By midsummer this upright stonecrop carries flat heads of pale green buds that look more like broccoli than flowers, until they open pink in late summer. Sedum 'Autumn Joy' grows 18 to 24 inches tall and wide in full sun, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 8, and reaches full size by its second summer.
The color keeps shifting after the flowers open, deepening from pink to rose-red and finally to a coppery brown as fall goes on. The plant came from Germany, where it goes by 'Herbstfreude', and it has been a standard in American gardens for decades. The thick, gray-green leaves stay clean and fresh-looking through the heat of summer.
Upright stonecrop comes from species native to the meadows and rocky hillsides of East Asia and Europe, and the thick, waxy leaves store enough water to carry the plant through heat and dry spells. Flower heads form in midsummer as tight green buds, then open in late summer and fall, a time when few other perennials are in bloom, and bees and butterflies come to them for nectar. The stems die back in winter and new shoots come up from the crown in spring, but left standing, the dried stems and heads keep their shape through winter. Rich soil and heavy watering make the stems soft, so the plant splays open in the middle; lean, well-drained ground keeps it tight.
It fits a hot, dry bed, a gravel garden or a slope along a driveway, and it tolerates salt near a road or walk.
