I think I already said that Sedums are the "backbone" plant of a dry rock garden. Well, unless you want cactus, but this is hard enough to weed already without adding prickles.
I just counted, and over the life span of the rock garden I have tried at least 44 different Sedums. Some are great successes, some not so much. Today I'll show you six that I'm very happy with. The criteria for making me happy today is that they are spreading well, are both interesting and visible this early in the season, and have a variety of foliage colors.
First up is 'Dazzleberry,' one of the SunSparkler series. This started as two tiny sprigs from a mail order in 2023. I love the color of the leaves, and it's grown and spread quite well.
This is a puddle that Jean gave me last year. It's about doubled in size. This is S. kamtschaticum 'Variegatum.' Not particularly fancy, but it will have reliable yellow flowers, and I'll be happy if it spreads as much as it suggests it will because I can use it to replace some of the really weedy sedums I have way too much of.
This is 'Ezawe.' It's not very happy in the first location where I put it, but the chunk that I moved here between rocks and in full sun is doing well. This is low growing and tiny. But I like how it fills between rocks.
This is the one my friend Betty gave me a couple of years ago. It's now gotten big enough that I'm pretty sure it's 'Vera Jameson.' This makes me really happy because I had one long ago that died. It took a couple of years, but it seems to be filling in better now.
The last two are both SunSparklers. These are technically hybrids, but I'm calling them sedums. The 'Lime Twister' is hugely reliable, spreading to make low mounds of light green and pink. I've split it several times and have chunks started in other locations. Here it's showing off with the Blue Fescue grass.
And the 'Lime Zinger' is a darker green, and it mounds up higher. I'm not sure you can tell the height in this top-down view, but I wanted to show how nice it looks with the Moneywort. Oh, and it looks like you get a litte mound on the right of S. hispanicum 'Pinkie.' This spreads all over the place, and I also have one that is much bluer, but I can't find its tag right now. It must be in my "to do" pile. I'm not sure if they stay separate varieties in the garden because the little balls just roll all over and then a patch appears out of nowhere. But they fill in small spaces nicely.
We just had a little pop-up thundershower that wasn't predicted at all! I had to go grab tools from where I had left them. It barely registered in the rain gauge, but it must have felt good to the plants after another day over 80°.
Very hot again today. I did errands and stuff and a little bit outside in the morning. Managed to keep moving fairly well, but I'm so far behind on so many things that it's crazy.
I think another time, I should show you some of the Sedums that haven't been such a big success for me. It's not always clear why they don't thrive on my hill, but it might be interesting.
 | See SunSparkler Sedums |
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