Sedum, Glorious Sedum!

We have a very hot and sunny garden along our house, since our beloved Silver Maple trees had to be removed in 2007. The moral of this botanical story is that when you get lemons (we LOVED those trees, until one fell on our house when Ava was 7 weeks old), you make lemonade. (I found some new, yet smaller lovies to take the sadness away)

And unto my heart, a love of sedum was born. These little babies can enjoy sandy, dry and hot conditions-perfect for the now exposed garden that once lazed in the shade of the 60+ year old trees. Sedum are a bit succulent, they squeeze a little, you know?!? Ava enjoys a daily gentle squeeze of their leaves as much as I do. One of her first "gardening words" was "sedum". If you ask her to show you the sedum, she will walk you along this long garden and point out each beloved one.

This one feels like a Muppet-it is fun to barely run your hands over it!

I have to do a little research because I have become smitten with some "Stone crop" varieties, and I think they may all be in the sedum family, or is it the other way around?

This is one of my absolute faves, it has tiny little juicy pink rosettes that open to variegated green and white, larger leaves.

And this gray-blue-purple sweetie? It reminds me of a giant blue hosta, only smaller and juicier.

This one is called "Voo Doo"-a fun name for this blood purple color!

Somewhere I have a "Dragon's Blood" sedum, I will have to go out and find it tomorrow-it may have been lost under something that has grown too tall...

This one has a wild tendency to turn upward at the tip of each spire and reach straight for the sky, though the rest of the spire is lying parallel and close to the ground.

I also have a few "Autumn Joy" varieties, that grow tall and silvery green. True to their name, in the fall, the entire top of them bloom in burnt red flowers-so pretty...

To anyone in Zone 5 in need of a sun loving, easy and delightful plant, I give 5 stars to Sedum!

And if anyone out there knows the relationship between "Stone crop" and Sedum, please fill me in!