Potting up Sedum Cuttings

Last fall I took cuttings from the sedum in my garden. I’d like to tell you its variety, but I can’t remember. Darn. I know it’s not 'Autumn Joy' because I had a “thing” with using the same plant as everyone else. I clearly remember my sister Tamara buying the original plant for me at the Van Deusen Garden Show in Vancouver. I think it’s called 'Burgundy', but I’m not 100% sure. Not to worry though, it looks almost exactly the same as 'Autumn Joy'. So much for individuality…

Potting up cuttings is very simple.

Let’s start with the cast of characters. You will need all purpose potting soil, pots, water and of course your cuttings.

As you can see I have this nice green tray that helps keep the dirt from falling all over the floor. It was a Christmas present from my husband Henry last year. He got it from Lee Valley Tools. They have great things that are hard to find anywhere else . You can also use a large bowl to hold the soil which is what I used to do.

The next step is to fill your pot with soil. I'm using terracotta because I like how it looks but you could use any pot you may have on had. Gardeners always seem to have more plastic pots than they need! Don't fill the pot to the top as you need room to water once your cutting is planted.

Now it's time to take our cuttings out of the jar and separate them. Oops! Looks like we are going to need another bowl. You can use a much smaller on than I did. I just like how this one looks. I'm afraid I have a bit of a thing about that.



Oh well... take the cuttings out of the jar and place them in the bowl. Add the water from the jar and top up with enough water to cover the roots. This will help to separate them.

Okay, in theory this should have worked. You might as well know from the start that ... well... I'm not perfect. I should have done this quite some time ago but life got in the way. Let's put this poor cutting that no longer has roots aside and try this again.

Three out of five is not too bad. Of course the two cuttings with the humongous roots actually have the roots I ripped of the two naked cuttings but... we will move on.

I poke a large enough hole in the soil to allow the roots and the bottom of the stem to fit in, add enough soil to fill in the hole and press it down firmly. We don't want that new plant to wobble. You can add more soil if needed to keep that from happening.



Time to water . You will want give your cutting a good watering the first time and after that just water as needed.

You could place your cutting by a bright window or, if you can under fluorescent lights as I have. By the time spring rolls around there will be three new sedum for my garden!

Let's see if we can salvage the two cuttings I have left. First I'll re cut the bottom of the stem.


Now I'll place it back in the jar with water and set it back under the lights. If I'm lucky it will re sprout.

I'll keep you posted!