Stonecrop, Fette Henne, Sedum – care, cutting and tips on varieties

The fat hen is one of the most comfortable plants that you can plant in your garden – evergreen and hardy, robust and not to be shocked by long drought – a lot of care is really not necessary with the sedum plant.

Rather a few thoughts which, despite all your efforts, you would like to give unfamiliar honors to unattractive garden areas with these “miracle plants”, Sedum grows where nothing else grows.

When it comes to hidden corners that are fully exposed to the sun and therefore often go through longer dry periods in summer, a sedum plant could be the first permanent planting. Sedum trees can be planted on slopes where other plants simply slide off or are not satisfied with the little water that hits them when it rains. Fat hens can beautify any demolished wall (which suddenly no longer looks neglected, but rather romantic with plants), or any balcony on which most of the other plants “lay their cards”. The sedum got its German name because of its thick-fleshed leaves, and these are powerful water reservoirs that make the Sedum real specialists in drought. They even grow on stony soils, and are lean anyway,and are therefore just as suitable for green roofs as they are for a location in a rock garden, for beds, pots and flower pots, of course.

If it doesn’t work out as it should – plants are individuals too – simply plant these robust perennials again, perhaps in a different variety.

The sedum plants prefer all sunny spots, but many species can also thrive in more shady spots.

The sedum plants only have (modest) demands on the ground or subsoil: It should be so well drained that the plants are not standing in waterlogging. For example, if the vegetation layer on a roof is permanently too damp, the stability of the plants suffers. Likewise, with soils that have been over-fertilized for a long time before you give them the urgently needed respite with sedum planting, you should mix in a good amount of sand. The sedum plants in balcony boxes or pots also get a permeable substrate with a high proportion of sand, and above all they should be fertilized very sparingly.

You should take this warning about overfertilization seriously with the sedum plant – this plant is so used to deficiency that if its nutrient supply is too abundant, its shoots become soft and at some point simply snap off.

All sedas are well hardy if they are comfortable in their location.

Pruning and rejuvenation

You don’t actually have to cut sedum plants at all, if the plants feel comfortable in their location, they usually thrive splendidly on their own, and then you can simply let them grow undisturbed for several years.

Sometimes individual shoots develop unattractively or become bald; these can and should be cut away in spring before the new shoots. That is then a little bit of rejuvenation, the fat hen has to push through completely new at this point.

The higher fatty hens develop so much leaf mass that the plant has to be freed from the old shoots at some point. But please wait until spring, the plant uses the nutrients of the old shoots well into winter, these then offer winter protection and with the seed heads also winter food for birds, and this is no longer the case in our not very natural environment easy to find.

In spring, the old, dried-out shoots are cut away; when the sedum is already old, you can now also rejuvenate it by simply dividing the plant and replanting it. This should be done every few years after feeling, when the vitality declines and the plant is barely growing properly upright. Most of the time, sharing can induce new vigor, which allows the Sedum to grow again in an upright shape.

Propagation and sowing

If you want to multiply your sedum plants even more, cut head cuttings in the spring after budding, when the shoots are just really stretching. Or you can take leaf cuttings sometime in the summer, they are torn off, not cut. The cuttings are planted in permeable, poor soil for rooting, if the cuttings are later to take root on a special substrate, rooting in a glass of water is also conceivable. Propagation using cuttings works equally well with low and high Sedum species using cuttings.

Many Sedum species can of course also be propagated by sowing, which is certainly not a bad idea, especially in very difficult locations – the seeds are significantly cheaper than young plants, and if the sowing is successful, the growth results are usually even better than with finished plants Plants … The extremely fine seeds are simply spread over a large area, they must not be covered with substrate under any circumstances, just moistened well with a fine spray jet so that they are not blown away.

For the greening of large areas such as roofs, suitable Sedum types are also offered as sprouts, which are simply sprinkled over the area to be greened and rooted directly there.

Variety tips for the fat hen

Of the approximately 420 Sedum species worldwide, around 100 grow naturally here, and these are also the particularly recommendable species because they are familiar with our climate. There is also a whole lot of sedum from other parts of the world, which also thrive in our country, because the climatic conditions are quite similar to ours, so the variety of shapes and colors of the sedum plant, which you can choose for certain purposes, increases again significantly . This is certainly the real work with sedum plants that require hardly any maintenance – choose the varieties that are best suited in terms of color and size for the area to be greened.

Here is an overview of some well-known and reliable strains:

• Sedum acre, hot stonecrop: Brings beautiful color accents with its bright golden yellow petals, beautiful Sedum for green roofs, but also for wild plant gardens.
• Sedum album, white stonecrop (Sedum album), also white stonecrop – very diverse species with many varieties:
  • Sedum album superbum, snow carpet Sedum, height up to 10 cm, flowers July to August, does not bloom very often
  • Sedum album “Murale”, bronze veil Sedum, height up to 10 cm, flowering June to August, turns red foliage when there is a lack of nutrients
  • Sedum album “Coral Carpet”, red moss sedum, height up to 10 cm, flowering June to August, turns red foliage when there is a lack of nutrients

• Sedum lydium, moss-sedum or Turkish stonecrop, height 2 to 10 cm, evergreen variety from Asia Minor, forms funny little leaf corals, over which, with a bit of luck, white wheel-shaped umbrella flowers appear in June / July.
• Sedum sexangulare, mild stonecrop, height up to 10 cm, yellow flowers July to August, alternative to the competitive Sedum acre, ornamental plant for rock gardens, borders, heather beds and gravel roofs.
• Sedum rupestre or Sedum reflexum, rock sedum plant, tripmadam or rock stonecrop: Height up to 15 cm, bristly foliage, yellow flowers July to August, rather rare sedum plant. But also interesting as a culinary herb: Tripmadam is a now almost forgotten, sour-tasting herb for soups or salads.
• Sedum ochroleucum, yellow ocher sedum plant: is seldom planted as an ornamental ground cover plant for rock gardens, frugal, comes with almost no nutrients

The species-rich genus Sedum has just been restructured in the course of the latest research, many plants previously known as Sedum are now assigned to the species Hylotelephium (no German name used) and Phedimus (Asian sedum plant). However, they are often still on the market as Sedum, which is why both botanical names are given below:

Sedum spurium or Phedimus spurius, Caucasus Asian sedum plant: hardy plants with fleshy leaves that form small rosettes, thrive on walls, rocks and in dry grass. Well-known varieties:

• Sedum spurium “Fuldaglut”, red-leaved carpet sedum, height up to 10 cm, flowering July to August, covers areas well
• S. spurium “Schorbuser Blut”, dark purple accentuated leaves and pink to red purple, lobed flowers
• S. spurium “Sunset Cloud”, develops flowers between rust-red and pink-orange
• S. spurium “Album Superbum”, snow carpet fat leaf or carpet stonecrop, light green leaves and white flowers (easily confused with Sedum album)
• S. spurium “purple carpet”, foliage with reddish brown accents, pink to purple flowers
• S. spurium “Roseum Superbum”, almost olive-green foliage with dull pink flowers
• Sedum floriferum or Phedimus floriferus, carpet sedum plant: valuable ground cover of Asian origin, suitable for partially shaded locations. With us mainly common in the variety:
• S. floriferum “Weihenstephaner Gold”, height up to 15 cm, develops many yellow flower stars from June to August, which turn orange-red in the wilting, productive area-wide

Sedum cyaneum or Hylotelephium cyaneum, Rose Carpet Sedum: Height 5 to 15 cm, red flowers July to August, quickly overgrows entire areas

Sedum cauticolum or Hylotelephium cauticola, September-Sedum: Japanese origin, height 10 to 25 cm, red flowers August to September, quickly displaced by competition, well-known varieties:

• S. cauticola “Robustum”, reddish shoots and plum-colored, frosted gray-purple leaves, from September to October carmine-red “brush blossoms”, beautiful late bloomer
• S. cauticola “Bertram Anderson”, purple stonecrop, low and clumpy growing, curved shoots and green-plum-blue leaves, bright pink flower umbels

Sedum hybridum or Phedimus hybridum, evergreen, Siberian sedum plant: height up to 15 cm, yellow flowers June to August, evergreen and perennial, covers areas well. “Evergreen” is also the name of a cultivar.

Sedum spectabile or Hylotelephium spectabile, magnificent sedum plant: a tall sedum plant that grows up to 50 cm high, flowers mostly pink from August to October and is used in herbaceous beds and borders. It can be used as a cut flower and is a good forage plant for bees. There are many varieties with sounding names such as “Abendrot”, “Carl”, “Carmen”, “Iceberg” (blooms white), “Lisa”, “Neon”, “Purple Emperor” and “Rosenteller”, which are slightly different Distinguish the tint of the flowers.

Sedum telephium or Hylotelephium telephium, Hohes Herbstsedum, Red Stonecrop: A Sedum for individual standing, which grows up to 50 cm high and grows on dry locations such as walls, rocks, dry earth. There are also several varieties of S. telephium that stand out due to their considerable color variance, e.g. B. “Herbstfreude”, “Indian Chief”, “Joyce Henderson”, “Matrona”, “Red Cauli”. Something very special is the “Sunset Cloud” variety, with sensational steel-blue leaves with plum-colored accents and pink to red-brown flowers.

Conclusion
If you are looking for the “flowering plant just in case”, the Sedum is a wonderful plant for you. Which will not overburden you with the maintenance, even if you have a host of children to look after in addition to your garden. Fette Henne can claim your thoughts much sooner when planning – with the sedum plant you can do garden design, it is available in almost every imaginable leaf color and flower color and height, at least for all locations where perennial vegetation close to the ground or slightly higher is desired will.