Voodoo Sedum

To complete your garden planting of trees and shrubs, covering the ground is important. Bare earth encourages weed growth, and it also looks dry and unattractive. Instead of a lush look, your garden will look bare and a little sterile. Ground-covers are the answer as these low growing plants fill the spaces below your shrubs and trees, adding color and interest, and reducing rather than adding to the maintenance of your garden space.

Diverse types of plants are used for ground covers, but in hot, dry places, even with thin stony soil, there are few if any plants that can beat Voodoo Sedum. This bright plant grows just a few inches tall, but it spreads widely, so a few plants cover a lot of ground. Instead of just green leaves, the Voodoo Sedum glows in the sun with deep red leaves, topped in spring and summer with vibrant rich-red flowers. No matter how hot and dry it gets, this is one plant that will always look fresh and bright – what more could we ask for?

Growing Voodoo Sedum

If you have dry spots in the garden with sand or gravel, or areas of rocks, then the Voodoo Sedum will thrive there, where other plants will not. Often we have untidy corners, perhaps with construction rubble and other eye-sores. Because it spreads sideways, this plant will quickly cover these spots and turn them into something beautiful. The edge of paths or drives is often full of the gravel and crushed rock used as a base under the path – this is exactly where the Voodoo Sedum is happy.

Using as an Edge or Lawn Replacement

You can edge those paths or driveways with Voodoo Sedum plants spaced 12 to 18 inches apart. This will create a bright, colorful feature where before it was just dull and boring. If you have areas of grass that always turn dry and brown in summer, then plant the Voodoo Sedum instead. It can be walked on occasionally, so it makes a great drought-proof lawn replacement.

Size and Appearance

The Voodoo Sedum is a low, trailing plant with stems between 3 and 6 inches tall. It spreads sideways, sprawling across the ground a foot in every direction. The stems often root as they go, so over time it will cover large areas, but it is not invasive. The roots are shallow, so any growth where you don’t want it is simple to remove. The leaves are up to 1 inch in length, fleshy and broad. The edges have fine teeth, but these are not spiny, and the whole plant is soft to the touch.

The leaves grow all along the stems, and as they mature they take on a rich burgundy coloring, vibrant and warm. This eye-catching color makes the Voodoo Sedum a stand-out plant. As well, from late spring through most of the summer, short stems arise, which branch into many small flowers. These may be small, but they make up for their size in the abundance and in the brilliance of their coloring. Vibrant rich red, they stand out above the burgundy foliage, making a fantastic show. There are few if any plants that deliver so much color for so little work.

Hardiness

You might think such a tropical looking plant is not hardy, but quite the opposite is true. Voodoo Sedum grows well even in zone 3 and tolerates winter temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees. Despite this, if you live in warm areas, it will grow well there too. Zone 9 is perfectly suitable for it, even though there is almost never any frost. In cold areas some leaves may fall in winter, but the plant will quickly re-sprout, so you will not be long without its brilliance.

Soil Conditions and Drought Resistance

The Voodoo Sedum will happily grow in almost no soil. Not only does this plant love the sun, it is also very drought-resistant and will stay fresh and healthy, even in the midst of a drought. It is free of any significant pests or diseases, and is not eaten by rabbits or deer. This is a very tough plant, that will grow anywhere, even in polluted urban environments.

History and Origins of the Voodoo Sedum

Voodoo Sedum belongs to the group of plants called ‘succulents’. These all have thick, fleshy leaves that conserve moisture. Although they share the same growing conditions as cacti, they thankfully lack the sharp thorns of those plants, so you can safely plant them around children.

When looking for plants resistant to drought and cold weather, it makes sense to look in mountains in dry countries. That is exactly where you will find the original form of this plant growing. Called creeping stonecrop, two-row stonecrop or Sedum spurium, this plant grows in wild, rocky places in eastern Europe, Armenia, Iran and Kurdistan. These are dry countries, yet also far enough north to have severe winters, especially in mountainous areas. Where nothing else is growing, there you will find creeping stonecrop.

Buying Voodoo Sedum at The Tree Center

This plant has been brought into garden for a long time, and gardeners selected colorful forms they found as seedlings, or unusual stems. This was how the Voodoo Sedum was found, but the exact details have been lost. The plants you will receive from us have been grown from stem pieces of carefully identified mother plants, which are definitely this very special variety. Sedum can also be grown from seed, but cheaper seedling plants will usually be green or light red, not the strong, powerful coloring of the true Voodoo Sedum.

Voodoo Sedum belongs to the group of plants called ‘succulents’. These all have thick, fleshy leaves that conserve moisture. Although they share the same growing conditions as cacti, they thankfully lack the sharp thorns of those plants, so you can safely plant them around children.