Week 23:

SEDUM

Much time is spent this time of year cutting back summer flowering perennials such as tall phlox, day lilies and echinacea. Over time these summer perennials grow to be two to three times larger than when originally planted.

Splitting or dividing these larger clumps becomes necessary to leave room for garden diversity. Dividing these large clumps now lends space to the addition of fall color in the garden.

Local garden centers carry the traditional mums, cabbage, and kale for fall planting, but they also have a full selection of fall annuals that will flower until frost. Fall flowering perennials such as Aster, Chelone, Boltonia, and Helianthus can be added as well.

One of my favorite groups of perennials for this time of year are the sedums. Sedums add an interesting garden texture to plantings all summer long and add a surprise burst of color to the fall garden. Sedum Autumn Fire and Matrona are a couple of the tall growing varieties and creeping sedums known as stonecrops can be found in many different colors.