Hey Wendy, I've got a sedum Autumn joy plant I can send you! I can wait till you move if you want. I will/should also be getting some seeds of it. I might have some white yarrow, I'll have to check : ) Just email me your address and we can go from there! Vic

Grasses like Pennisetum, Miscanthus (larger)or Little Bluestem make great texture and plant shape contrast with Sedum 'Autumn Joy' throughout the season. Perovskia (Russian Sage) adds another texture and also a good flower color with the sedum color. Nepeta is smaller than any of the above plants, and would be nice in the foreground or slightly to the side. Another plant that adds great color (rich blue) to the late season show is Salvia grandiflora, a very late salvia with tall,airy, somewhat floppy stems. It will kind of lay on and around the sedum. I'm exceedingly fond of it and use it throughout my gardens. High Country Gardens carries a good cultivar of it. If you have the room, Lespedeza 'Spring Grove' makes a stunning combo with 'Autumn Joy'. Personally, I don't like the goldy yellow of Rudbeckia with the pink of the sedum.

This has happened to SOME of my Sedum AJs SEVERAL times in the last 10 years, usually when the spring or early summer has been too wet. All it takes (in my heavy soil) is a little bit of a low spot or some extra runoff or rain and this will happen. Just chop off the tops that aren't mushy, dig out the rest of the plant & toss, add some new loose soil, maybe a little gravel, raise the planting area a bit and replant the tops. I've never cleared out the whole soil area, just amended it and raised it some & the new plants root and take off again. If it happens again to the same plant or in the same area, then you might consider a new planting spot for the sedums and something more wet tolerant where they are now, but I have found it to be an occasional thing that happens to sedums in my garden. OTOH, I rarely have to water things :~) Good Luck with rescuing your sedums.

So, the next and most important question: Let's say I replace my Autumn Joy by buying a full price plant at a reputable local nursery (that's saying a lot for a frugal WS and swapper!). When I buy the plant it is blooming in a brilliant and delightful shade. Can that brilliant and delightful shade be a product of special nursery conditions, i.e. high amounts of a particular fertilizer, etc.? Can I depend on that color in my garden being close enough to what I saw in the nursery? Let me note that this morning I went out to look at one of my hardy mums blooming. Last year it was purchased and was a fairly common color up here, can't remember the name. It had petals that were pink on the edges and became lighter, to almost a white, as the petals moved inward to the center, which I believe was yellow. Now it still has the yellow center and the petals are a deep burgany. No, nothing reseeded. I have not had any burgandy mums as I don't like burgandy. This was also my first year to really notice spring as a gardener. I checked that bed everyday, watching as each of the plants broke ground. This plant did now show up from seed with the starter leaves, followed by true leaves. I emerged from its roots in the ground with the thicker stalks you see in a returning perennial. This mum reverted on its own to one of its parents. I have seen posters post this before, and many people have responded by saying it had to have been a seed and the poster just didn't know it. I know it with this one. It is the same plant. So, even though I don't think Autumn Joy will revert to anything different, I know it is possible for the plant to behave differently once in the garden. I appreciate all your thoughts and input!