A closer look: Sedum

One of the plants in my garden that I have all too frequently taken for granted and dismissed in favor of more flamboyant plants like hibiscus and Knockout rose, sedum is not only one of the most drought tolerant perennials around, it is just getting started in late summer/early fall as everything else is shutting down. Sedum tend to be categorized as succulents for their thick, rubbery texture that allows the plant to hold in water much like cactus do, and consequently they require little to no watering even during periods of drought. According to my books, there are at least 100 different species and varieties of sedum, many of which are groundcovers that folks use in rock gardens. Most people are familiar with 'Autumn Joy', an upright type that forms broccoli-like flower heads that fade from pink to red as the weather cools in September and October. The nectar-rich flowers attrack all kinds of beneficial insects as well. It gets about 3 feet high and grows in clusters that can get 3 or 4 feet wide, and might require some staking after a hard rain, as the bulky flower heads can become top-heavy. Groundcover types only get a few inches high but spread along the ground in neat clumps and mats, between rocks and crevices.



Given their hardiness and heat/drought tolerance, and their ability to adapt to poor soils, sedum deserve more attention and consideration than they get. If you feel like you're always having to run out to the garden in hot weather to rescue wilting plants, introduce some sedum to your garden and spend more time enjoying it than pampering it.

Fixing the sedum

Went out to the garden earlier this afternoon and got started on trying to get the sedum to stand up again, after being waterlogged and top heavy from all the rain the last two weeks. Our sedum is massive compared to most...about 5 feet tall, and 4 feet in diameter. And when it rains, the water hits the broccoli-like blooms and pulls all the stems down and outward from the center. So I took some gardening stretch-tape/tie wraps, stuck a long stake in the middle of the sedum, and tied the leaning stems to the stake. I then cut off several stems, to free up some space and also to have some to transplant elsewhere in the garden. Wonderful plants...never have to water them, very tolerant of heat and drought, not bothered by pests. Provides neat color in the fall when other perennials and shrubs are finishing their show.

In other news, my classes are getting real fun. In Greenhouse Crop Production, we're growing several varieties of poinsettias to sell around Christmas. We have three groups....one is a control group which will only get water. The second will get a general fertilizer, and the third receives a special formulation of fertilizer and pesticide/insecticide. Our project is to take measurements of how the poinsettias are growing in reaction to these conditions. And in my Plant Propagation class, we are learning how to graft the branch of a shrub that otherwise can't root, and attaching it to the under-stock of another shrub that is able to root. The end result is that you can duplicate plants that are otherwise hard to reproduce by cuttings, and at the same time, possibly create a new hybrid plant that shares characteristics of both shrubs. Interesting stuff! And this Wednesday my agriculture class is going up to my professor's farm to look at crop planting methods, how to rotate plantings, all that good stuff. And in between all this I have to keep several journals....which shouldn't be that hard, as I love to blog and journal about things anyway.

Wrapping up the season

As the season begins to wind down, there's not much to report at the moment. Most of the perennials and shrubs are starting to go into dormancy, with a few exceptions. Still am enjoying the roses, hydrangea, seedum, and butterfly bush though. I wish I had remembered to fertilize this spring...a lot of the plants did not look as happy as they did last year. The black-eyed-susans in particular seemed to struggle.

I'm giving some thought to buying a small greenhouse for the backyard, to overwinter seeds and grow cuttings for next spring. This is the one I'm looking at, on Home Depot's website:


It's 6.5 ft x 6 ft. x 6 ft and costs $169. I would just need to get some good greenhouse benches and some shelves. This would be immensely helpful in that instead of buying more $20+ plants at the nursery, I could make more of what I already have, and for free. Or I could take cuttings and grow them for friends and neighbors. Additionally, I could take some plants that are not doing so well and put them in there to ensure they'll survive the winter.

In other news...dropped one of my classes (landscape drawing) and have replaced it with four seasons food production, which is essentially how to grow crops and prepare vegetable beds. The design class was just way more than what I want to get into. I'm more the type of person that can visualize in my head anyway, and make a quick sketch on a notepad. Also, the herbaceous perennials class was dropped due to not enough people signing up for it, so I enrolled in Greenhouse Crop Production as a substitute. This is really looking to be quite a fun semester. I wish I had been able to do a bit more landscaping this summer, but I'm grateful for the opportunities I did get. Hurry up spring, come again soon!