Has anyone grown this sedum? Mine lost all of its variegation, and is now totally green. Any ideas?
Sedum Samuel Oliphant
The same thing happened to me. Maybe because we live in a colder climate? It was disappointing as sam oliphant is soooooooooo cool looking....
Most sedum go dormant in the winter. You may see new growth coming from the ground now. Old growth can be cut back now or in the spring.
I've had this plant for five years, it had it's variegation the first year, and from there on, it had none, it looks like Matrona now.
Plant Delights nursery calls it a weak growing sedum. www.perennialreference.com/perennials/sedum.html , calls this sedum, highly unstable. Does anyone know how this happens?
Many variegated plants will have some tendency to revert to the green form. Some variegated plants have very stable variegation so you can count on them to stay variegated, with at most an occasional green branch here or there. But others are unstable and will tend to revert to green no matter what you do. Personally I don't think variegated plants should be introduced to the trade unless they're reasonably stable, but I guess not all plant growers feel that way (or else they're in such a hurry to release them that they don't take the time to test them for very long) so you'll run into ones like this from time to time. Sometimes if you pay attention to cultural conditions you can give plants a better chance to maintain their variegation (for example too much shade can make some plants more prone to revert to green), but since the perennial reference site says that this one is highly unstable, that suggests to me that most people are going to have trouble with it reverting to green and there's really not much you can do about it. I don't know if there are other cultivars that have a similar look, but if you're really attached to the variegation your best bet may be to find a different cultivar with a better track record.
This cultivar is not very popular, now, but when I bought it, it was unique and was being "pushed" at the nurseries.
There is no tall sedum with the variegation that this cultivar displayed, but since it is unstable, you will lose your plant after one season. My plant grew in full sun, and that did not help to stabilize the variegation.
I have had variegated plants that put out a branch of green, but I have never had one that lost all of the variegation, until Samuel Oliphant!
I appreciate all of the information, maybe in the future the originator N. Casertano Greenhouses and Farms, will do some work to stabilize the variegation???? Is this possible?
Thanks!
They wouldn't be able to stabilize the variegation in that particular cultivar--the instability is part of its genetics. But it's possible that someday someone's Samuel Oliphant will produce a sport that looks similar but is more stable, or maybe a plant of the original parent species will produce a new sport that looks similar but is more stable and someone will propagate it and commercialize it. But there are no guarantees--sports like this are caused by genetic mutations so there's no telling when one will happen or what it will look like or that the person who's lucky and ends up with it will realize what they have and find a way to make it available in the trade.
Very interesting, one would think that the fact that this plant is patented the stability would have been a given?
The grower's web site talks about the creation of this cultivar and how it was named after his son. It's a nice story, but they may have rushed things??????
I am intrigued by all of the work it takes to find a stable cultivar, amazing...Thanks again!
Judy
You can patent pretty much anything as long as someone else hasn't patented it before--the stability of the variegation would not be something the patent office would look for. I think this is a case where the growers found something cool and rushed it to market without taking the time to really test it out first.
I love sedums and was going to purchase SO.
Guess not.
Thanks for this thread.
I have Samuel, he lost the nice varigation after the first year. I think it has been discontinued. I E-mailed one of the online nuseries about this issue and thats what they said. It was so pretty!
I also emailed the originator N. Casertano Greenhouses and Farms and they never responded... I asked if they were working on
stabilizing the plant?????
Unfortunately that's not something they can work on--the plant's genes are what they are and the instability is unfortunately part of the package. Short of getting lucky and getting a genetic mutation that happens to look similar and happens to be more stable, there's nothing they can do.
Have any of you looked at sedum 'Diamond Edge'. Looks close. It is another spin from Matrona. Like to get this when it is back in stock.
When I was in my teens, I grew an upright variegated sedum that had leaves with a large yellow center blue/green outer edge. As you might expect, it was not as vigorous as the all green forms. I never knew what the name of the cultivar was, but it's a lot prettier than SO, in my opinion. It would occasionally send out a reverted stem, but always manageable.
Rick