There are many beautiful sedums (or Hylotelephium as many are now renamed) which I like in both the borders and pots. I’m lucky to have quite a few ranging from the standard green with pink flowers through one with dark red flowers, another with purple foliage and yellow flowers, through to one that is a dark red foliage and bright red flowers. As with all plants it’s expensive to buy a lot at once, so what I do is buy one to start off and see how it does in my garden and if it does well and I like it I propagate! These three are some of my favourites from the garden last summer:
The easiest way I’ve found to propagate them is to get the plant to do the hardest part for you. If you look closely around any of your existing sedums you will likely find small plant babies growing from last year’s stems (see picture below left), some of which my even already be rooting. At this time of year cutting these off and potting them up along with a bit of protection from the worst of the weather means you should get lots of free new plants that come spring will be really starting to grow fast! Pot them up individually or a few in one pot, just separate these later once they’ve rooted.
I’ve tried this method for most of my sedums however I have this beautiful variety called Dragons Blood which I’ve done slightly differently. For this one I have cut off some end tips from the plant, dipped them in rooting hormone for good measure, then popped them in compost in the greenhouse.
Dragon’s blood
They should root fairly quickly and should prove trouble free. Keep an eye on them for damping off, I avoid watering them at this stage unless they get really dry to reduce this. You’re likely to lose some of them, bin any that do succumb, but don’t be disheartened as you won’t have 100% success. With a bit of luck when you get to spring you should have lots of new plants plus the satisfaction of having grown them yourself!