Hens & Chicks are monocarpic succulents that produce death blooms.
A death bloom refers to the phenomenon where a plant, particularly a succulent plant, often after several years of growth, produces a single flower stalk that grows vertically from the top. With the death bloom happening, the succulent diverts energy from its roots and leaves toward producing flowers and seeds.
The end result is that the energy is drawn from the ‘Hen’ and transferred into the bloom and the ‘Hen’ forfeits its life in the process.
One can cut the death bloom out when it starts to grow and the energy diversion will stop and the ‘Hen’ will survive, but it is the natural cycle and once the bloom is finished it can be removed, the dead plant pulled out, and the little ‘chicks’ around the spent base snipped off and replaced into the soil to fill the area back in relatively quickly. I have a few bloom every year but when they are done you can hardly notice a gap in the patch of them. They fill things back in pretty rapidly.
Learn more here –> http://www.heidihorticulture.com/2019/08/when-sempervivums-hens-and-chicks-flower.html
