an upright, clump-forming choice. produces dark purple-red blooms and foliage that is reddish-green. One of the garden’s easiest-to-care-for and most rewarding perennials.
Basic Care Summary
tolerates hot temperatures and drought. thrives on soil that is light and well-drained. In between thorough waterings, let the soil dry out. Keep away from winter’s extreme dampness.
Planting Instructions
Use a hoe, spade, or power tiller to break up the existing soil to a depth of 12–16 inches to prepare the garden (30-40cm). As soon as the soil is loose and simple to work, add organic material like manure, peat moss, or garden compost. Organic components enhance drainage, supply nutrients, and promote earthworms and other soil-healthy organisms. Add a starter fertilizer or all-purpose feed that promotes blooming to plants to give them a boost (for example fertilizers labeled 5-10-5).
For recommended spacing and the plant’s maturity height, refer to the plant label. Plants should be arranged such that shorter plants are in the foreground and taller plants are in the center or background of the landscape design. Gently support the plant’s base while you tip it sideways and touch the pot’s exterior to loosen the plant before removing it from the container. Till the plant easily emerges from the pot, rotate the container and keep tapping to release the soil.
Create a hole that is up to double the size of the root ball and deep enough so that the plant will be buried at the same depth as the dirt in the container. Use your finger to gently rake the roots apart while holding the plant at the top of the root ball. This is crucial, especially if the container has been completely filled with dense roots. In the hole, place the plant.
Gently compact the soil around the roots to fill in any gaps around the root ball. By hand, tamping with the flat side of a small trowel, or even by pressing down with your foot, compact the dirt around the plant. Up to an inch above the top of the root ball or even with the soil around it, the earth should cover the planting hole. To ensure that new plantings have a strong foundation, they should be watered every day for a few weeks.
Prepare in advance for plants that will grow tall and need support cages or stakes. Cages should ideally be installed in the early spring, or during planting time, before the foliage becomes overgrown. Provide a trellis, fence, wall, or other structure that allows the plant to grow freely and spread since vining plants need vertical area to thrive.
Finish off with a 2 (5 cm) layer of mulch, such as compost or finely chopped bark, to keep the garden looking neat, prevent weed growth, and maintain soil moisture.
Watering Instructions
For the first several weeks after planting, new plants require regular watering. After that, watering may be reduced to every two or three days, depending on the weather and soil type. Expect to water more regularly in sandy areas since clay soils retain moisture less quickly than sandy soils.
Varying plants require different amounts of water. Some plants prefer to stay on the dry side, while others prefer constant moisture. Check a plant’s label to see what it needs specifically.
The root zone, or the region between 6 and 12 (15 to 30 cm) from the base of the plant, should receive watering in the ideal situation rather than the entire plant. For maintaining the health of plants and minimizing water loss through evaporation, a soaker hose is a wise purchase. A excellent technique to manage irrigation is to hand-water using a watering can with a sprinkler head attached. Try to water in the morning if the garden space is large and a sprinkler is required so that plant foliage can have time to dry during the day. Moist foliage promotes mold and disease, which can weaken or harm plants.
It is preferable to thoroughly wet the ground up to 8 (20 cm) every few days as opposed to watering sparingly every day. Deep watering promotes roots to go deeper into the soil, strengthening the plant and increasing its resistance to drought.
Use a small trowel or your finger to probe the ground and feel the soil for wetness. It’s time to water if the top 2-4 (5-10 cm) of soil is dry.
Fertilizing Instructions
When constructing planter beds, add fertilizer to the soil. In the early spring and again midway through the growing season, established plants should be fed. Don’t fertilize plants too late in the growing season. This encourages new growth, which early frosts can readily harm.
There are many different types of fertilizers, including granulated, slow-release, liquid feeds, organic, and synthetic. Choose a product with a nutritional balance intended to promote flowering and determine which application technique is most appropriate for the circumstance (such as 5-10-5).
Applying a 1-2 (3-5cm) layer of mulch or compost once a year will lessen the overall demand for fertilization. Mulch provides nutrients to the plants as it decomposes while also enhancing the general health of the soil.
Pruning Instructions
Depending on the plant’s blossoming behavior, remove individual faded blossoms or wait until the blooming period has passed before removing the entire flower stalk all the way to the plant’s base. Old flower stalks should be cut off to keep the plant’s energy directed toward strong growth rather than seed development. Throughout the growing season, foliage can be freely clipped to eliminate harmed or discolored leaves or to maintain plant size.
Plants shouldn’t be pruned after September 1st. When the first frosts come, pruning encourages fragile new growth that will be easily damaged. Perennial plants require time to “harden off,” or get ready for the winter. Cutting back to approximately 4 (10 cm) above the ground will easily remove plants that have fallen to the ground and need to be cleaned up.
The ornamental grasses’ flowering plumes and foliage make a stunning presence in the wintertime environment. In early spring, just before new growth begins, cut the plant back to the ground after leaving it intact for the winter.
Every three to four years, perennials should be pulled out and divided. This fosters future blossoming, promotes healthy new growth, and produces new plants that can be added to the garden or shared with other gardeners.
Sedum spreads quickly, right?
Sedums can survive in less-than-ideal environments, therefore the author covers a stone wall with a variety of them (identified in chart below).
A creeping sedum may be the ideal plant for you if you want something attractive that can survive with almost complete neglect. Sedums show off where many other plants would be afraid to tread. For instance, they settle in the crevices of a garden wall or pathway, on roofs or the tops of birdhouses with slightly sloping roofs, or even under huge trees where their gigantic roots control the majority of the soil’s moisture. Additionally, they function well in borders, containers, and rock gardens.
Many gardeners have started looking more closely at plants in the genus Sedum as seasonal and protracted droughts become more frequent across the United States. The ground-hugging relatives of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy,’ which is well-known for its late russet blooms, are also gaining popularity.
In my yard, creeping sedums, often called stonecrops, provide endless fascination. Over the course of my many years as a gardener, they rank among the most adaptable, drought-tolerant, and simple-to-grow perennials I’ve ever grown. Sedums really require less work from a gardener as their area grows. These slow-growing plants, which are renowned for their propensity to spread swiftly, prevent weeds from taking root. Since they eventually just fade away, it is not required to deadhead the spent blooms, but it is simple to get rid of old blossoms using a string trimmer. They rarely contract illnesses or pests as long as they aren’t overwatered.
Even the poorest soil may support sedums, and small amounts of soil are really their preferred medium. However, the key to cultivating them is proper drainage. A sedum will be quickly killed by excessive wetness, especially standing water, which will accomplish what no drought can.
Even in the driest conditions, sedums practically never need further water after they are established. Sedums function admirably almost anyplace as long as they receive proper drainage, but they are particularly well suited for gardens in hot, arid regions like the western United States. They can also be found sticking up from boulders or sprouting from only a few inches of scree in cold, alpine environments where they are widespread. For almost every USDA Hardiness Zone, there is at least one Sedum species. The majority of creeping sedums can tolerate little shade but prefer full sun. Native to North America, Sedum ternatum is one sedum that prefers shade and a little bit more moisture than its relatives.
Creeping Sedums
Hardiness: The Northern Hemisphere’s Sedum genus has more than 400 species of succulent annuals, perennials, biennials, subshrubs, and shrubs. Sedums are commonly grown as creeping ground coverings. Each USDA Hardiness Zone has at least one species that can withstand it. Most thrive in Zones 4 through 9. OUTLINE: Five-petaled flowers in shades of yellow, white, or pink lie above mats of succulent leaves that range in color from green to blue-gray to reddish bronze. In the winter, the leaves of evergreen species take on colours of crimson and russet. PROPAGATION: From spring to midsummer, propagate plants by division or seed in the spring or fall. Plant in rock gardens, walls, recesses in walkways, and pots. You may also use it as a border edging or in sweeps on slopes. The majority of creeping sedums like full sun, although they can also tolerate little shade. They prefer medium to poor garden soil that drains well; once they are established, no additional watering is required. They cannot endure any amount of time in standing water.
The author’s favorite sedums
Except for S. ternatum, all of these exceptional sedums prefer full sun or mild shade. The numbers in the chart that come before the name in the image below provide a key.
First S. album
2. S.’s “Murale” album
S. divergens 3.
S. ewersii 4.
S. kamtschaticum (5)
S. kamtschaticum (6)
S. reflexum 7. (S. rupestre)
‘Rose Carpet’ 8.
S. sexangulare 9.
S. spurium, “Fuldaglut” 10.
S. spurium “John Creech,” 11.
S. stenopetalum 12.
S. ternatum 13.
Creeping sedums change from season to season
Creeping sedums are attractive for their dependability and lack of fussiness, but I’m also drawn to them for their succulent leaves, lengthy flowering cycles, and, in some cases, year-round attractiveness in the garden. Sedum blooms often come in little, star-shaped clusters that range in color from white to yellow to purple to pink, and are no larger than an inch in diameter and 4 to 5 inches tall. The carpets of blossoms they generate when planted in large numbers are stunning. Many evergreen sedums, such as Sedum album “Murale” and Sedum stenopetalum, blush to a rich red or bronze color in the fall and even throughout the winter. These stunning contrasts to an otherwise inert landscape last until early spring. They look particularly lovely on a snowy background.
One of the simplest plants to grow from seed, cuttings, or divisions is the sedum. Stem cuttings or divisions will guarantee the maintenance of a plant’s traits once you’ve found one you like because sedums don’t always grow true from seed. Sedums spread quickly, yet they are not invasive. They are easily lifted and transported because of their thin roots. As long as there is adequate drainage, they may survive the winter in most planters and come out of dormancy in the early to midspring.
I complained as I pulled boulders from the cultivated sections of my father’s fields as a young child working on the family farm in northeastern Maryland. In a fitting irony, decades later I still wander the same fields looking for fascinating stones to use as backdrops and accents for my ever-growing collection of sedums.
A few ways to use creeping sedums
Sedums that are resilient make lovely staples. In a section of my rock garden, I utilize a lot of sedums to simulate a cascade. You can blend several sedums, such as the white-flowered Sedum album, the S. grisebachii, and the yellow-flowered Sedum sexangulare (foreground, first photo below) (background). They perform well in a region that can be seen from above.
These year-round, low-maintenance plants are ideal for containers. You won’t need to bring the pots indoors for the winter because creeping sedums do well in containers. Additionally, because of their drought tolerance, you won’t need to locate someone to water them while you are away. Sedums, like the yellow-flowered S. sexangulare (Sempervivum spp. and cvs., Zones 410, second photo below), can be used as underplantings or in combination with other succulents like hens and chicks.
Make stepping stones or rock walls’ sharp edges softer. Within cracks in a stone wall or between stepping stones, sedums, like S. spurium ‘Fuldaglut,’ grow with almost no soil (third photo, below). Use small, mature seedlings, usually referred to as plugs, and combine with some fine gravel and soil.
Utilize a patchwork of sedums to tame a difficult terrain. Maybe you have a spot where gardening and lawn mowing have never worked well together, like a hillside with compacted soil. It might be the perfect place to use creeping sedums, like the pink-flowered S. spurium ‘John Creech’ and others, to intertwine regions of color and texture. The “quilt will vary three times a year as the sedums exhibit the colors of their early-season foliage, then their blossoms, and finally their winter leaves in various tones.
The Munstead Red stonecrop: is it evergreen?
Overview of Stonecrop ‘Munstead Red’ The erect, succulent perennial Hylotelephium ‘Munstead Red’ has small, green leaves that have purple undertones. It often grows in clumps and reaches a height of 60 cm. It produces flat clusters of bright pink-purple flowers in the late summer and early fall.
Is sedum planting past its prime?
Sedum, often known as “stone crop flower,” thrives in full to part sun. While creeping varieties can thrive in partial shade, taller hybrids require full light for the finest flowering.
Soil: Sedums prefer a pH range of neutral to slightly alkaline soil that is extremely well-drained. Root and stem rot can result from wet, heavy clay.
Tall growing sedums should be spaced 1 to 2 feet apart. Depending on the kind and how rapidly you want it to fill in an area, space low-growing, creeping sedums 6 to 12 inches apart.
Sedums should be planted in the spring after the risk of frost has passed. Till the end of the summer, you can still plant transplants in northern regions. Planting season is spring or fall in drier regions.