One of the first plants to show up in the spring is also one of the last plants standing in the fall. Of course, I'm talking about this week's featured plant... Sedum! How many plants have such a long season and look good at all stages?
The tall sedum get most of the attention. They even have their own common name, 'Showy Stonecrop'. They are wonderful plants. If they were deer resistant, they'd be perfect. Virtually pest free, evergreen and low, low maintenance, tall sedum look good in every stage of development and even blend wonderfully with other flowers.
But we should give a shout out to the short, creeping species of sedum. Two were featured in "Plants You Can Walk On", Sedum pachyclados 'White Diamond', which forms a blue-green carpet of rosettes with white flowers, and Sedum spurium 'John Creech', a dense matting rock garden plants with mauve-pink flowers. The creeping Sedum require even less maintenance than their tall cousins, unless you count keeping them from totally replacing your lawn as maintenance.
If you've been growing tall sedum for years and have noticed your plants are starting to split open in the middle, it could be time to divide. Or maybe you just need to plan on pinching the plants, next spring. Freda Cameron offers some tips on controlling tall sedum and making more plants in the process.
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
Comments
Marie,
Wonderful info and thanks for the link to my “sedum tips” story. As a follow-up, all of last years sedum tips are beautiful, full size plants this year.
Added your blog link to the writer’s blogroll on my blog.
Thanks,
Freda Cameron