THE Sedums or stonecrops, to use their more commonly used name, are a hardy garden plant that range from low growing, ground hugging examples such as the wonderfully named Sedum spurium ‘Voodoo’ growing 10cm off the ground, with strongly coloured red leaves and pink flushed flowers, to taller plants such as Sedum ‘Matrona’ producing a large plant 60cm across and up to 50cm tall with smoke purple leaves and masses of flowers, writes TOM ATTWOOD. In a conventionally arranged border larger Sedums would be positioned to take centre stage at the front of the border but they work just as well intermingled with taller plants with a light ‘airy’ canopy such as Sanguisorba and many of the ornamental grasses.

For those of you who are Sedum growing veterans you’ll have experienced the point at which a Sedum can become oversized with a hollow centre (as they can be prone to after several years growing). Rather than try to lasso them together, in the spring, divide the clump into three or four good sized pieces and replant them into some freshly composted garden soil, spacing them accordingly.

Generally, Sedums will grow in a range of well drained soils and aren’t particularly fussy plants. The one thing you need to provide is an open sunny location where there isn’t excessive shade. The soil they are planted into wants to be well drained especially during the colder winter months.

One of the great advantages (in my mind at least) is the resilience of Sedums to tolerate drying out, particularly when used in pots as a semi-permanent feature. The succulent nature of a Sedums leaf and stem structure makes them perfectly adapted to long absences of water (I appreciate in a typical Cumbrian summer this isn’t necessarily that critical a feature).

They are extremely easy to propagate, I’ve already mentioned the division of established clumps in the spring. Sowing them from seed can be done in early summer to produce strong enough plants to plant out the following spring. The other method is to take cuttings approximately 5-7cm long and insert these into a 50:50 mix of peat free compost and horticultural grit. Try to avoid flowering material when you take the cuttings as the formation of flowers can hamper the progress of root formation.

Next week: summer pruning of apple and pear trees