Sedum spurium - Two-row Stonecro

							                Sedum spurium - Two-row Stonecrop (Crassulaceae)
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Sedum spurium is known as a creeping groundcover               Twigs
that forms a low dense procumbent mat. Two-row                 -herbaceous stems are green, red/purple, or light
Stonecrop is very urban tolerant, especially to heat,          brown, and self-root at the nodes as they lie upon the
full sun, drought, and poor, thin, rocky soils.                ground

                       FEATURES                                                         USAGE
Form                                                           Function
-short herbaceous semi-evergreen groundcover                   -usually located in poor thin soils, soilless media, at
maturing at about 4" tall in foliage and 6" tall when          the edge of beds, or even in rock crevices
in flower                                                      -often found as a complementary plant that weaves in
-quickly spreading to form mats of dense stems and             and around other plants or rambles over rockery, and
miniature foliage                                              mixes well with other perennials in raised planters,
-procumbent mat growth habit, becoming a prostrate             strawberry jars, edgings, rock gardens, and wall
mat in winter                                                  overhangs; less often found as a solid groundcover in
-slow to medium growth rate (in clump diameter)                the landscape
Culture                                                        Texture
-full sun to partial shade                                     -medium to fine texture
-performs best in full sun in moist, well-drained soils,       -thin to thick density, depending upon soil
but it is extremely urban tolerant, and is usually             availability and competition with other plants
reserved for highly stressful sites around rockery that        Assets
exposes it to thin soils, poor soils, very dry soils, soils    -very urban tolerant (especially to full sun, poor soils,
of various pH, low fertility, extreme heat, drought,           thin soils, and prolonged drought; basically, it will
full sun, and high light reflectance; however, it is not       grow where nothing else will, as long as it is sunny
tolerant of wet or poorly drained soils                        and dry)
-propagated primarily by rooted stem cuttings, but             -foliage color variants (usually bronzed or red, but
also by crown division or segmentation of the self-            also variegated)
rooted prostrate stems                                         -small but showy pink inflorescences in early
-Orpine Family, with no diseases or pests of                   summer (especially when viewed among rock
significance                                                   outcrops)
-commonly available in containers                              -rapidly spreading under optimum conditions
Foliage                                                        Liabilities
                                     -semi-evergreen           -prone to invasion and domination by weeds (since it
                                     succulent leaves are      is often located in tucked-away, stressful spots that
                                     green, bronzed, red,      do not have mulch, and that harbor only the toughest
                                     crimson, or               plants that are naturally dispersed by seed or
                                     variegated                rhizomes)
                                     (depending upon           -slowly invasive, and hard to extract from the
                                     cultivar), usually        crevices that it can root into
                                     abscising all but the     Habitat
                                     most terminal             -Zones 3 to 8
leaves by late winter, with the remaining leaves               -Native to the Caucasus
staying bronzed into the following spring
-opposite (or clustered at the stem apices), obovate                               SELECTIONS
(fan-shaped), crenate, and sessile to short-petioled           Alternates
Flowers                                                        -other groundcovers, specimen dwarf perennials, rock
-red, pink, or pinkish-                                        garden plants, or unusual plants for "collectors",
white, flowering                                               especially those plants that perform well under
profusely for 2-4                                              stressful conditions (Antennaria dioica, Cerastium
weeks in June and                                              tomentosum, Genista pilosa, Lewisia cotyledon,
July, especially on                                            Opuntia humifusa, Phlox subulata, Sedum species,
mature plants that are                                         Sempervivum hybrids, Thymus species, etc.)
under a moderate                                               Variants
amount of stress (or                                           -several exist, primarily noted for foliage color and/or
put another way, those                                         flower color
that have it "good" in                                         -Sedum spurium 'Dragon's Blood' - the most popular
terms of soil, moisture,                                       cultivar, very vigorous, with deep mauve or dark pink
and nutrition tend to have predominantly lush                  inflorescences, noted for its greenish-bronzed to
vegetative growth rather than reproductive growth)             reddish-bronzed foliage throughout the summer, that
-erect inflorescences occur above the foliage, with            turns to a deep and attractive burgundy in winter
the vertical peduncles radiating flat-topped pedicels          -Sedum spurium 'Red Carpet' - reddish foliage
at the apex, bejeweled with many 5-petaled, star-like          throughout the growing season, becoming a deep
flowers                                                        crimson in autumn and winter, rarely having deep
Fruits                                                         carmine flowers; not as vigorous as most other green-
-wiry pedicels are the predominate feature on the              or bronze-foliaged cultivars
fruiting heads, and will persist into the following            -Sedum spurium 'Tricolor' (also known as
season if unsheared and will detract somewhat from             'Variegatum') - foliage is a combination of faded jade
the superior foliage effect                                    green, white, and pink; this cultivar is weak, spreads
-best to deadhead after flowering, to promote                  slowly, is not dependably winter hardy, and rarely
vegetative growth                                              flowers