Re: Sedum "Autumn Joy"
In a message dated 9/1/99 9:05:16 AM EST, osthill@htc.net writes:
<< I don't think you have the real Autumn Joy. It really does look like its
pictures! 6 years ago I bought, 3 plants that match the pictures, with the
brick red flowers aging to cinnamon. When I moved, I left those plants,
thinking they would be easy to replace. Many 'Autumn Joy' purchases later, I
have yet to get the
same plant. I've been told when 'Autumn Joy' got popular, growers started
raising sedums from seed and labeling them 'Autumn Joy' instead of ex.
'Autumn Joy'. The results is lots of wishy-wasy plants. So now I hunt
nurseries in the fall,
and looking for a sedum with brick red flowers. Hope springs eternal! >>
Thanks, Lisa.
I suspected that I had an inferior cultivar, but I have never seen a better
one growing anywhere here in Northern California, so I began to assume that
it just didn't "color-up" well in our climate. It is so quick and easy to
propagate from cuttings and offsets, that I find it hard to imagine any
nurseryman trying to raise seedlings of dubious quality and foist them off on
the unsuspecting public as the real thing. As I recall, I bought it from a
reputable mail-order nursery, although they can be some of the worst when it
comes to mislabeling plants. I also bought a "red-flowered" from of creeping
thyme that, in the catalog photo, was a carpet of brilliant carmine flowers.
The specimen I ended up with blooms well, but the flowers are tiny and of the
palest lavender, and the effect is anything but showy. Caveat emptor. Ever
since then, I will only buy mail-order from nurseries that advertise
"satisfaction guaranteed or your money back!"
Kurt Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9
