The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Posted on by Posted in How-to, Perennials, Pruning .
On a whim, I pinched back one of my three Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’ perennials back in June just to “see what happens”. How’s that for motivation?
Unlike the cultivar ‘Autumn Joy’ which almost always toppled over for me in the past, ‘Autumn Fire’ has remained upright and flourished through the summer and into the fall. But I couldn’t resist tweaking this late bloomer just for shits and giggles. 
Here are the results to date:
Here is the sedum just after being pinched back in late June:

  

And here is how one of the individual stems look today: 

As compared to one of the unpinched sedums:

As you can see, the pinched ‘Autumn Fire’ has more blooms per stem which are smaller than the unpinched sedums.

Here is a shot of the entire pinched ‘Autumn Fire’:

And a photo of an unpinched one:

Obviously, the pinched sedum is “behind” the other two in terms of bloom time and that was expected. You can see that better in the photo below (pinched sedum is at the top):

So, what does it all mean? I’m not sure.

The pinching worked as expected but truthfully, I should have either pinched them all or left them all unpinched. They would look their best and have the greatest impact while all at the same stage of blooming.

However, I think I prefer the look of more but smaller bloom heads and I like the idea of potentially extending the sedum bloom season further into the fall, so I’m leaning towards pinching all of these in unison next summer.

A final evaluation to come in the next few weeks.

Thanks for following along.

John             

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4 Responses

  1. Interesting! Thanks for the post. I was surprised when I deadheaded/trimmed my whole ballonflower plant after it bloomed this year. I have blooms out there now! I didn’t get another flush of blooms last year when I just let it be after the first bloom. http://mynjgarden.com

  2. I did the same to my balloon flower, Lisa..and it is blooming now as well…
    As for you John…I am keeping my distance…don’t want to get pinched!!!

    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

  4. I did the same thing – pinched them back in June after seeing your post. Everywhere I look I see sedums in bloom. But mine are just starting to pink up like yours. I think I prefer the smaller heads and the later blooming time. That way I’ll have colour later into the season.

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