Sedums are easy to deal for . They tend to grow of course in coolheaded , rough areas , so well - drain soil is idealistic . They also turn in open and exposed situations , which think full sun in the garden . In fact , many sedums have become the plants of choice for green roof . I seldom recommend irrigating or fertilise sedum unless you are maturate them in containers , but here are some tips I do recommend for keeping sedums happy .

Maintenance

Similar to ornamental skunk , sedum involve very little criminal maintenance other than cutting back once a year . After flowering , the source heads of ground - covering type can be remove , but because they will fall aside and melt over sentence , this is not necessary . The shrublike autumn types have decorative seed heads that add interest in winter . They can remain in the garden until early bound . At this time any old stem from the previous season can be cut down as close to the ground as possible , and any old leafage can be cleaned up as well .

If your taller upright works lean to be too tall for your liking , you could pinch the stem tips in midspring in a method know as the Chelsea Chop . This technique causes the stems to offset and the whole plant life to stay little and bushier as a result .

Potential problems

The problems that can originate in sedums run to be tie in with moisture . Some sedums will actually moulder in wet ground or if a disease like rhizoctonia is present ; moist shape encourage the ranch of disease . Thankfully , most motley are disease resistant ; those that are not resistant tend to be the shrublike types .

Propagation

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Sedums are one of the well-fixed plants to divide and multiply . There are three well-off ways to do this :

There are also sedum that can be grow from seed . The seed is very humble , so habituate a container with okay soil , or sow in the seed in a protect spot in the garden . Both cutting and seed sowing are best done in the cool times of the season ; mid to previous spring or early summer is ideal . In fact , while sedum have succulent foliage and manage spicy conditions , they do their growing at the cool times of the twelvemonth .

More on sedums:

Brent Horvath , writer ofThe Plant Lover ’s Guide to Sedums , is the president of and head plant breeder at Intrinsic Perennial Gardens , a sweeping greenhouse in Hebron , Illinois .

Photos : Danielle Sherry

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