British Columbia: Any experience with Oregon stonecrop (Sedum oreganum) in the garden?

Hi, has anyone here tried growing Sedum oreganum in a garden before?

I have an approximately 15 sq. feet area of gently sloped, south facing, exposed bedrock that (if a day is 12 hours long) gets about 3-4 hours of direct sunlight at around noon to 1ish, then 6-7 hours of dappled sun, and about 1-1.5 hours of mostly shade in the evening. Elevation is relatively low here (175' above sea level) and we are only about 500 ft away from the Burrard Inlet. I can fit about 2-3 inches of soil on most of the exposed bedrock (wherever it isn't sloped too steeply).

How do you think it will do here? At what spacing would you recommend planting each 4" pot at?

 

It should do fine in those conditions. It's likely, though, that your soil will simply wash off the bedrock over the winter. Might be better, and nicer, to simply fill in fractures in the exposed rock with soil and plant into those, leaving the exposed portions (a la various botanic garden 'alpine gardens'). Spacing is up to you: it spreads fairly fast, though, and will grow together in short order.

 

Sedum spathulifolium is native to local bedrock outcroppings near salt water and a more interesting species than S. oreganum.

 

Agree with Ron about the Sedum spathulifolium. Do you have any pockets for soil or can you create them. IE: Hammer and chisel?
My house sits on a large rock outcrop. Over the years we have planted lots of different Narcissus in cracks and pockets of soil and some Hyacinthus. Especially the small Hyacinthus - either the English blue bell variety or the smaller scilla. Nature provided the native camas and a pink flower that is also native, probably the Pacific onion. They seem to survive well in the shallow soil under the native moss. Don't bother w/ tulips. They are Deer Candy and won't last.
Also look into other rock garden favorites like Sempervivum and Echeveria - of which there are hundreds. Also Cerastium tomentosum (Snow-in-Summer) just might find enough soil to survive, and it can go nuts. It has lovely tiny white flowers. Hope this gives you some ideas. barb

 

thanks for the suggestions. Barbara, I am sticking to only native plants, as that is the theme for this garden. By the way, how lucky you are to have native camas and pacific onion growing on your property! I thought of Sedum spathulifolium, but it's a very personal and subjective reason as to why i chose S. oreganum over it. The former, in the photos I've seen at least, seems to have a strong red tinge to it...I have noticed a similar redness in S. oreganum, but it doesn't seem to be as prominent as it is in S. spathulifolium. Too much red would clash with the colour scheme chosen for the garden. Futhermore, I just really like the way the leaves of the S. oreganum look....

 

The onion could be either Allium acuminatum or A. cernuum. I have seen both on rocky balds in the northwest WA. The snow-in-summer is a definite pest in such situations and should not be planted.

 

Tanks Ron. The second looks more like it. I know I shouldn't plant S-I-S but the soil is shallow and it's easily pulled out if it gets out of control.