Pink flowers cover a low, rounded mound of light green leaves on this stonecrop in late summer. Sedum Rock 'N Round® 'Pure Joy' grows 10 to 12 inches tall and 16 to 20 inches wide in full sun, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 9, and fills out within a season or two.
The light green leaves keep the plant looking fresh from spring on, and the mound stays tidy, just under a foot tall, through the season. It tolerates heat, drought and salt, and rabbits usually pass it by.
The name Sedum is usually traced to the Latin sedere, to sit, for the way these plants sit on rocks and walls with almost no soil beneath them. Low stonecrop grows as a mound or a spreading mat of fleshy leaves that store water, so it handles hot sun, thin soil and long dry spells. Many are grown as much for leaf color as for flowers, and the foliage carries color from spring until frost. In cold winters the leaves die back, and most of these plants rest as a tight knot of buds at the crown until spring. Bees and butterflies come to the flower clusters. Drainage matters more than anything else: wet winter ground is the main cause of loss, while sandy, gravelly or rocky soil is no problem at all.
It fits a rock garden, a trough, a container or the edge of a sunny walk.
