Hens and Chicks, or Sempervivum is one of the toughest succulent plants.

If you’ve got a full sun location, that also gets very hot in summer, planting succulent perennials can make your life easy: they can take all the hot you can throw at them. As low-maintenance as you can get—they store water in their tissues—succulents will even tolerate partial shade. Once planted, they look after themselves, needing no extra watering. They are the backbone of xeriscaping, and used in many roof gardens, like at Toronto’s City Hall.
The great thing about perennial succulents is how the varieties, colours and textures of the available plants has exploded in recent years. Colours range from bright greens, lime greens, like blue-greens, reds, pinkish and greys. Often a plant will have a two-tone look, like the above picture.One of the newest available types is called Angelina:

Angelina, a sedum hardy to 30 degrees below zero, whose whorls of needle-like leaves turn a fiery red-gold in the fall. These plants also cover themselves with blooms in the spring or summer

Margaret Roach, of A Way To Garden, asks if 2013 is the year of the succulent. It may well be. If you want to container garden, and will be away or busy, plant succulents. They can be every bit as attractive as flowers. Not only the colours are brilliant, but the shapes, and textures as well. Many perennial succulents do flower as well, but the flowers are not really the main point. When buying for the garden, make sure that you are buying hardy varieties, like Angelina, Autumn Joy Sedum, or Sempervivums. Less hardy succulents can summer outdoors in pots, and winter inside.