Stonecrops Rock

I’m with you about the creeping sedums, I find them hard to place with other plants and I have had experiences of them taking over. There are none in my garden at present but I liked your Sedums and Colchicums – I may just give them another chance.

I can easily grow the upright ones and my current favourite is Frosty Morn.

Thank you for a lovely post with some interesting plant combinations. Best wishes Sylvia

‘Frosty Morn’ certainly is a beauty, and I’m happy to hear it has behaved well for you, Sylvia. I could barely keep up with pinching out the reverted growth on mine. I had the same problem with ‘Samuel Oliphant’ and ‘Pink Chablis’; they were either reduced to almost no top growth or, if left unpinched, were totally green by the end of the first season. Grrr.
-Nan

All your sedum is beautiful! I especially love the shot with the pottery — the color combination of that dark plum with the lemony-green is gorgeous!

I agree, Nancy – the yellow of ‘Angelina’ with deep maroon, purple, and black is fantastic!
-Nan

I have a hard time with sedums. Maybe it is not enough light. I do like their supposed carefree qualities. I guess they are carefree if they have perfect conditions. Like most other plants. Ha…

You said it, Lisa! It’s kind of humiliating to have poor luck with plants that are supposed to be indestructible.
-Nan

I put Sedum kamtschaticum in between some rocks next to the patio, where it softens the edges wonderfully. I have to cut it back a couple of times a year, however, or it swamps the rocks completely. (They are fairly flat rocks.) That little Sedum also likes to seed about more than I would like.

I tried the variegated form and loved it for almost two years, but it too reverted quite a bit and then got shaded out. Sigh.
-Nan

Hi Nan! I love sedum! Any shape or form! I have both Matrona and Purple Emperor. They have performed Very Well for me these past 6 years!! I will see what I can do to create a post in January. (!)

It’s good to hear sedum success stories like yours to balance out their less-than-stellar performance for some of us. I hope you do get a chance to write a post about your sedums. Barbara will do a wrap-up post for the December Plant Pick on January 9, so you still have time. Don’t forget to leave a link on her post so she can find you!
-Nan

Nan, what beautiful pictures of ‘Angelina’! I’m a little worried now, though, because I tosssed her in a rather dry spot thinking that she would be a good groundcover there… hmmm. Maybe not so much–or maybe she just won’t get “too” comfortable there, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, necessarily, from your description!

‘Purple Emporer’ has been just okay for me, too–I think it might not get quite enough moisture, and is a little small. ‘Matrona’ is a bush of a plant, though… you know how I dislike her soft pink flowers on first blush, but I adore her browned pink flowerheads in later fall.

The groundcover sedums, I can’t seem to get enough of. Sedum ‘Chubby Fingers’ is a mannerly spreader in a few different places and tolerated a good amount of shade for me at the old house. ‘Voodoo’ and ‘Fuldaglut’ are probably a little too happy in a few spots, but I love them anyway… ‘Blue Spruce’ is brand new for me, but s. hispanicum spread just a small amount last year in my lock garden.

My two favorites that are so easy to grow, and easily overlooked by gardeners for some reason, are s. cauticola ‘Lidakense’ (although I can’t really tell the difference between the cultivar and plants sold as the species, most of the time) and sedum sieboldii, the October daphne. I grew both at my old house in fairly wet, clay soil (albeit in a raised bed) and have them here in my dry sandy garden, too. Such workhorses.

I couldn’t resist picking up a ‘Lemon Coral’ at the garden center on clearance this year. Currently, it’s softening the edges of a potted phormium on my stair landing… but I was thinking about potting it outside to see how it grows. Is the ‘Lemon Coral’ you show in the first pic planted outside at your place? It says zone 7 or 8 on the tag, but it looks so much like ‘Angelina’ I thought I’d take a chance…

Thanks so much for sharing your sedum experiences, Kim. It will be interesting to see how ‘Angelina’ performs for you. The ‘Lemon Coral’ in the photo was planted in an urn at work. Come to think of it, it may be in a pot in our greenhouse now; it wasn’t labeled, and I assumed it was ‘Angelina’ because it looks so similar. During the growing season, ‘Lemon Coral’ seemed a bit clearer yellow and a bit looser than ‘Angelina’ but not all that much different. I thought ‘Lemon Coral’ was supposed to be equally hardy. I hope you’ll report back in the spring to let us know if it survived for you.
-Nan

I only wish ‘Angelina’ would perform for me as well as she has for you. Well, maybe not that well, as you point out. But I killed her in a dry, sunny, gravelly spot. Maybe if I can place it somewhere wetter…

Also, I’ve killed Autumn Joy whenever I’ve tried it, alas.

Under Austin’s searing summer sun, sedums need mid-day protection, and perhaps more water than I’d realized.

Actually, Pam, I’ve noticed that ‘Angelina’ can look really stressed even here in PA in dry, sun-baked spots: She gets shriveled and stringy-looking and turns an icky shade of yellowish green. She’s definitely plumper and prettier for me in a site with afternoon shade, or with evenly moist soil.
-Nan