sedum

[simple life]

Has anyone ever had sedum do well in shade or part shade? I love this plant and have it around the yard but they are in sun or mostly sun. I have a small section of the garden that is is shade, the rest is in sun. I want to plant something that is round and compact and not too leggy so I thought of sedum but my experience so far has been sunny locations. I could put something taller in the back row and then the compact plants in the rest. I already have Hosta so I don't want more of that.

 

[patandchickens]

I know that Autumn Joy (which is a fairly large sedum) will tolerate about half a day of shade BUT it will get leggy, possibly flop open if the soil is also rich and/or damp (cutting it back early in the season might help vs this, I haven't tried), and you'd best cut the flower stalks off as they start to form b/c they will definitely fall over and take half the plant with them. Smaller sedums I would expect to get leggy and floppy, but you could *try* shearing them back periodically and see how you liked it.

If you just want a neat compact rounded mound of foliage, tho, there are probably better ways to get it. Perennial blue sage tolerates at least half a day of shade, possibly more if you don't care about flowers and are willing to do some trimming-back for shape. Perennial yellow foxglove is easy, and forms reasonably tidy rounded plants, although from a rosette. I am sure there are various other things too, just can't think of them offhand (will ponder it). If you want something short (like 6" or less) sweet woodruff makes a VERY tidy plant, although it spreads rapidly and if you want separate mounds you will have to weed it back once or even twice a year. It always looks nice tho.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[simple life]

So funny, I was looking at the blue sage at a nursery this morning. I bought one to use in another part of the yard.
I had thought of foxglove but heard it was poisonous and I have chickens that free range. Any thoughts on that? I could be wrong.
Its been raining here all day and I was out planting in it this morning. I like it because the our hard and rocky soil is easier to dig in, but I sure was happy to take a long hot shower afterwards.

 

[aquarose]

I have lots of Autumn Joy sedum too. I have tried it all over the place. Works good in full sun, part shade, but when I tried it in deep shade, it died completely in 2 years.

Foxglove is where the heart medication, digitalis, comes from, I believe.

 

[simple life]

yeah you are right, it is where that medicine comes from. I was just talking to a neighbor and she said it is poisonous to humans but isn't sure about animals. I am going to look it up.

 

[patandchickens]

yeah you are right, it is where that medicine comes from. I was just talking to a neighbor and she said it is poisonous to humans but isn't sure about animals. I am going to look it up.

It is poisonous to animals if they eat it but honestly if they were my freerange chickens and they had a well vegetated yard to roam I would not worry. I am not certifying that yours definitely won't eat it, just, animals don't *usually* go after poisonous plants unless they're hungry. You might be surprised what-all else in your garden is poisonous if actually eaten.

JMO,

Pat

 

[simple life]

That is very true Pat, good point. Thank you. I do really love those plants too, so I guess I will be able to use them. Are those biennial?

 

[patandchickens]

"Normal" foxgloves are biennials. They usually self-sow pretty well if they like the soil and you haven't mulched too pathologically heavily, so if you have decent conditions and buy 'em from the store two years running you will be in foxgloves for years.

There are a few perennial foxgloves, though. Two yellow species come to mind, Digitalis grandiflora (which I have) and, uh, another species which I don't They are not as showy as the biennials but also not as artificial-looking

Pat

 

[Grow 4 Food]

Mine are in the shade for most of the time (they grow under the trees in the fence row). Not really sure they can be killed. They have been moved 4 or 5 times and have been trampled by the pups as well. They just keep coming back.

 

[simple life]

You are right about them being hardy, I had a little piece of a sedum break off when I was planting in front of my big boulder in the garden. I stuck it in a crack in the top of the rock just for fun, thinking it would just fall out and blow away. Well that was like 2 or 3 years ago and it has been growing ever since! Its a fairly decent size from that little tiny thing I stuck in there and I didn't even think there were any roots in that piece or I would have planted it in the garden. It looks pretty cool there though.
I have always planted stone crop and then this week I found a Sedum that had varigated leaves tinged with yellow that were so pretty. They get yellow leaves and the tag said grows about 5 inches.So I plant a couple and they are just beautiful, then today I am at a different nursery and I see these there and I pick one up thinking I might buy more and the tag on that one says that they grow in a tight mat, so now I am thinking groundcover here.
I think they still will be okay where they are, at least I hope. There is something I really like about them.Maybe its because they are more colorful and delicate looking than the typical sedums.