Top performer, perfect score awards follow Lemon Coral sedum

It is lemon season in the South, and I couldn’t be happier. OK, it’s not an edible lemon. I am talking about Lemon Coral sedum.

This little succulent plant knows no end to the way it can be used in containers or the landscape. In December in Columbus, Georgia, containers look like there is a lime-green or chartreuse lava flow spilling over the rim of the container.

Botanically speaking, it is Sedum mexicanum, commonly called Mexican stonecrop. Although it is a succulent from Mexico, it didn’t flinch at my house in coastal Georgia during the December arctic blast. You might be thinking “Yes, because you moved your containers to the garage for five days.” That would be true, but the uncovered patches I have in the ground had no problem whatsoever.

Its cold-hardiness range is 7-11, but anyone who has mixed containers or could use a small patch of glowing green in the flower border needs Lemon Coral sedum. As a point of reference, consider that it has won Perfect Score All Season at Penn State, Top Performer at University of Wisconsin, Top Performer at Michigan State University and trophies in the South, too.

Lemon Coral sedum gets from 3 to 10 inches tall with a 14-inch spread. Humorously, Proven Winners describes the bloom time as “grown for foliage.” Maybe so in those Northern states where trophies were handed out, but in the perennial zones we celebrate the tiny yellow flowers that are so abundant we can’t count them.

Do you have those spots in the landscape where nothing can grow and you are considering rocks? Try Lemon Coral sedum. In fact, it can grow in your rocks. Put rocks down, then let Lemon Coral sedum cover them with lime! It’s drought-tolerant and tough as nails. No maintenance, except for those of us reveling in those glorious yellow blooms every April. After the bloom we cut it back and let it do its thing.

Lemon Coral sedum has the uncanny ability to steal the spotlight wherever it is growing. It is a plant that screams, “Look at me!” I am growing it next to Superbells Pomegranate Punch calibrachoa with at least a hundred incredible blossoms. While you may gawk at the red, your eyes will be drawn to the tiny yellow blooms on the sedum.

I have pots in clusters or groups on the corners of my patio full of Supertunias and Superbenas in bloom, but it is the glowing lime and lemon of the little sedum that catches the eye. I’m not saying skip the Supers (by that I mean Supertunias, Superbenas and Superbells); just know the little sedum from Mexico will make them look all the more dazzling.

If you have Lemon Coral sedum in a basket or anywhere elevated, even a tall pot, you will break a branch — or a bird will. When that branch hits the ground, it has found a new home: It will root. To me this is a miracle of horticulture; you can start your Lemon Coral sedum farm. As they say in Louisiana, it’s a lagniappe, an extra gift.

Spring planting is coming your way. When you design this year’s containers, by all means, add Lemon Coral sedum, that little top performer.

Norman Winter is a horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook at NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.