Pretty nice, eh?
Please notice we are talking 'Autumn Fire' and not the more common 'Autumn Joy'. After years of struggling with AJ and its tendency to sprawl when in bloom, I made the move to 'Autumn Fire':
To date, AF has performed up to its reputation as a better "upright" sedum than AJ. The foliage remains tighter and seems to be a bit more robust than AJ. Of course, my AF are still relatively young so the jury may still be out.
Which brings me to current day. While Tracy DiSabato-Aust discusses how to pinch/prune 'Autumn Joy' in "The Well Tended Perennial Garden", I figured I would apply that same reasoning to my 'Autumn Fire'. Pinching, rather than cutting back, seems to be the preferred option so count me in on that choice.
Here is an AF before pinching:
And here is the same plant "post pinch":
I have two others I decided not to touch for now (or maybe I will pinch one at a later date):
I would expect the pinched AF to produce more blooms but at a smaller size, and would also expect a more compact plant. We'll see.
This is damn fun isn't it?
John
