I can’t help but wonder when my garden will be truly done for the year. We are surprisingly still picking dahlias, a variety of sedums look great, and then there are the grasses. Gotta love the grasses. They’ll add texture to the garden all winter.
Today, we’ll talk about Autumn Joy Sedum. Here is how it looks right now, with a full head of autumn-feeling coppery color.
This plant is a staple in Chicagoland gardens with good reason. It’s easy to grow, tolerates sun or shade, takes no care at all, and looks good just about always. It’s so easy to propagate that you can take a stem in the spring, put it in the ground, and have a pretty good chance of it rooting. Yet it is totally non-invasive. You can not ask for more. A perfect plant for the Work Less category.
Many plants that bloom in the fall don’t look like much for the rest of the year. Not Autumn Joy. It comes up early, lush and green. The new petals are just above the ground before I even cut last year’s growth off. It is distinctive enough that I don’t pull it as a weed. That’s a really good thing for me. I don’t know about you, but I’ve lost more plants to my weeding than anything.
I have it in full sun, mostly sun, and even just a little sun. It asks nothing of me as it continues mounding up during spring and early summer. Really, it needs absolutely no attention. Before you know it, the mounds aren’t mounds anymore and the blossoms are forming. They are green at first, then start to blush a soft pink.
It just keeps on getting better, with the colors turning more pink each day through September. Here you can see they have reached a full pink and are just starting to turn coppery.
I don’t want to shock you, so if you are faint of heart, don’t press the Continue button to see more.
Yes, its a picture of Autumn Joy in the winter. Please don’t hate me for showing winter. I am but the messenger. The good news is that you don’t even have to clean up after Autumn Joy till the spring. No dead-heading. Nada. Just look out the window and enjoy it snow covered. The beauty of your garden can continue, like ours does.
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