Orpine plant: how to grow, identify and care for it

Orpine (Hylotelephium telephium) is a native succulent plant, 25 to 60 centimetres tall. Unbranched stems carry thick, light green to blue-green leaves. From June to September, dense clusters of small purple-red star-shaped flowers open on top. The plant wants full sun and soil that drains well.

Orpine at a glance

Leaf

April to October

Flower

June to September

Fruit

no noticeable fruit

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

How do you recognise orpine?

Start with the leaves. Each leaf is thick, fleshy and hairless, 5 to 8 centimetres long. The colour ranges from light green to blue-green. The edge is coarsely scalloped or toothed, sometimes smooth too. Along the stem the leaves sit one at a time, though it can look as if they stand in pairs.

The stems are unbranched. They stand upright or curve upward in an arch. At the top sits a dense cluster of many flowers, each 0.8 to 1 centimetre wide. Each flower has five petals in a star shape. Ripe fruit is rarely seen.

Garden centres also sell ice plant (Hylotelephium spectabile), a species from China and Korea. Look at the leaves and flowers to tell them apart. Ice plant has broad, shallowly scalloped leaves and bright pink flowers in flat clusters up to 15 centimetres wide.

Where does orpine grow best?

Orpine belongs in full sun. Such a spot gets more than six hours of direct sunlight a day around midsummer. The soil can be dry or moist, as long as water drains through it well. Chalky or neutral soil suits it fine. In the wild, the plant grows on verges, dyke slopes and along railway tracks.

Avoid these spots for orpine:

• Soil that stays wet for a long time. The base and roots can then rot.
• A richly fertilised border. Too much feeding makes the stems weak, and they fall over.

In autumn, orpine dies back above ground. If you leave the dead stems and their flower heads, the border keeps its shape through winter. Animals then find food and shelter there. If you cut them away in autumn, only bare soil remains until spring.

AugustJanuaryThe same border in August and in January, with the dead stems cut away in autumn. This is a generated image, not a photograph.

A full-grown clump is at most half a metre wide, so it also fits at the front of a narrow border. On the plan of your plot, the app draws orpine at a grown plant's width, not at pot size.

Planting and caring for orpine

The best times to plant are autumn, while the soil is still warm, and spring. Nurseries sell the wild species as a young plant in a small pot. Such a potted plant can also go into the ground outside those months, as long as it is not freezing and the soil is not waterlogged. Dig a hole just as deep and wide as the rootball. Then water generously, even if the soil already feels moist.

Plan on nine plants per square metre, which means just over 30 centimetres between two plants. On planting day that looks sparse. After a few years, the clumps grow into each other. Keep the soil moist in the first year. After that, orpine manages on rainwater alone.

Many birds breed from March through July, and some species continue into August. Before you cut, check between the stems for a nest first.

What can go wrong?

There are few or no flowers. Its spot is too dark, or it is getting too much feed. Move the clump to a sunny spot in spring, and stop feeding it.

A potted plant grows poorly and hangs limp. Vine weevil larvae may be feeding on the roots. That damage mostly happens to plants in pots.

The leaves are suddenly stripped bare. Look for small caterpillars on the plant. These may be caterpillars of the orpine ermine. A healthy plant recovers from this and often grows new leaves the same year. So leave the caterpillars alone.

Which insects and birds use orpine?

Orpine is the host plant of the orpine ermine (Yponomeuta sedella), a moth from the small ermine group. The caterpillars of this moth eat the fleshy leaves.

In summer, the flowers give plenty of nectar. Which bees, butterflies and moths visit this wild species is not well described. No bird that uses orpine is known by name either.

Is orpine poisonous or edible?

Orpine is not known to be poisonous: no risk has been described. That says nothing about eating it, because edibility is a separate question. The leaves count as edible, raw or cooked. The root is only edible when cooked.