I know that this is a bit of topic for the semp forum, but as I want to plant sedum in with my semps I hope you'll forgive me for topic bashing

I've decided that I want to half bury a terracotta pot at the top of my rock garden and do the 'puddle-of-plants-pouring-out-of it' thing. I want to keep it looking inkeeping with my semps so I'm looking for a very low growing sedum that is quite brightly coloured and so wont get lost in my natural river bed type dressing grit.

Does anyone have any suggestions? There are so many varieties of sedum I don't know where to start looking!

I quite like the look of Sedum spathulifolium “Purpureum”
http://www.perhillplants.co.uk...

Sedum acre is a nice one, as it spreads easy, but it can also have a tendency to take over. As you are in a nice warm zone, you should have a lot of other options to use ones that do not need to be freeze hardy. I've been playing with S. dasyphyllum 'Major' the past two years and really like its foliage color and general ground hugging shape. The problem with that one for me is that my main pot of it got "thready" this past winter with us having no snow cover and lots of cold drying winds. I'm hoping that the ugly stems will fill out shortly so that it looks nice again. It looked very nice last year, so I'm disappointed with its appearance this spring. I was expecting better.

I've experimented with a number of hardy sedum to see how well they mix with semps. Unfortunately, most of the hardy, low growing ones I've worked with still are too vigorous for growing mixed in with the semps. I have to weed the sedum out of the semps to prevent them from taking over. Sedum lydium is one that does not spread too badly for me and might work. S. sexangular gets a bit too tall. S. mexicanum also gets a little too tall and is too vigorous.

The one sedum that behaves itself well enough to mix with semps S. requieni. Unfortunately, it needs regular moisture and doesn't tolerate drying out like most of the other sedum. That makes it problematic for me. It needs mostly shade to thrive.

Thanks Twit! I now have plenty of sedums to look up and gather information on S. requieni sounds particularly interesting, moisture is no problem here!

I also like S. hispanicum, S. kamtschaticum variegatum and S. Cape Blanco.




And how about S. 'Ogon'?


With what twit listed and what is here, plus so much more, you have many to choose from.

Kate, Looks like with all the different kinds of sedum offered so far, it will come down to what color did you have in mind to go with the surroundings (especially the color of your pot; not all terra cotta is the same shade). And the color may differ in contrast to what semps or other plants are around it. Some apple greens may not look quite right with the blue greens.
Don't forget about texture...which can be just as important as color.
Lastly, I, myself, worry about the ease in which each sedum candidate would grow. I saw Lynn's suggestion of Ogon and it brought a smile to my face but I couldn't keep it alive to save my life...so I tend to choose what is easier to grow.
Good Luck!

Thanks for the suggestions Lynn, I have to say that I love the look of 'cape blanco'

Yes Bev, you're right, I think i need to get most of my semps in place first and then see what will work best in terms of colour and texture. I'm hoping to be able to do that this weekend (fingers crossed for good weather) and then I can start narrowing down my chocies.

One this that does concern me is that the whole bed will end up over run with sedum, I don't want something that I'm going to have to keep weeding out all the time.

Cape Blanco is easy to manage and not invasive. But Bev is correct, just think of color and texture and go from there. Also, most of them, if you keep the spent bloom stalks trimmed off of the ones that tend to easily reseed it won't be a problem.

Trimming spent bloom stalks is great advice for plant control, Lynn...Thanks for that!

Just came in from photographing the sedum seedlings for S. kamtschaticum. Boy, does it ever reseed itself.
This is just one small area. They are coming up all around the plant. Sure won't be leaving bloom stalks on this one every again.

Kate, an issue that I have with ground cover (of any type) is that the weeds that are around my area can find a home in the bed, and they're harder for me to see...its an ongoing problem. For pots I have that have semps with sedums I have to redo them once a year or so. I don't use weedkiller, so maybe that's an option that other people use?? But I can't imagine having ground cover growing in a broad area with the number of weeds we have around here!