Autumn

Autumn seems to have hit. It’s been a bit grey and miserable here in the Western Districts.

The garden isn’t without a bit of colour though, some roses are getting another flush of flowers and the late summer, early autumn flowers like Sedums are quite glorious.

I’ve got a bit of an admission to make, I’m a really lazy gardener at home in my own garden. Maybe it’s because I put my energy into other people’s gardens, maybe it’s because I like to plant plants that are super easy to look after; ones that give a lot of bang for their buck.

One of these super easy plants (at least in this cool temperate area which has cold winters with good rainfall, and hot summers) is a plant commonly called ‘Sedum’.

It used to be called Sedum spectabile, ‘Autumn Joy’ is a common cultivar. Nowadays it is called Hylotelephium spectabile. I’m assuming the cultivar names will be the same.

It is a succulent plant in the Crassulaceae family and grows well in full sun to part shade. The plant starts as a clump of low growing succulent rosettes which send up fleshy stems over the summer. At the end of summer and in to Autumn the stems push out an inflorescence with small, starry flowers.

The long lasting flowers are great as a cut flower.

Once the flowers are done, the stems can be cut right back down to the ground, leaving the basal stem and rhizomatous ‘roots’. This is a good time to break up the clump and spread it around your garden or give to a deserving friend.

Other super easy plants I have in my garden are Salvias, Chrysanthemums, and quite a few succulents. I might talk about some of these in my next blog post 🤔

Til next time!