From YourSITE.com
Your Growing Guide for Autumn Joy Sedum
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Mar 29, 2005 - 2:44:00 PM
Autumn Joy Sedum (Sedum Herbstfreude) is a popular perennial with impressive thick green foliage and colorful flowers. There are dozens of varieties of sedums, all of which have a large following. Some sedums are used more as ground-covers because they are quite small, and others, like the Autumn Joy, can grow up to two feet tall. Sedums are succulents and thus tolerate dry conditions and many species can be left in your garden with minimal maintenance.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a great site all about sedums.
This particular sedum will provide rosy-pink flowers for your summer garden, and later a burnt-orange accent for the fall garden. When the flowers dry up in the late fall and winter they will still have a nice shape and you can even cut them for use in a dry flower arrangement.
Here are some other facts and guidelines to get you started gardening with this elegant succulent. Happy growing!
* Planting: From seed, cuttings or division. For cuttings: remove just the top five or six inches of the branch. Strip the leaves off and cut the other leaves in half. Plant in a container with moist soil. Wait until the roots are well established to transplant. For divisions: pick a large section of the plant and separate it into small pieces. Plant each piece in a new location of your garden.
* General Care: Pinch back the flower heads in the spring and locate a fine mulch around the base of the plant. If your sedums are growing in dense clusters, you may want to separate a few out and plant them elsewhere.
* Sun exposure: As with all sedums, the Autumn Joy likes full sun
* Height and Spread: 25 inches in height and 25 inch spread
* Soil: Well drained with a touch of compost. This sedum tolerates neutral to somewhat alkaline soils.
Another nice thing about this sedum is that it will attract butterflies and other insects as well.
If you enjoy the Autumn Joy and you're inspired to continue gardening with sedums, I recommend the following species as well:
* Frosty Morn, a beautiful variegated sedum
* The Showy Sedum with a nice grey foliage
* Dragon's Blood as a jazzy groundcover
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