Don't Forget The Garden Task Your Sedums Need In May

The garden wakes up in March, has a cup of coffee in April, and by the time May rolls around, it's on its way to work and hitting its stride. Throughout the month of May, the plants in your garden are growing by leaps and bounds, and while it might seem counterintuitive, it's time to grab your shears and do some pruning. There are plenty of plants you shouldn't be pruning in the spring, and it can get a little confusing when you're first learning what and what not to prune in your garden. However, May is the time to prune plants like tall sedums such as 'Autumn Joy' stonecrop (Sedum spp.) to encourage fuller growth that will produce beautiful blooms in your garden all summer.

Trimming back in May is the best way to make your sedum plants fuller and longer-blooming. To prune them, start with clean pruning shears to prevent spreading diseases, and cut just above a leaf joint, removing about half of the stem. This trick ensures plants have thicker, shorter stems that can support heavy clusters of flowers all summer long. Once pinched, the plant sends up multiple new branches. Instead of putting all of its energy into a single, tall flower stalk that can flop over during the first wind or thunderstorm, it puts energy into multiple stalks for a sturdier plant. Pinching back each individual stalk ensures the fullest plant.

While it feels like you're cutting back important plant growth, forgetting to pinch your perennials in May is a mistake that can lead to leggy or rangy-looking plants. Everything is growing so quickly during this time that pinching back doesn't do any damage. May is the best time since spring turns to summer in June. During this season, sedums start blooming, and not all varieties are the same. You could end up cutting back something you shouldn't, reducing the amount of blooms you get to enjoy.

For sedums, cutting back all the way to the ground in the early spring followed by pinching in May is the best approach. As long as you don't cut off anything that's starting to flower, you're in the clear. This technique may push the bloom time of your tall sedums back a couple of weeks, but the abundance of flowers in the summer and fall will more than make up for it, since fall is when sedums really shine. You can also stagger the May pruning by a couple of weeks or leave some plants taller for a layered effect. Also, keep in mind that this technique isn't for ground-creeping sedums, which don't need to be pruned.