Front to back:
Sedum spathufolium 'Cape Blanco' - white rosettes
Sedum spurium 'Dragon's Blood'
Sedum anglicum

Sedums

Sedums are all just plain wonderful plants to grow. They are succulents, which means that they can take low water and maintenance. There are dozens of species that range from large garden flower hybrids to tiny species that creep along the ground and intermingle with their neighbors. Each has some variation of leaf shape and flower color.

Some species are tender and do best in pots that can be kept indoors in winter but all three pictured above are hardy and can be found in the ground cover section of nurseries. In most cases, they do not form a dense enough mat to prevent all weed growth and they don't appreciate being walked on, so they don't make a good lawn substitute. But for edging a border, filling in a parking strip or for planting a tapestry garden of low growing plants, they're hard to beat.

Sedum blooms include all colors but blue depending on the species, though white and yellow are the most common. They all produce umbel shaped flowers that are especially attractive to butterflies. They must produce a fair amount of pollen as well, because swarms of predatory hover flies cover them in summer when they are in flower.

Hover flies are not house flies - they eat aphids most of the time but when their preferred meal isn't abundant, they feed on the pollen of sedums and other plants with small, pollen-rich flowers. This keeps them resident in your garden, so they'll be on the prowl the next time the aphids make a play for your most favored hybrid tea rose.

If you'd like to learn more about hover flies or other beneficial insects you might find in your garden, The University Of Wisconsin's Department of Entomology has a very nice site set up that you would no doubt enjoy. They had mercy and used small words most of the time, so your kids might like it, too.

Text and images Copyright 1998 Cyndi Kirkpatrick. All rights reserved