Problem with Autumn Joy Sedum

I seem to have the most trouble with plants that are supposed to be so easy!! My Autumn Joy is doing the same thing it did last year. The bottom of the stems becomes woody looking and slowly withers until it finally detaches from the plant. Last year I planted most of the stems that did this (which was almost every stem) so I have lots of plants this year but they are starting down that road again. What am I doing wrong?

Please help! I was really counting on these for some fall color in my garden.

Thanks,
Sherry

I have Autumn Joy sedum and I pretty much ignore mine. They don't like a lot of water. At least mine don't. Mine are planted in a garden that has sandy soil with mushroom compost added. I don't fertilize mine very often.
You mention the plant seperating from the bottom stem. I can't imagine this. I can't even see the bottom stem of my sedum unless I seperate or lift the bottom leaves. I can't imagine what's causing you plants to do this.

This message was edited Aug 25, 2006 4:32 PM

Could it be voles? Did you dig up the mother plant and check out the roots?

It sounds like the problem I had, which was root rot. I planted them in a retaining wall bed with full sun. For three years in a row, I keep losing the plants in the center of the semi-circle of the bed's edges. I think in my case it's a drainage problem. This year I gave up, although the sedum hasn't given up quite yet. There are new shoots growing from the spot where I pulled one of the two dying plants. I plan to dig up and move the two remaining, which are lush and gorgeous.

See this thread for a pic of what mine looked like.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/627582/
Does this look like yours? This is pretty much when they were at their worst.

Good luck.

w

Winging, I looked at your picture of your Autumn Joy and mine does look similar. So I've overwatered it? Or the drainage isn't good enough?

I've had trouble with these since the beginning. I had them in full sun and when the weather got hot, they wilted every day. So I watered them. And they wilted again the next day. Sometimes I waited till morning to see if they would perk up overnight. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. Now I have them in part sun and they don't wilt nearly as often.

Well, I'm going to give them one more year. I'll root the broken peices and prepare a 3rd spot with even more amendments than I normally use.

Thanks for the info.
Sherry

Sherry the first thing I want to do when I see my plants wilt down from the heat is water them. I have overwatered so many plants in the past thinking they needed the water. I water on a regular schedule and seldom vary from it no matter what the plant looks like. I have found my plants to wilt down badly but perk back up by morning. In my case my plants are wilting due to severe heat. Even those that get some shade. That's just how hot it's been. Sometimes I will dig down to see if a plant has moisture or needs watering.
Give your sedum another try and I bet they will do much better.
Lin

Neglect, simple "benign neglect" is the way to go with Sedum. I've got lots of them (Autumn Joy) still in small pots that I didn't sell at the mkt/nursery centers last year. Their roots have gotten completely bone-dry several times this summer and I just water them when I think about it and they bounce right back. I probably won't try to encourage any growth until next year when I pot them up into bigger pots.

I'm surprised how they have handled the heat, the dryness, and like I said, 'neglect'! So yep, you might wanna try that "technique" with your Autumn Joy.

Shoe

And then it will reward you with a first blush of bloom about now down here. They thrive in clay pots in full sun and near total neglect (I do water them when I think about it) even in our summertime heat.

I will put some in pots and some in the ground and see how they do. Don't know If I can steel myself to not water if they stay wilted for too many days, tho. They just look so pitiful! Well, I will try.

Thanks all.
Sherry

Stick your finger down into the soil to check for moisture before watering. I tend to overwater, too, if I don't do that. Makes for dirty fingernails, but I consider that the gardener's badge of honor. :)

Good luck.

w

Sherry
I have a location where the same thing happened to Autumn Joy last year so I pulled it out and put in a Matrona, which was beautiful till mid July when it started doing the same thing - wilting at the base of the plant, stems wither and died and it finally just was all too far gone so I pulled it out. I don't think this is only overwatering because I have corsican mint, lavender Provence and Euonymous kewensis in the same little area, along with some spreading sedums - they are all fine. I think it is either something specific to these S. spectabilis sedums or possible over fertililization. My son accidentally spilled an entire bag of lawn fertilizer up hill and about 12 ft away across another bed. I wonder if enough of that high N fert ran down to this little area to rot out the sedum. I would have thought it would affect the lavender also but it appears to be ok. Either that or it is some kind of disease that affects this plant. I have lots of other sedums in a near by bed separated by cement sidewalk - Neon, Frosty Morn, bunches of Autumn Joy - they all are ok, which to me says either this is onlly soil borne or its the fertilizer.

alyrics ~ You may have something with the soil borne comment. I found a similar reaction when they were in the ground. I was given these and when they started to give up the ghost, I wanted to save a start so dug them up and potted them in good soil. They are in a leaky galvanized pail and now starting to bloom. I was disappointed as they are touted as an easy grow. This is an earlier photo.

Don't know what you are doing wrong, but the Autumn Joy that look best in my gardren are the ones that had pennies planted in the soil.

They shot up to 2 1/2 feet tall and stay in good shape all year round.



Leehallfae

It sounds like Autumn Joy might be a short lived perennial in some areas. In my experience I get 2 maybe 3 yrs. out of them before the stems get woody and decline. Maybe they need continual dividing? I never have trouble the 1st year ,and it doesn't seem to matter if I start with a small or large plant. It comes back nicely and forms large clumps the 2nd year. After leaving the seed heads over winter it's the following spring I have the same problem firstyard does. Since it's the winter presence I'm after it woudn't serve my purpose to divide in the fall. Do you think that is what they need, fall division so they go into winter with more open crowns?

The wholesale nursery grower I used to work for would cut the older Autumn Joy down pretty hard when they started to get too tall, they were in 1 gallon pots and couldn't be shipped if they got too leggy. They seemed to like the abuse, especially if whacked back early enough in the year that they could recover in time for fall bloom. After watching that practice for several years I can tell you it makes for stronger more compact plants with less problems, at least in a production setting.

Thomasville - that's the method described by Tracy diSabato-Aust in her book The Well-Tended Perennial Garden. She recommends cutting back the floppers early in the season to create more compact plants. but that's not what is going on here - this is a disease that is killing the plant.

They root really easily, so by all means take the broken off stems and stick them in a pot of dirt. . .

alyrics,

you're right, I missed that. I've never tried Autumn Joy in my garden, I didn't see its value it until I had time to actually see my own garden again (ie I left the nursery I had commuted to for years and took a job in town)

Now I can truly appreciate how great it is to have a fall flowering plant, I'll have to try it. Considering our weird weither in SW Georgia, and how embarassingly badly I did this year with several varieties of creeping sedum, I'm not sure how it will do.....
-plantnutga