Hi Popmama,

I happened to check in here to see if anything was happening on the day you posted this and was gonna reply then, but just as I went to click on "sign in" I got the big NASTY popup so I wasn't able to even click on sign in and it made me so mad I just x'ed out and haven't been back! I did want to reply to your post, so I signed in FAST this time, before it could POP UP! Otherwise I probably would have gotten mad enough to go away for a couple weeks again!

Almost all sedums do what your upright one is doing! The new little growth at the bottom is usually referred to as "rosettes," and it's the "beginning" of next year's plant! And, surprisingly, even with the deciduous sedums like all the upright ones are, it WILL be evergreen all winter--at least on anything resembling a "normal" winter it will be!

The upright sedums usually dry well enough to persist most of the winter, and I usually leave mine standing over winter for Winter Interest--at least until it gets so ratty that I don't consider it very interesting anymore! But since yours seems to have kind of "melted down," I recommend you go thru it and snip each stem all the way down to the ground--far enough that it doesn't interfere with your enjoyment of seeing the rosettes over winter. Next year if it blooms and dries well enough that you like the way it looks you can decide if you want to leave it standing or not. Leaving the standing dried stems on over winter doesn't seem to interfere with the new rosettes that start to form in fall. Also, the rosettes seem to just "start" next year's growth, and, in my experience, don't start to "grow more" until it starts to warm up again in spring. In other words, they seem to know very well what they're doing, and they won't "grow enough to freeze" in the fall! With the warm weather we're having this fall, no guarantees, but I sure have never seen them go "beyond" the rosette stage in fall.

The groundcover sedums--almost all of which are evergreen--are a little bit different in that if they're cut down "early enough" they will start to produce new growth beyond the "rosette stage." That's why I cut mine down right after they finish blooming. That way they have time to produce a nice compact "new plant" that looks "pretty" over winter, so when they get their "winter color" they look really good--rather than all "sprawly!" If you have any of the groundcover evergreen ones, I highly recommend doing that with them next year.

The one "low" sedum I have that's not evergreen, S. kamtschaticum 'Variegatum', also forms the rosettes that "know when to stop" in fall--whether it's been cut down or not, so apparently it's the deciduous ones that know they're supposed to stop once the rosettes are formed, since, if they get "too big" the new foliage will freeze when it gets too cold out.

The other one I have that's "low" is October Daphne, S. sieboldii, and that one is also deciduous, but like the upright ones it dries nicely and is wonderful winter interest. October Daphne, finishing blooming right now, is One Of My Favorite Things! And if I look "thru" the top of the plant right now the rosettes are already nicely formed on the bottom, but, unless we get too much heavy snow it'll persist all winter and I won't cut it down till early next spring.

So, with yours, get the ratty looking stuff out of there and you'll be able to enjoy Your Rosettes over winter!

Skybird

Thanks, Skybird. I've never cut any of my tall sedums down. I haven't noted this rosette behavior on the others, but I guess I just missed it. I'll go cut off the sad parts today. I'm not sure why, but this year, I've done a lot more "fall" cleanup than in years past. Usually I just leave everything alone and wait until Spring to do my cleaning. Maybe the warm weather has prolonged my interest in gardening and since there isn't much else to do, cleaning is all I have!