Red stems spread out low along the ground on this stonecrop, carrying dark green leaves and, in late summer, a covering of bright yellow flowers. Sedum Rock 'N Low® 'Yellow Brick Road' grows 6 to 8 inches tall and 22 to 24 inches wide in full sun, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 9, and spreads to that width within a couple of seasons.
It blooms later than the usual early summer yellow stonecrops, so its flowers arrive in late summer when most low sedums are pink. The plant grows about three times as wide as it is tall, which makes it a ground cover more than a mound.
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 covers a dry slope, spills over a wall or fills the gaps around stepping stones in full sun.
