It's sedum time - Hylotelephium spectabile

I got myself few cutting of that plant some years ago to grow in a pot. First I put them in a small one just to root them and tart to grow there. I left it in there for the next few years and each year the plants were quite small.
Last year I planted them to the biggest container I have and of course they reacted nicely to it and grew a lot bigger too. A nice, lush green bush with pink flowers. It looks pretty awesome and it i what I wanted for the balcony.

But it still doesn't beat the mother plant that is growling directly in the soil. This i what you see here.

Hylotelephium spectabile

Hylotelephium, or Sedum is quite amazing. It survives the hot and dry summer and tarts to bloom when it slowly cools down - which right now. The flowers will last for a couple of weeks and are one of the last that will bloom before winter.

Then the flowers will face and dry, leaves will fall and stems will all die back. But the plant will no die and despite it is a succulent it is very hardy and survives the coldest and snowiest winters.

In spring new stems will start to grow and each year the buch gets bigger and bigger.

The leaves remind me of cabbage leaves. They have similar texture and tenderness too. They store water and nutrients together with the stems, this it can survive longer periods of draught.





As I mentioned - it is still bigger than the one I have in a pot. This is the mother plant I got cuttings from years back and it grows directly in the soil.
Th stems reach 50cm in height and the clusters of tiny flowers are the size of an orange.

The propagation is super easy. Just cut a peace in spring before the bloom and stick in a soil. That's what I did :). It's probably the easiest and the fastest.

The root ball can also be split into few smaller parts. and planted into new spots.

The flowers attract all kinds of insects, though I only managed to catch a bee. It was a cloudy and a bit rainy day. Usually there are also butterflies around it.

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_{Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.}