PlantFiles: Showy Stonecrop, Orphine, Live-Forever
Hylotelephium spectabile

Received the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), 1993 Award of Garden Merit. Reconfirmed in 2006.

I got a small pint clump of this variety from my sister when visiting her home and found it thrived in our garden's poorest soil with next to no water or care. Sedum Spectabile is pretty. I happened to pick up 3 other kinds of sedum/stonecrop varieties at 2 different nursuries by pocketing fragments of broken leaves and stems off the floor and ground. I took them home to my garden and now have a total of 4 varieties; Autumn Joy, Neon and another I forget. Anyway ....... a cheap way to add flowers. I can't believe I got them all for free. They're all quite nice and I share them with anyone who expreses an interest in them. They are the lowest of maintenance and each variety has its own unique attributes making them desireable individually. I especially love the bees finding them so attractive.

Okay Folks! After a much frustrating endeavor I have come to find that this Sedum spectabile aka Showy Stonecrop is EASILY mistaked to be Autumn Joy Stonecrop... yep, the nursery I bought it from had the wrong markers in it...I was pulling my hair out thinking I was short changing these plants and letting them down somehow; never seeing that "famous autumn color change" - HA! They were doing great all along. Thank God you guys know the difference! Can't tell you how many wesites have it wrong... a great performer in its own right, but don't expect any strong color! :) Only pale green broccoli like florets to creamy white tiny flowers with the palest pink centers...then slowly brown with age...

This is a very easy plant to grow and propagate. I grew one from a leaf simply placed in moist soil. Tho it is a succulent the leaves are thin and so it does need a fair amount of water- it is usually now grown as a garden plant,flowering in autumn thus providing food for late butterflies- but I will be growing it as an indoor plant, as it used to be.

We love this plant because of the butterflies it attracts in September when it flowers here (St John's, Newfoundland). Some years we have 5+ species, but this seems a poor year (2004); so far we've only had one Painted lady (It also attracts bees, wasps etc!) It also adds fall colour to the garden and, as others have mentioned is very easy to grow and propagate.

i am growing these for the first time. mailorder plants were small when i put them out in spring and theyve quadrupled in size.autumn joy is starting to turn brick red. they require no care and i cant wait til theyre in their full autumn glory in a couple of months. also have a neon pink and its been blooming for a month now. thought it would be gaudy but its gorgeous. will definitely be taking cuttings to put them everywhere!!!!

Many named cultivars are available with varying flower color and foliage color.

Extremely easy to propagate: any stem broken off will root when inserted into any soil.

A clump forming and well-behaved plant that adds a nice show of color late in the gardening season. The fleshy leaves are slightly toothed and grow to 3-inches long. Plants prefer good drainage and they're very tolerent of poor dry soils. Flowers are born in early autumn and a favorite of bees and butterflies.