SEDUMS are the stars of the late summer garden.
Long flowering, attractive to bees, drought hardy, readily propagated by division or stem cuttings - they tick every box on the busy gardener's list, and if that's not enough, they are evergreen, with fleshy leaves that form neat clumps in winter, unbothered by frost or snow.
I grow around a dozen but nurseries offer many more, from knee high border perennials to horizontal ground covers, I mean, they're a plant collector's dream - there's always one more that you must have.
The tallest sedum in the pack is the aptly name 'Autumn Joy' (sometimes sold as 'Herbstfreude') and it's one of my favourites, reaching knee height or a bit more, with serrated, greyish green leaves and thick, fleshy stems that carry round flower clusters like small cauliflowers from February to the first frost.
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The blooms start off dark pink before turning red and then chestnut brown.
Like all sedums you can leave the flowering stems be over winter, when they look gaunt and decorative covered in frost, then remove them in spring to allow space for next season's stems to emerge.
One of the best things about sedums in my book is that being such honeypots to bees and butterflies, they hybridise readily.
This can be slightly maddening when seedlings pop up everywhere, but they're shallow-rooted and easily removed, and your reward comes if an exciting new hybrid appears.
This happened to me with 'Autumn Joy'.
I have a wonderful clump, quite different from my original purchase, with flowers that are dark red from the get-go and green stems that turn purple in the sun, a lovely combination.
Another good, tall sedum is 'Matrona', also with purple stems and greenish, purple leaves, darker in full sun, and starry, pure pink flowers with no hint of mauve.
If you like variegated foliage, 'Frosty Morn' has pale green leaves edged creamy white, and white flowers.
I stuck a stem in a pot last November and it shot straight up and is now bearing a large bloom.
I discovered that I can prevent tall sedums from flopping outwards by cutting the new stems down hard in November.
You feel like a serial killer but it's worth it for the resulting straight, non-floppy stalks.
S. spectabile (= showy) from China is slightly shorter than 'Autumn Joy' and 'Matrona' and doesn't flop.
It has apple green leaves with smooth, not toothy, margins and large, flat heads of mauve-pink flowers.
I like the species best but there are a couple of colourful cultivars: 'Brilliant' with bright, carmine pink flowers, and 'Neon', equally dazzling, with slightly shorter stems but bigger, rounder leaves.
For an uber quick ground cover, endearingly named 'Chocolate Blob' has shiny, chocolatey green leaves and spreads obligingly fast, without being precisely invasive.
One question hovers like a pollinator over the sedum - how to pronounce its name.
It comes from Latin sedo, to sit, and refers to the ground-hugging habit of the leafy clumps. Some say 'seddum', others say 'seedum'.
I'll leave the decision to you.
Happy sedum hunting!
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