Brilliant sedum

September Sedums

| Flower Roberts

Anything edible must be protected from the deer herd. I even dug and divided my collection and gave many away.

Autumn Joy was beheaded before the fencing


I am not sad about this. I love sharing plants. I do not love feeding wildlife. I am a biologist first and gardener second. Feeding wild creatures makes them lazy and dependent. They will keep coming back for more.

Pot out of reach of hungry mouthes.


I only break that rule during weather anomalies like droughts and extreme cold. Even then the assistance is sporadic and in different locations.

Sedum on the steps.

So the sedums you see here are isolated in strategicallylocated pots or inside fences. There is plenty of wild vegetation around for them to eat.

Bees love sedums.

I have keep wild spots in and around my yards. This encourages nature to stay in balance.

Bees even sleep on the blooms.

The bees love my sedums but love my weeds equally well. Nature should win. It’s been growing things a lot longer than we have.

Sedum safe in trough, on wall, behind fence.

FLOWER

September is Pink

| Flower Roberts

The early fall color in my yard is pink. 

Pink Muhly Grass will stay gorgeous through all of fall.

I know when the Pink Muhly and sedums bloom pink that cooler weather is on its way.

Sedums in hypertufa trough.

One of my favorite pink bloomers is Jewels of Opar ‘Limon.” It is a magical sight with its tiny, shiny seed pods and delicate pink blooms.

Jewels of Opar ‘Limon’

Flower is still trapped on her decks waiting for healing and railing. Stay tuned. Next week is the week!

Brilliant sedum

FLOW

September Sedum Show

| Flower Roberts

I really admire the sedums for holding up to the August heat and then blooming afterwards.

I only water my small sedums in pots and troughs. The big plants in the yard are on their own.

I have three types with known hybrid names. The rest have been passed along or given to me without identification. These three are hard-working bloomers.

The hot pink one is aptly named ‘Brilliant’ because it really is showy.

‘Brilliant’ sedum

The more muted salmon, darker hybrid is ‘Matrona.’

‘Matrona’ sedum

The one I have had for several decades is ‘Autumn Joy.’

This plant is two-toned because the deer ate half of the shoots earlier in the summer. It recovered nicely.

‘Autumn Joy’ sedum

These three are covered with bees, wasps and butterflies all day long.

Their flowers are important to pollinators who still need food after most flowers have faded.

FLOW

No Sedum? You Need’um.

| Flower Roberts

In September most flowers are drying up and needing dead-heading.

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Not the sedums. They have been slowly stretching out their clusters of green buds.

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As the tiny flowers open the entire head blushes with color.

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You don’t need to look to know if they are blooming, you can HEAR it.

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Each colorful head is full of all kinds of bumble bees, honey bees, wasps, butterflies, moths and lightening bugs.

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It’s like a party on every plant.

FLOWER