Plant care – Cobweb Hens & Chicks

Features:

• Outdoor plants that require sunlight and air.  
• Tiny and compact in size. Ideally grown in pots or small containers. 
• Being highly adaptable, they can be grown across diverse climatic zones.
• Succulent plant that grows in clumps with many pups around the mother.
• Sports green rosettes with white, hairy webbing
• This plant is monocarpic i.e., it blooms only once and then dies
• With shallow yet fibrous roots, the have a firm grip on the soil and grow even in vertical plantings
• Non-toxic

Planting:

Cobweb Hens & Chicks thrive only when they have adequate exposure sunlight 

Cobweb Hens & Chicks survive when planted in well-drained soil. 

This plant requires very little water and water only when the top surface is completely dry. 

This succulent propagates through the pups that grow around the mother. When separated and planted, these pups become the mother around which other pups grow.

Maintenance:

Light : Cobweb Hens & Chicks need to be exposed to sunlight in abundance. In fact, when grown indoors in insufficient light, the plant starts stretching / elongating towards the source of light. This process is called etiolation.  

Water : Water requirement is very sparse. 

Soil : The soil must be well-drained and dry for most part as standing water causes the roots to rot. This plant grows well even if the soil is not very fertile.

Propagation: 

This is a rock garden plant, that grows slowly to form tight mounds of small “chicks”. The mother should be deadheaded after blooming and the spent rosette should be removed to make room for fresh growth. 

Once the mother blooms, it is better to uproot the entire plant from the pot and separate the pups. After beheading the mother, the pups can be separated from the mother either by cutting them off using a sharp knife or by gently twisting the pup off the mother plant. Bigger pups have better chances of survival than smaller ones. Similarly, those with roots have a better chance of survival. Even those that do not have any roots, develop some once they are planted separately in the soil.

Advantages:

• Ideal choice for those who want to start a rock garden or grow alpine plants. 
• Easily adapts to the soil and weather where it grows.
• Drought resistant – This plant requires very little water and can survive harsh summers with very little water.
• Low – Maintenance – This plant does not require any special care or attention. Watering it once in a week even if you are living in humid weather conditions will help the plant survive and grow.
• Good for containers – This plant is ideally suited for small containers or ports and can enhance your mood when placed on the window sill of your room.
• Groundcover – It can also be used to cover up the ground and provide good foliage so that the soil below is not visible.
• Attracts butterflies making your garden colorful both in terms of fauna and flora.

Medical Benefits: 

The leaves of hens and chicks have been used as herbal remedies since ancient times. The extract from freshly pressed leaves is used as a substitute for aloe vera to treat sores, insect bites and burns of low severity. A few studies have shown that the extracts from these plants have some antioxidant and antimicrobial properties as well. Plants that have withstood extreme conditions like soil drought have higher levels of antioxidant compounds compared to others that are grown in normal conditions.