268 
The Garden Magazine, June, 1920 
stem as it is possible to get. Indeed, with practice the movement seems 
almost like rubbing them from their sockets. It is a neat Iff tie trick 
and easily learned, and so much faster than the old method of cutting 
or plucking. With one operation the flower is picked and lateral bud 
removed without the slightest injury to the vines. And this is not the 
only benefit. Under this practice, long stemmed and much larger 
flowers are produced over an extended season. Fertilizer and water is 
much more effective because there is not so numerous a progeny to use 
it up. However, as the strength is directed to the top of the vines 
where only quality blooms are produced, they grow much taller, so 
that additional support must be furnished. — Mrs. R. W. Walters, 
Springfield, Ohio. 
Five Native 
Sedums Reach 
My Garden 
I N THE April 191c) number of The Garden 
Magazine I wrote about the kinds of 
Sedum which were most satisfactory in my 
garden. Shortly thereafter Dr. Edgar T. 
Wherry, of Washington, D. C. who makes a specialty of cultivating wild 
flowers, offered to obtain the various Sedums native to the eastern 
United States which 1 did not have at the time, since the dealers from 
whom I had been obtaining plants favored exotic rather than native 
species. The first received was Sedum pulchellum, and Dr. Wherry’s 
account of his experience with this plant, and others, was so interesting 
that I have asked permission to share the pleasure of the letters with 
The Garden Magazine readers. 
A box containing some Sedum pulchellum seedlings is being sent. Here is 
their story: In May, 1917, 1 stopped to see a friend at Clarksville, Tennessee. 
He took me out to the bank of the river where there were limestone cliffs in a 
fine woods There were naturally many plants which we do not have in the 
Atlantic states, and several beautiful things are now growing in my garden to 
recall the delights of that trip. On one cool, shaded, limestone ledge we found 
a good sized colony of a Sedum new to me, the flowers being pale pink, the leaves 
moderately slender, at least above. It was identified as S. pulchellum, merely 
deviating somewhat in flower color from the description in the book. Six small 
plants of it were transferred to my yard and stood the unusually hard winter of 
1917-18 without any protection and without apparent injury. In May, 1918, 
they grew tall and bloomed finely, being one of the showy members of the 
garden family at the time, and admired by everyone who saw them. They 
A SEDUM AND SEMPERV 1 VUM SETTLEMENT 
Here are the large rosettes of Sempervivum Allionii and the small 
rosettes of arenarium, and the pointed cornutum and fimbriatum, as well 
as a comfortable “hen-and-chickens” at rest on a middle distance rock 
set seed abundantly and then every plant proceeded to die. I was at first 
uncertain as to whether some parasite had attacked it, or whether it is only a 
biennial. The latter has now proved to be the case, for the seeds blown by the 
wind all around the place, have germinated in considerable numbers — a feature 
likely to be shown by annual or biennial plants, much more than by perennials — 
so 1 fee! it is now a permanent resident. The seeds have sprouted in everything 
from ashes to red clay, wherever they happened to land, but the plants grow 
most rapidly in crushed limestone. 
Most of the S. pulchellum seedlings that came from Dr. Wherry’s 
garden to mine behaved just as nice seedlings should; and when the 
flowering time arrived they showed such a lovely choice in their shade 
of pink and such a pretty way of placing their buds all in a row in close 
green settings, along the spur-like branches, as to prove this a delightful 
Sedum indeed. In due time its seeds were scattered by the plants 
themselves and more seedlings made ready for another year. 
About a month later, May 24, came S. roseum with the following ac- 
count of its habitat: 
It was indeed a pleasure to revisit a formerly known Sedum roseum locality. 
To get there requires a walk of about two miles along the base of cliffs, then a 
rather marked ascent for half a mile and a short walk across fields. Suddenly 
the path reaches some flat ledges of rock, bare of vegetation and stops[short, for 
at the outer edge of these ledges there is a drop of about 800 feet, a nearly 
vertical cliff. The green patches of S. roseum could be seen from the top rocks, 
occupying crevices and ledges for some distance down the face of the cliff, but 
the rocks were so slippery from many rains that getting down there was out of 
the question. Fortunately, a short distance to one side a tiny stream falls over 
the cliff, and has cut a slight depression in the upper edge so that there are 
ledges or shelves where one can descend a short distance without any danger 
whatever. Here in the moss covering of the rocks, the plant was at last within 
reach. Sedum roseum is named, not from the flowers being rose, but from the 
root. The flowers are greenish yellow with purplish tips. It is an Arctic plant, 
growing in Greenland and Labrador, also in the Alps, but during the Glacial 
period it spread southward, and when the great ice sheet retreated colonies 
were left behind in Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania. The plant grows best 
in damp, mossy crevices in shale rocks where the sun never penetrates. It must 
be frozen rather solidly all winter and remain fairly cool in summer. 
In the shadiest spot in my garden and the latest to wake up in the 
spring, a place was made ready for roseum with rocks and moss. There 
it established itself — but none too vigorously, as the end of the season 
showed. I am hoping, however, that the Arctic quality of its first 
winter in this part of the world may act like a tonic and give it strength 
for a good start. The next arrival was S. telephioides along with its 
associate S. ternatum; these came from the Potomac valley June 10, as 
explained in the letter. 
Camping out at a place called Black Pond a few miles up the Potomac River 
above Washington, 1 recalled having seen Sedum telephioides there in bloom 
one October day a year or two ago, so as soon as opportunity permitted 1 in- 
vestigated the rock ledges. The plant proved to be fairly abundant in all 
sizes from tiny seedlings in the moss to large plants a foot or more high The 
latter I was unable to get out with sufficient roots to make their transplanting 
likely to succeed, nor could they have been carried home without breaking 
them all up so 1 got several of the smaller sizes, and wrapped them up in moss. 
The moss was full of Sedum ternatum, too, so I put in a bit of that. Sedum tele- 
phioides does not spread, much unlike its European relative — as it seems rather 
delicate, brittle, and easily injured. It grows in the shade, on rather dry ledges 
of mica schist rock, also on sandstone. The roots are surprisingly small for so 
large a plant, but 1 have had no difficulty in getting it established. S. tele- 
phioides is so named because of a partial resemblance to the Live-forever, but 
has much greater charm. It blooms very late in the year, from September to 
October and near Washington I have even found stragglers in November. 
The flowers are pale pink or nearly white. 
Sedum telephioides survived its journey to my garden and estab- 
lished itself well enough to surprise me with its flowers in the fall. 
S. ternatum seemed not to mind the change at all, nor did S. Nevii, 
the one remaining eastern species to be found. This came July 15: 
On Sunday last the Railroad Administration kindly arranged an excursion to 
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It is in the Blue Ridge mountain region, the 
easternmost of the Appalachian ranges. Several years before 1 had been on a 
similar trip and had noted the presence of Sedum Nevii in a certain ravine; 
and had, indeed, brought home two tiny plants of it, which had subsequently 
grown in my garden though not very flourishingly. This time I made for the 
same ravine and found the plant to be far more abundant than 1 had realized 
on my previous visit, so 1 helped myself to a square foot or so of it. It is meas- 
ureable thus because it grows mostly in thin layers of moss on cliffs and boulders 
of shale rock, and can be stripped off in sheets. The exposure is northward, 
and the sun does not strike the plant much — where it does, the color is pale and 
the growth poor. In fact the habitat is like that of S. ternatum around here. 
The latter species did grow in the same ravine at Harper’s Ferry too, but always 
at a lower level; Nevii would be up on the cliffs, ternatum in the rich woods- 
earth at the base of the cliffs, in soil filled with rock fragments, but distinctly 
more moist than Nevii’s soil. 
Titus it came about that five very interesting native Sedums reached 
mv garden. They compare favorably with many of the foreign species 
more commonly found heretofore in dealers’ catalogues, and it may be 
hoped that nurserymen will take up their cultivation more widely, 
so that everyone can become acquainted with them. — Alice Rath- 
bone, Chatham, N. Y . 
