Description: All sedums have succulent green leaves in trailing rosettes or upright mounds. Leaves of many species turn red in late fall; some cultivars have brilliantly colored or variegated foliage. Many sedums have showy pink, red, or purple flowers in fall. Others bloom from May through August with white or yellow flowers.
The best sedums for the perennial garden are hybrids. Sedum � �Autumn Joy� grows upright, producing 2-foot bushy plants. Its 5- to 6-inch flower clusters bear starry blooms that open coral pink in summer, then deepen to copper in fall, while the leaves turn brilliant red. S. � �Ruby Glow� grows 1 to 1� feet tall, producing pink to ruby red flower clusters in late summer and fall, and has bluish green leaves that turn burgundy red. S. � �Vera Jameson� grows 9 to 12 inches tall, with blue-green leaves and pink flower clusters borne in late summer. S. � �Frosty Morn� bears foot-tall clumps of blue-green leaves with white edges and is covered with starry light pink or white flowers in late summer and early fall. Zones 3�10.
Some creeping or low-growing species sedums make good groundcovers for dry, sunny or lightly shaded sites. S. kamtschaticum, Kamschatka or Russian stonecrop, is a 2- to 4-inch trailer with yellow star like flowers that appear in May, complementing its light green leaves. S. album, white stonecrop, is trailing, with short leaves that turn a reddish colour in winter. The flowers open white to pink in late summer. S. spurium, two-row sedum, grows 2 to 6 inches tall and forms mats of foliage that turns bronze in fall; it produces open clusters of pink flowers in summer. Zones 3�8.
