Add Easy-Care Sedum to Your Garden

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is a tough-as-nails, low maintenance, drought-tolerant perennial that is a great addition to your cutting garden, for several reasons:

Busy bees working the sedum florets in September.

• The airy florets make wonderful filler stems for your flower arrangements, both in the bud stage and when fully open. Strip off most of the leaves, leaving a few just below the florets. The florets are white/light green in August and turn reddish-pink in September. Mature flower stems can be used in dried arrangements.

• It’s a pollinator magnet, and provides much needed end-of-summer pollen for the bees and butterflies. Makes your garden a lively place!

• Sedum has three-season interest, from mid-summer through the winter. Leave the flower stalks up through the winter, they are gorgeous in winter coated in snow or frost! The stalks also provide a winter home for beneficial insects. I trim the old stalks in spring when I see new light green growth emerging.

Sedum is best sited in a well-draining soil and full sun. The plant naturally grows in a pleasing rounded shape all by itself It’s a snap to dig up, divide and create more sedum plants, which is best done in early spring. Definitely a highly recommended addition to your garden!