happily ever after in a sea of sedum
I FEEL AS IF I’M AWASH IN SEDUM AT THE MOMENT, perhaps the easiest-to-grow genus of perennials there is. Compared to being awash in rain, or being beholden to Plants That Must Be Obeyed, things could be much, much worse. And look at the colorplays, like that of S. cauticolum ‘Lidakense’ (blue) and the rose-colored blooms of S. spurium ‘Fuldaglut.’ Yum.
Best of all: Even the frogboys, kings of my kingdom, give sedums a thumbs (well, whatever their digits are called) up. Have a look at some of the colorful faces who ask nothing and offer so much, succulent members of the genus Sedum, in a slideshow of favorite stonecrops.
A couple of them already have profiles of their own here, such as the tall blue-green ‘Matrona,’ and the ground-hugging sunshine-colored ‘Angelina,’ both plants I would order if I didn’t already have them.
Click the first thumbnail to start the show, and toggle from slide to slide using the arrows beside the captions. Enjoy.
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- No genus seems more cooperative than Sedum. I do nothing for these plants but give them well-drained soil in mostly sunny spots, and look what they do for me; oh, the colorplays of S. cauticolum ‘Lidakense’ (blue) and the rose-colored blooms of S. spurium ‘Fuldaglut.’ Yum.
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- There seem to be sedum everywhere at my feet (tee hee); I use them in a giant mosaic of maybe 6 or 8 varieties to edge the vegetable garden (that’s horseradish leaves, and my toes, with the sedum).
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- A closer look at the plants I was standing above: Sedum spurium, right, flows into S. kamschaticum, with its finer-textured foliage (and starting to bloom).
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- Sedum ‘Angelina’ is great spilling out of pots, a great “groundcover” even for contained gardens.
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- On the real ground, it grows ambitiously in sun or even some shade, coloring up hottest in spring and yellow-green all summer, with gold flowers in July.
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- Hard to believe this is even a plant, with those near-turquoise leaves. Sedum cauticolum ‘Lidakense’ is like something from beneath the sea, a low-grower of great beauty.
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- I wish I had more of Sedum sieboldii ‘October Daphne’ to photograph for you, but slugs have found my pot of it tasty (and I have found them and bade them farewell).
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- Continuing the blue theme: A favorite blue-foliage tall sedum here is ‘Matrona,’ developing in spring…
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- …and getting ready to bloom in high summer.
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- New-ish to me, so still immature, but with darker foliage than ‘Matrona,’ the tall sedum called ‘Black Jack.’ A winner? (I am told some friends prefer ‘Purple Emperor,’ stay tuned.)
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- They haven’t grown much this year with all the cool, wet weather, but I always stick Sedums in pots, too, for fun. A small gold treasure: S. makinoi ‘Limelight,’ paired here with S. anglicum ‘Love’s Triangle.’ I’ll put both in the ground this fall to add to my vegetable-garden edging mosaic.
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- Over by the pool, the most ambitious Sedum of all, S. lineare ‘Golden Teardrop.’ It has taken over every crack and crevice, so we just shear it way down later in the season, after its yellow blooms are done.
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- And ‘Golden Teardrop’ is where you will find the frogboys, who seem to think they are birds and it’s a nest. Watch where you step, OK?
Once again, your post topic is just exactly what I was mulling about (or bemoaning) this morning. I just got three different types of sedums (stonecrop, autumn joy and ellacombianum) from a Wayne County Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners’ sale last week and have been itching to put them in the ground. The sedums are going to function as beneficial attractants, borders and in-betweens, so they’re just sitting around waiting for the stars of the show to appear. As our seed-starting efforts ended pretty much in disaster (results here https://www.lettherebegarden.com/2011/05/plague-pestilence-cold.html) we’re buying nearly everything as seedlings and can’t really do anything with heat-lovers until Memorial Day.
The picture of the frog was a classic!
I was concerned about the deer issue. I’m trying to be very careful about not attracting them—trying to grow as many things they don’t like as I can. I did read Neil Soderstrom’s Deer Resistant Landscaping book, and he mentioned they don’t like things they have to bend too far down to eat because they can’t keep as careful a watch out for predators. I wondered if your short sedums had escaped their notice, as did Alisa in Pittsburg’s. We’ll be fencing the vegetable garden, but everything else is pretty much open for browsing.
You are the go-to blog, as always!
Welcome, Tricia, and thank you for the encouraging words! I don’t have deer any longer (have a fence) but I do not recall these being eaten years ago, nor do woodchucks and rabbits seem to make the sedums a target (they can get into my place, sadly). I’m sure deer will eat sedum, if hungry enough, but with other choices I doubt this would be the the first one they’d pick.
My favorite creeping sedum is Bertram Anderson. Gorgeous smoky purple foliage all season long with hot pink blooms. Stunning!
Okay, Margaret, you’re batting 100 so far, but do you happen to know what this creeping blue sedum is? https://www.sustainable-gardening.com/archives/5843
One more link before I go. This one sends readers to your post about succession planting: https://homesteadgardens.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/succession-planting-301/
I’m a fan! So bad you’re soooo far coz I’d love to visit you and your garden.
@Susan: Is it S. reflexum ‘Blue Spruce’? The best pics I could find for you to compare to were here. Thanks re: the link!
Margaret, I’m so stunned by your identification of my top groundcover as S. linare (not S. acre I thought) that I’ve posted about it:
https://www.sustainable-gardening.com/archives/5803
You’ve rocked my world! My tiny, tiny world of collecting groundcovers to recommend as lawn substitutes.
@Susan: I posted this on your blog, too, hoping you will see it.
Didn’t mean to be a troublemaker. :) I only know what mine was labeled, and it seems to key out properly now that I look it up prompted by your inquiry…but I am no taxonomist, to say the least.
And I also agree that especially in flower S. acre looks very similar to S. lineare (and various other sedums!) — a massive mat of gold — and have often wondered generally speaking how the heck all these groundcover sedums can be told apart anyhow.
The foliage of S. lineare is more lanceolate and is said in taxonomic references to be arranged in whorls of three (which my leaves are). The leaves of S. acre seem even more fine-textured and are said in the books to be triangular, blunt and overlapping, which also seems to verify my ID since my plant’s leaves don’t overlap etc.
Have you seen this detailed pdf on S. acre? My presumed S. lineare plant is much coarser texture — each leaf is as long as the diameter of a dime; note the photos here of S. acre by comparison for scale:
https://www.cpa.msu.edu/beal/plantofweek/plants/sedum_acre_20080623.pdf
Maybe I should just send you a hunk of mine and you send me a chunk of yours and we compare? Goodness knows it wouldn’t miss a beat, being a sedum.
I have several mounds of the low growing yellow flowering sedum that keep popping up all over the place. I once tried just letting them go but they seem to take over in between and under every perennial and shrub–not exactly what I wanted. Between the stones in the wall they got so thick and almost impossible to remove. Am I just trying to be too perfect?
Welcome, Jane. The one by my frogpool is a nuisance that way, too. You have to watch it. The rest are better-behaved here, but that one is too cooperative. We use a big discarded chef’s knife to cut them out of the cracks, rather than pull. More thorough, and easier. See you soon!
Can we talk about deer here, or is the very acknowledgment of them enough to empower them with supernatural qualities (the Voldemort species of the natural world)? Those operating from outposts here in Western PA keep the taller sedums snipped to a nub–they seem to have a special sense of how to keep a plant alive for the next browse, but eliminate whatever characteristics drew a gardener to it in the first place. They leave the low growers alone, though…a happy discovery!
Welcome, Alisa. Yes, we can talk about deer, with whom I am very strict (read: FENCE). This older post may help reveal my anti-deer policies. They are relentless and will eat anything that’s not poisonous, I think, if they are in the mood. Succulent tall sedums=favorite tender treats, I think. See you soon again, I hope.
I put some sedum angelina under my lemon tree in a sun-soaked window, and it’s doing beautifully. (First I tried three little lemon thyme plugs, but one died immediately and mysteriously. … Mystery solved when I later slid the pot to the sunnier side of the sill and the other two succumbed to sun scorch. that’s a lot of esses) The sedum seems to love it.
I love Sedum though I don’t have any as yet. Another plant to add to the worlds biggest wish list!
Welcome, Calirwil. Yes, herem too: the world’s biggest wish list. Sorry to add to your troubles, er, desires. See you soon again.
This year, I transplanted sedum, to a garden spot, down by the road, where I hardly ever get to water. With the road salt of winter, and maybe not the best soil, even the hostas that are planted there have done poorly. The sedum have progressed fine. I will add more, and different varieties. My neighbor has sedum growing over stumps that are cut flat to the ground. Even there they thrive.
Love your sedum. Mine have not started to change colors yet here in MI. I have 2 plants that I transplanted out of the wild jungle I found when I moved in spring 2000 and later relocated by the water garden in spring 2001 and they have been doing fantastic every year since with no special care needed. I love them.
Welcome, Jody. Apparently we have similar takes on Sedum (and “wild jungle” sounds like something I’d say, too). Nice to see you here, and don’t be a stranger. See you soon again.
Just when I think I can’t fit in any more plants I visit your website and suddenly I think I can. Last night while weeding I found a perfect spot for more sedums. Who knew?
Delightful sedums, Margaret! Isn’t summer grand!
bought my first this year at Gilberti’s half price weekend sale… love them already. (will have to go and look up the names ;o
I get it. You’re not a real person. You’re a serendipitous, magical green plant fairy, living in my world to bring me these magical slideshows that color my otherwise lackluster day. Oh joy!
Hi, DD. I asked you *not* to tell everyone the truth. Oh, geez. Outed. (Actually, I guess last week’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” slideshow probably was the final straw against pretending to be normal.) See you soon.
Yep, I like the Lidakense, too. Thanks!
A gardening pal of mine just recommended sedum to fill in crevices in a rather large wall of limestone at my place that are currently filled with weeds, so I was thrilled to see this post.
I was wondering if you’d share the name of the variety to the right of your feet in the second photo of the slide show.
Welcome, Fallsvillagegardener. Glad to be timely. The one to the right in the picture w/my feet is the S. spurium ‘Fuldaglut,’ but not as reddish as it can be sometimes, and the blue one to the right of that, at the edge of the frame, is S. cauticolum ‘Lidakense.’ They’re in the slides, too, in more detail…keep clicking after the foot photo for detail shots. I adore the blue one. :)
We planted Black Jack… and it came up green this year! I don’t think there’s a way to turn it back to black, so we’ll just live with it for now.
I just love these things. Last year I planted dark and sexy Sedum spurium ‘Voodoo’ in a raised container with an aquamarine glaze. It definitely formed an eye-catching centerpiece to my patio garden!
What amazing colours in the sedums, how could you ever choose between them. I think I will be visiting my garden centre tomorrow.