Hello! I thought I would make a sedum seedling chat just like in the sempervivum forum...

Here's a sedum tokyo sun seedling I had from before I moved. If it is able to grow quickly I will think about releasing this one in the future... Perhaps. It has bright green coloring in spring and it turns darker in the rest of the year.







Here's a photo of two of the sedum makanoi ogon seedlings







Petrosedum seedling that is a lush green with tiny red tips sometimes.



Hylotelephenium seedling

@sedumzz do sedum seedlings create a new variety different from the parent plant?

I grow mostly plumerias from seeds, and you create a new variety each time.

GigiPlumeria said:@sedumzz do sedum seedlings create a new variety different from the parent plant?

I grow mostly plumerias from seeds, and you create a new variety each time.

Plumerias sound great!!! I will look for them, Maybe I will be able to add some into my tropical plant collection!

Sedum seedlings don't create new varieties if you only grow one type, as it is very rare for there to be different ones. In a batch of 100 or so you may only get one or two different seedlings. When I moved I had a lot of "special" seedlings, but I only took a few. I haven't germinated any sedum seeds this year. Hmm, probably should get some more in the future.

There's so much more, lol, I hope I don't spend too much time writing this:

Sedum don't cross between species well. Between cultivars and crosses though, will usually work. Bee crosses usually don't cross between other cultivars if the patches of the same type are large. You can still get oddballs though. Sedum album is a good variety to start with. If you cross a lot of different cultivars you are likely to get something new.

Phedimus is easy to cross and nearly every single will be a little different. Usually you would grow P. spurius. Many growers go for the reddest and darkest seedlings.
There is a downside to spurius/spurium, it is that it is more robust than other sedum, so it is fast paced in the beginnning. You may have to overwinter the seedlings on the first year if you are at a really low temperature zone.

You will also get mutants in some batches. Variegation and cresting are the most common, I believe. Variegation, if stable enough or if it looks good, can be a good trait for a new cultivar/hybrid! Chimeral variegation is not very stable but is the most common kind.

Great to know! Yes I have been growing plumeria from seeds (4 to 10 years to bloom) and now adeniums (6 mos to 5 years to bloom).

Alex,
I'm very excited to read your comment that album varieties intercross. The first year I crossed sempervivum I tried to cross sedum between species without any luck and was also deterred because none of my bee seed turned out to be noticeably different from the parent plants.
I have some album seedlings now that might be distinct but it's hard to tell because I've grown them in a flat and never bothered to row them out like I do the semps, so stress from the thin layer of soil is likely causing the colors that I've seen.
This year I've prepared several album variety blooms in pots for easy transportation so I can cross between them. I'll be taking it more seriously this year than in years past, and plan to actually take the time to row them out in raised beds like I do the sempervivum. I use the album's so frequently in my planters, it'll be fun to see if I can come up with something new.
I'd love to see your "special" seedlings if you get a chance to upload some photos, it'd be fun to see what's possible with raising seed from the ground-cover type sedum. So far I haven't stumbled upon anything out of the ordinary.
-Sol

Yes, I will get to it sometime.......

Gosh, I took over 200+ photos of my plants during my trip , I'll eventually find a time to take photos of the seedlings.

I went outside just now to check on them. Well, first thing I noticed, is aa family of ants moving into one side of the bed. They don't seem to be interfering with any of the plants. Don't know what to do about that.

The seedlings are quite large now. Only one of the variegated tokyo suns has remained variegated is is very happy right now. It is sectorial variegation, bright neon yellow with lush green. Very fast growing, for some reason.

(some of) the album seedlings did not make it through the brief drought. The week I am not working in the garden, it is a drought week. I hope it rains soon. I did spritz the whole area with water. Max also got very very wet. VERY wet.

Petrosedum angelina is blooming, and the p. kamschatius is forming seed pods. I won't get hylotelephium blooms this year. The sieboldii is only two inches as the deer are acting as UNWANTED lawnmowers. Should install some kind of fencing later.... The other hylotelephium cuttings I moved last winter have tripled their size, they should actually bloom next year.

Alex,
Ants only pose a threat to succulents when they farm aphids as far as I know.
The variegated tokyo sun you're growing sounds fantastic!
I had a Sedum farinosum seedling which was variegated in it's early days, then I checked on them later that year and couldn't find it, the striping had completely disappeared and it returned to looking just like the rest of them, which all look like the parent. Wish I'd have set it aside while I could tell it apart, maybe it would've been more likely to produce variegated offspring.
Very interested in your album seedlings specifically, seeing as I work with that subspecies more in my planters than any other and also because I'm preparing some album crosses for this year. 'Tokyo Sun' just isn't quite hardy enough to handle the winters here, I have it but I bring it in with the tenders every winter. I do have an unnamed album strain which appears to be slightly yellower than green ice is though, I'll be trying that one out in my crosses soon.
-Sol

GeologicalForms said:Alex,
Ants only pose a threat to succulents when they farm aphids as far as I know.
-Sol

From my experience ants farm aphids like there is no tomorrow on Hylotelephium top growth/new growth, which leads to some handicapped growing, like the plant would be diseased. It is known that aphids can indeed carry sometimes pathogens, bacteria and viruses so maybe the plants do get diseased not only mechanically damaged from aphids when the growth goes in all weird and contorted ways.

So as soon as I see the aphids I remove them by hand, spray against them, whatever it takes to remove them.
Usually the natural aphid predators are being attacked by the ants.

Another issues for me it is the ants colonize my containers and pull out the organic material, sometimes even carry perlite to make huge nests filled with larvae, pupae, etc.
But this is not related to succulents only, even containers that have trees where the issues is far more problematic than with succulents.

Paleo,
I agree that the ants are certainly a nuisance. Though not directly threatening succulents they do pose several indirect threats. For some reason they seem to prefer colonizing planters as opposed to the ground below, probably because the soil in the planters is richer, looser and more easily moved. It's a real problem when they colonize the planters I sculpt commercially because no one wants to buy a planter swarming with ants, no matter how well it's sculpted or how tastefully the succulents inside are arranged.

On another note; the sedum I'd set aside to cross have all opened blooms but I must confess that I have yet to preform a single sedum cross. I've already crossed about 50 bloomstalk's worth of grandiflorum type sempervivum early this season and it's left me somewhat exhausted. I do still intend to cross sedum albums this year though, and I've got another couple weeks to get to it before the blooms expire. These sedum flowers are so tiny, it requires great strain to cross them without a magnifying glass, so I'm hoping to get one of those table mounted magnifying glasses set up just for the sedum this year. I will probably begin this weekend, whether my work in sedum this year is the serious work of a plant breeder or just more of a playful experiment has yet to be determined.
-Sol

The ants moved away.... Oh well. They've moved to a colony of autumn ferns near a mini-creek.


I will be seperating the sedum tokyo sun to start propping it. It is very robust and has maintained the variegation. The fully variegated parts still look different from the regular japonicum, it has a neon yellow stem.

Some of the reverted seedlings are reverting back to variegation on and off.

I really like that one Alex, glad to hear your moving forward with propagation.

Today was a great day. I found an old tray of sarmentosum I thought had slid down into the creeck behind my house...

It was between two large rocks downstream right from where I was looking (How could I have overlooked it?!?) And the plants were still alive, just under somme leaves.
I found a variegated sarmentosum, with cream/yellow variegation that fades to white. The variegation seems to be really stable.

Awww it is always a nice feeling to find a long lost collection.

Way cool Alex!
What a story that plant has to tell after returning home from such an adventure. The variegation is nice, maybe it's time to start propagating that one.

I ended up only making a small sedum cross this year, putting me solidly in the dabbler category when it comes to sedum seedlings. The sedum flowers are just too small to work with without a magnifying glass and I didn't get my table mounted one set up in time to make the crosses I'd wanted to. The window of opportunity where multiple varieties of album were actively blooming was very short, probably only a week or so during the high-tide of sempervivum blooms when I am most busy working those flowers.
Maybe next year,
-Sol

Sol's sedum lizard seeds have germinated and are looking very cute (x30 loupe)

You need a camera with micro lens. I am thinking of buying me one, instead of buying an expensive phone that will only be good for a year then a new one comes out and your phone is obsolete.

Those seedlings are looking good Alex!
Glad to hear both the sempervivum and sedum seeds have panned out for you! Look out though, those 'Lizard' sedum starts will grow wild once they get a chance to set seed in your garden. I have one friend who grows them deep in a pot to try and control them, personally I just find it amusing to let them do their thing. They operate in a 10 ft radius around my patio container garden, jumping from one planter to the next and germinating in the moss I allow to grow on the concrete. Grass seems to stop them, but that's about it.
Have fun!
-Sol

I'd love to have a micro lens camera Gigi, tough to get good cotyledon photos on my phone!

GeologicalForms said: I'd love to have a micro lens camera Gigi, tough to get good cotyledon photos on my phone!

Me too! Or to take photo of any tiny sedums. The phone on camera can't capture it.

I'll check on Sol's "weeds". There was some rain last night....