Monday, August 23, 2010

Look at all the 'Broccoli Flowers'!

My twin sisters-in-law came over last week and that is what one of them said as she got out of car and saw this driveway planting. She is not fond of Sedumn Autumn Joy. They remind her of broccoli.



I, on the other hand, love SAJ! I spent two summers removing all of the sedum 'coral carpet' (super invasive) from this area. I replanted it with SAJ because I love its light green color against the dark green yews and it requires almost no attention all summer.

It is one of the few perennials I know of that looks good all summer.

As people walk up to my front door, they are surrounded by SAJ.



I also have it on the opposite side of the driveway:


It is just beginning to turn pink. By next week, this entire area will be a sea of light pink!

You know what that means. When the sedumn AJ turns pink, autumn is not far behind. We had a high of 68 degrees today.

There is one negative to SAJ. When it turns pink, the bees love it. There will be dozens of bees in this area next week.

Last year I got stung by a bee on this SAJ in the arbor garden.
Every time I walked down the path, my knee would hit the plant. One day a bee got annoyed and stung me right in the knee--Ouch!

I am not looking forward to a repeat of that, so I moved the SAJ from this area last Sunday and replaced it with the Elijah Blue grass I bought in May.
I have never had this grass before, so I don't know if it will survive the winter. If not, I will have to come up with something else next year.

When the SAJ turns pink I will show you some of the other areas whereI have it planted. Oh, did I forget to mention that I have over a HUNDRED of these plants? Probably even two hundred...I should count them someday.

9 comments:

  1. I think SAJ is a neat plant and I have a few of them myself. The bees do love it! I like how it changes colors too. It looks great in your yard.

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  2. I have one two...the bees love it...your yard looks great...

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  3. Now that you mention it, SAJ does look like broccoli, doesn't it? How funny! But it is one of my favorite perennials, too.

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  4. That is a lot of Autumn Joy..but that's good, we need to fill up on 'autumn joy' before winter comes:)
    Mine is already turning pink..

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  5. I can just imagine how awesome all those Sedum will look in a month! My mom used to hate them for the very reason that she thought they looked like broccoli.

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  6. Sedum is so easy to grow...I don't think anyone could kill it!

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  7. My Autumn Joy has tons of bees on it along a pathway. It is also falling over because of the rain. I may have to move it when it's done.

    Eileen

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  8. Hi Zoey,
    I love all those "broccoli" flowers! You have some other nice looking blooms and foliage in there, too. At first, I thought your arrow was some kind of funky garden sculpture.

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  9. I have only one little bitty SAJ.

    I bought a creeping tricolor sedum that was supposed to want full sun. It was gorgeous... and now, it's nearly dead. I don't know what's going on... dormancy? drought? something else?

    Your 'Elijah Blue' grass should come back next spring. Named after Cher's son with Greg Allman, if I recall correctly.

    Love the jagged-edged green plant above the echinacea in your final photo. Never seen anything like it. Under the begonias to the left, is that a fern drooping down, or something creeping out of the pot?

    I'm leaving this comment going back to my own blog instead of my tumblr account in case you want to say hi. :)

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