Mini-Mini-Garden-Tutorial
How Hens Make Chicks
Hens and Chicks are one of the best plants for the full size or the miniature garden. They are resilient, hardy, drought tolerant, can handle full, hot sun, they are pretty and very easy to divide - oh, and they flower. And I probably forgot an attribute or two.
But if left alone to grow in the garden bed, Hens and Chicks will continue to spread and spread. When they are in a miniature garden, they will eventually fill up that confined space and get cramped and the cramped ones - the chicks - won't survive and will eventually give up and die.
Check out the photo above. You can see in between the Hens there are a number of smaller plants trying to grow. These are the ones that you, my fellow miniature gardener, can save!
You can either dig up just the cramped plants, divide them and plant some back in the mini garden bed and plant the rest in another miniature garden. :o) Or you can dig up the entire mini garden bed and divide up all the plants out and replant at will so the whole bed is on the same growing schedule.
CAUTION: this may take up to 10 minutes to do if you stop to get a coffee. Lol!
More Maintenance Tips:
See below - when you see these brown leaves on the outside or in between the hens and the chicks you can go ahead and just pluck them out. It'll give them a bit more room and it will certainly look nicer. I find in the summer months, these dead leave restrict the rosette's growth too.
If you find you are getting too many pieces of perlite in the rosettes, (perlite are those white bits that are in the soil that helps with drainage,) you can flick them out gently with a skewer but try not to scratch the leaves. You can also wait until the plant is dry and try to blow them out with a hairdryer. (Yes, I'm obsessed.)
Where to Find Them:
