Adventures Among the Sedums alice rathbone 



Quite Exciting and Exhilarating Did the Chase for New Acquaintances Become as One by One the Different Stonecrops were 



Found in Old or New Gardens 



As a cut flower the old Sedum spectabile can readily be used 

 quite effectively 



THE word "adventures" is used advisedly in 

 this title, because it presupposes a going 

 forth toward the unknown, the unexpected, 

 and such has been, the trend of a series of 

 happy Sedum adventures in my garden. 



But it was with no sense of adventure that I 

 set out, in a most absurdly haphazard way, along 

 the Sedum path that was to prove so pleasant. 

 I did not even know, at the moment, that I was 

 on the way when, quite unwittingly, I accepted 

 a friend's sharing of a potted plant, unknown by 

 name to either of us. 



It was a case of love at first sight for the name- 

 less succulent plant, with its old-pink flower 

 clusters, and round glaucous leaves set, like eye- 

 glasses, in a delicate frame of red; — long after- 

 ward recognized as S. Sieboldii, the beauty of the 

 family, as far as I know, outside the mossy Sed- 

 ums. While awaiting introduction to this first 

 stranger plant, Sedum acre was gathered in, 

 quite literally from the highway — just a bit from 

 a colony founded upon a rock, in true Stonecrop 

 fashion. Needless to say, to all who are familiar 

 with this active little Sedum, that, as its advent 

 in my garden occurred some years ago, my supply 

 is now considerably more than ample! Then a 

 few years went by before a passing glimpse of 

 Sedum spectabile, at a Newport gateway on the 

 ocean drive, made such a strong impression on 

 my uneducated Sedum eye, that it sent me to the 

 catalogues where, happily, I found its portrait, 

 and identification as well, of S. Sieboldii and S. 

 acre. At last the clue was found, and the de- 

 light of collecting began, as I at once reached out 



As a tufted edge along the walk the pungent Sedum acre, which stands any kind of 

 rou^h usage 



hungrily,like poor half-starved Oliver, for "more," 

 from the plantsmen's somewhat meagre lists. 

 The rapidly increasing interest in rock-garden- 

 ing in America makes our lengthened Sedum 

 lists — since I began to choose therefrom — "sig- 

 nificant of much," to borrow a pet Carlylean 

 phrase. But the conditions that made my 

 small collection of Sedums one of slow growth 

 were fortunate I think. Instead of crowding at 

 a large reception they came as guests by ones 

 and twos, thus giving opportunity for acquaint- 

 ance along more individual lines. And, as in 

 house furnishings, the pleasure of gradually 

 adding one treasure after another by means of 

 "the fine art of picking up" is greater than 

 having the doings all over with at 

 once; so is the pleasure of fur- 

 nishing a garden with Sedums 

 greater for being a leisurely affair 

 of gradual assembling, in this fresh 

 field of out-of-door delight. 



A/JY GARDEN was fairly well 

 prepared to receive the Se- 

 dums as they arrived, some of 

 the edgings providing the stony 

 surroundings they enjoy and beau- 

 tify so greatly. For Stonecrops 

 certainly have very pretty ways 

 with the stones of their affinity, 

 some taking possession of crevices 

 and pockets between rocks, others 

 throwing over them their tapes- 

 tries of red-stemmed, dark green 

 or rich red, foliage, abloom with 

 white, yellow or the peculiar soft, 

 dull pink so largely affected by the Sedums. S. 

 stoloniferum is an excellent decorative worker 

 along this line, and serves a practical use as well 

 in building the miniature wall together with its 

 weavings. Similar results follow the efforts of 

 another mural artist of the rosette type — the 

 yellow-flowered S. kamtschaticum. 



For use as carpet bedding our favorite S. 

 Sieboldii is considered very good. Mr. Wilhelm 

 Miller calls this "the best foliage plant in the 

 genus Sedum" and then goes on to say "The 

 only rival of Siebold's stonecrop is S. Ewersi, 

 which some people think is a trifle bluer even than 

 Sieboldii. I shall never forget the pretty effect 

 this made at Gravetye, where Mr. Robinson 

 used it for edging rose beds. . . . Both of 

 these species will bloom from Sep- 

 tember until hard frost. The 

 flowers of Ewersi are pinkish, but 

 those of the variety Turkestani- 

 cum are a deep violet." 



The mossy Sedums — what a 

 charming group they make! — are 

 of those that like a place close 

 among stones, where they can set- 

 tle down contentedly for life. And 

 in view of their close-to-the-earf!i 

 tendencies, it is rather amusing to 

 discover that the derivation of 

 their family name is from the verb 

 sedere, to sit, for that is so exactly 

 what most of the Sedums do, just 

 seat themselves comfortably down 

 for a long stay. 



What more natural therefore, 

 than that upon their coat-of-arms 

 there should be blazoned a garden 

 seat — vert — with a sprig of Live- 

 forever rampant, as its crest, and 

 for motto the ancestral term "Se- 

 dere." One of these sitters in the 

 sun, S. Stahlii, is of a sweet inno- 

 cent beauty akin to that of the fas- 

 cinating Pyxie, or flowering moss 

 — Pyxidanthera barbulata. S. 



Stahlii, too, has the look of flowering moss — 

 moss with a touch of red in it, over which lie the 

 sprays of tiny white flowers — very numerous, 

 closely set, and lace-like. Real Pyxie lace per- 

 haps, worn when those fairy-folk come up at 

 night from their underground homes, to disport 

 themselves in the garden. 



'T V HE loveliest Sedum known to me, S. Lydium 

 *■ glaucum, is a pretty contrast to the one 

 just named. It, also, is of moss-like growth, but 

 whereas, in trying to match Stahlii's richly red- 

 hued, dark green foliage, one would search the 

 heart of a wood, it would be in the lichens on an 

 old stone wall that Lydium glaucum's coloring 



It was Siebold's Sedum, the beauty of the family, that first attracted with its bold 

 succulent leaves 



would be found. This is one of the glaucous 

 things that it is such a joy to find on the palette, 

 when on garden picture-making bent. Better 

 perhaps, the restraint of blue-green or gray 

 foliage for distinctive effect sometimes, than the 

 sole use of brilliant flowers, the quiet values 

 carrying further, in an artistic way. 



Moreover there is the merit of greater per- 

 manancy. The bright flowers pass, while Sedum 

 foliage, keeping a pretty evenly good and fit, if 

 not in any way spectacular, appearance the season 

 through — the year around indeed, some of them — 

 does but increase its helpfulness in harmonious 

 color tuning, with the summer's growth. 



Of a moss-like character, too is S. hispanicum, 

 a new comer in my garden. The appropriate 

 spot for placing it seemed to be near the Rock 

 of Gibraltar, as the largest sheer-faced rock in 

 the edgings is named, and there it now is happily 

 ensconced — taking very kindly to the best we 

 could offer as a Spanish-like location. 



S. Album, less delicate in its mossy make-up, 

 its white flowers lovely against its dark-green 

 background of thick foliage, stands high in the 

 gardener's esteem among low-growing Sedums, 

 even if it does creep very rapidly along its way 

 with the evident — somewhat dismaying — inten- 

 tion of taking possession of the earth. But then so 

 is S. acre given that way to an almost exasperat- 

 ing extent, yet his amazing activities may be 

 turned to very good account in garden values, 

 and this, naturally, at short notice. 



A case in point was won by this irrepressible 

 little Sedum, when its tufts were used to fill 

 bare intervals in an edging where perennial Pinks 

 alternating with Parrots 'Tulips, were winter- 

 killed. The following year,' a row of soft green 

 cushions, embroidered, in June, with innumer- 

 able little golden stars, hid the forlorn, bare 

 intervals completely. This work, so promtly 

 and beautifully accomplished by our industrious 

 S. acre, exemplifies his genius for colonization, 

 which his roving habits favor. Wherever he 

 stops by the way, carried by some chance agency 

 of wind or garden tool, there a colony is founded. 



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