of Hen and Chicks too. He said his was old and root bound when he got it and that he carefully pulled it all apart, pulling off the dead portions and burying the rooted stems even deeper. I should do that with this one, but not yet. For now, I think I'll just let it settle in at its new place of residency.