Sedum telephium El Cid - Autumn Stonecrop

Sedum telephium 'El Cid', also known as Stonecrop El Cid, has a remarkable range of colours. Purple foliage with sometimes almost brown reflections, dark red stems, and flowers that offer numerous shades of pink and even carmine. This can last from July to September, welcoming autumn with its warm tones.

Stonecrops are proof that poor soil can also offer beautiful specimens with generous flowering. If your soil is not rich but fairly dry or even rocky and slightly chalky, you can still benefit from hardy perennials (they resist temperatures below -15 °C (5 °F)), which require no maintenance and promise to liven up the garden with visits from butterflies. These succulents are indeed easy to grow and have flowers and foliage in various shades that should be enjoyed to create multiple palettes, whether in a bed or in a container. However, if you have a rich, fresh, and heavy substrate, you can also adopt them into your garden. They will adapt without any problem if you take care to add gravel. They should not be subjected to excess moisture in winter.

The 'El Cid' variety has a bushy tuft spreading over 40 cm (16 in) in width, composed of solid purple stems that rise up to 40 cm (16 in) in height. They bear oval, thick, and flat leaves, which are arranged alternately and are sessile (without petioles). This deciduous foliage has very interesting colours: red-purple with brown reflections and sometimes some hints of green. These shades vary, like most of its cousins in the same genus, depending on climatic conditions: the amount of light and water provide it with the opportunity to lighten or accentuate its colours. It is therefore a permanent spectacle. Its long-lasting flowering allows for fresh as well as dried bouquets. Its beautiful dense, rounded, almost flattened corymbs are made up of multiple small star-shaped carmine-pink flowers, highly prized by insects that continue to pollinate them.

The unique colours of this Sedum are indispensable for composing artistic displays integrating plays of light and contrasts. Dense and dark, it enhances its neighbours with reflections of light or completes the palette of pinks and reds. It pairs well with straw-coloured grasses, purple Achilleas, and Lysimachias. Being of intermediate size, it will thrive at the front of scenes alongside its cousins of all sizes, but will also fit in among small summer flowers.