Sedum clavatum is an attractive succulent in the Pachysedum group that grows with stout creeping stems terminating in 4 inch wide rosettes of glaucus blue-green succulent leaves and has a compact inflorescence of many pink bell-shaped flowers in mid to late spring (April – May in Sunnyvale) to early summer that take a pink hue with age. The stems lose their leaves as they elongate but are often covered by younger stems so the plant can look like a solid mat of attractive succulent gray colored rosettes. The stems on our 15 year old specimen are over a foot long.
Plant in full sun or part sun in a well-drained soil and irrigate occasionally. We grow ours in a mexican ceramic pot in the shape of a fish. Though often noted as frost tender we had our plant go undamaged through rare cold spells in Sunnyvale. Great in the ground if soil is well-drained, especially trained over or around a rock, in a container planting or hanging basket. Ray Stephenson notes in his book Sedum; Cultivated Stonecrops (Timber Press, 1994) that “This is a very elegant, stately species for hanging baskets.”
The specific epithet comes from the Latin word ‘clava’ meaning “club” (you know: hearts, diamonds, clubs,…) for the baseball shape of the sepals.
