Highalttransplant, West facing beds can be a problem, but less so in zone 4 or 5 than down South. Remember that a west facing bed will actually have north and south ends. If it is an island bed (not along the side of your home) it will also have an east side. You will have less sun at the north end than the south end of your garden and only morning sun on the east side. You can also plant part shade plants on the north side of any taller shrub or perennial to give them some shade. As your garden gets full (mine's crammed!) nothing is in full sun anymore - every plant competes with its neighbor for sunlight, just as it does for root space, water and nutrients. As you continue gardening you will find that there are lots of places to tuck in part shade & shade plants, although that may not seem possible when your garden is so new and open. You will also learn to create/find/adapt to little microclimates on your property. Half the fun is experimenting - if you want the heucheras, my advice is try em - you can always move them around until you find the perfect spot, maybe on the north side of a tall grass. Vines can provide a lot of shade too. You'll come up with something that works. My Peach Flambes are in my south facing backyard garden but on the north side edge of a long island bed. There are in a curving line in front of a small Mugo pine, Strawberry Candy daylily, a small Blue Spruce, and then 2 Crimson Pygmy Barberries as you move to the west. You can just barely see some of them getting some early afternoon shade from the little tree and the denser shrubs as the sun moves east to west across the sky. P.S. Marietta Gardens is a reliable daylily source with plenty of inexpensive daylilies and lots of Siloams. Click on General Price List with Pictures. Here is a link that might be useful: Marietta Gardens

Have you ever seen theis sedum in mass? Wow!!! I saw a large planting around a bench and it provided year round interest( saw it in fall and mid winter). Do not cut off the old heads! They will stay on all winter and have a real interesting look to them. Again this was a large planting so if you have a single plant or two the effect wouldn't be the same. Bet this would be really cool in a colder part of the country with this plant surrounded by snow. Mike

I've always heard/read that you should not cut it back until spring, when the new growth comes up. This is consistent with other advice I've seen to leave the blooms on over the winter because birds like to eat any seeds that may have been formed. I've personally never noticed any seeds on mine before, but the flowerheads are interesting to look at all during the winter, so it doesn't bother me to look at them. And I have noticed that in the process of breaking off dead branches in the fall, it's very easy to tear out growing points from the main base of the plant. That could be a good thing, if you want to propagate new plants and your main plant is large enough already or needs dividing. As far as whether it "needs" to be cut back every year, I doubt it unless you're someone who must "neaten up" your garden.

Hi Beth, Welcome to RMG. Glad Steve steered you in our direction. I second everything Cnetter said. The upright sedums definitely stay in one place. The plant will just get a little bit bigger each yearÂbut right in the spot where you planted it. The groundcover sedums are mostly pretty safe too. They spread like a good groundcover should, but they spread by fairly shallow roots, so you can easily keep them pulled out around the edges if theyÂre getting bigger than you want. There are a few of the groundcover ones, though, that come pretty close to being invasive. The worst one I know of is Sedum album. If youÂre carrying a pot of it across the yard and even the tiniest little piece falls off, itÂll root whereverÂand I do mean whereverÂit lands. You just need to be really careful when youÂre carrying pots or pieces of it around, and itÂs no worse than the others in terms of just pulling out whatever you donÂt want. I have a thing about the groundcover sedums, but I have a very small yard, so I need to keep them contained. HereÂs a picture of 3 of them that have been in for over two years, and you can see IÂve been able toÂquite easilyÂkeep them where I want them. One thing that helps quite a bit with the groundcover sedums is to mulch thickly around them. Since the stems will root wherever theyÂre laying directly on top of soil, if theyÂre not on soil, they donÂt root, so all you need to do is cut them off. They will still continue to spread out some from the center of the plant, but, again, all you need to do is to keep pulling out what you donÂt want around the edges. IÂd have a thing for the upright ones too if I had somewhere to put them all! So donÂt be scared off by the sedumsÂand if youÂre wondering about any one in particular, just come ask. Somebody around here is bound to know about it! Hope to see more of you around here, Skybird P.S. Please excuse the ugly stepping stone in that picture! It's been replaced by a halfway decent looking piece of flagstone!