Sedum plants

Try this posted over on the Scenery Forum. There have been a few threads on making trees from Sedum. I haven't used it but I was given a few trees made from it and they present a unique and good varied look to the forest.

I did not know there were different varieties of sedum.  I have several plants in my yard that I get about 40 to 60 flowers per year worthy of making trees from.  Only about 8 to 10 of these are larger trees but the others looks great.  Thus far I have made about 120 trees for different people as well as my layout for the cost of two cans of cheap hair spray and one large bottle of Woodland scenics ground foam. (less that $15 for 120 good looking trees - not bad)

I will check to see if I can determine the variety.

Happy railroading,

Don

Here are some that were done by dipping them in Elmers Glue and then in Woodland Scenics Red, Orange and Yellow ground flock.

Cesar

Yes, Sedum spectabile aka "Autumn Joy" is what you want.  You will need to dry the flowers  out for a couple months though.

-Paul

DG

My Wife has Autum Joy sedum at our North Carolina mountain cottage where woefully there is no longer a layout. It is currently dark brown and standing tall --I don't know the effect on the plant but at 3,500' the temps there routinely get down in the teens and often sub zero.

Sedum needs to be built into a tree by using more than one plant bound together to make a believable tree. I see a lot of trees made from just one plant, and it doesn't look good.

I've made some trees using Caspia Basil I got at Michaels.  you can see them just behind this caboose:

Jumijo is spot on.  As with all dried flowers it takes some creativity to blend pieces together to make a believable tree.  Even better than Sedum is ASTILBE !!!  Much better for the overall shape.

Sedum is a genus of plants with many species. Quite a few of them are succulents with leaves very different from what you see on the 'Autumn Joy' cultivar. As lip1976 mentioned, the species name is spectabile. 'Autumn Joy' is one cultivar. As it so happens, it is a very popular and successful plant, often appearing on top ten perennial plant lists when you see articles in magazines. It dies to the ground in colder climates, but comes back in the spring, so it grows in a wide range of climate zones.

Most nurseries should carry it, but keep in mind that 'Autumn Joy' is a fall bloomer, and flowers sell, so nurseries tend to stock what is in bloom. You might not see it in a nursery till summer/fall when people are going to be attracted to the flowers.

Many cultivars have been developed from Sedum spectabile. 'Brilliant' is another popular cultivar. A similar species, sedum telephium, also has many cultivars. If your nursery doesn't carry Sedum spectabile 'Autumn Joy', it may carry other cultivars of spectabile or telephium. As far as I know, they should produce similar flowers to 'Autumn Joy'. The colors while in bloom are probably different, but that won't matter since you are using the dried flowers. They should have a similar look for making trees for train layouts.

More than some of you may want to know, but it may help.

Thank you trestrainfan for the information on sedum. 

I see there are a lot of naysayers about trees made from sedum but as can be seen on Cesar's layout above, they look better that 90 percent of the trees you can buy and best of all, NO TWO ARE ALIKE!

I was at a train show several weeks and saw some really  nice trees about 9 to 10 inches tall but they wanted $16 each.  You can certainly get better trees but if you have much surface to cover, you can invest a LOT of money.

Kinda nice to be able to grow some of your own.

Happy railraoding,

Don

You're welcome.

The similar post on the scenery forum has some great info from experienced modelers who have used sedum to make trees for train layouts.

thanks to all that have replied with information and photos of trees made from sedum plants.

I have tried every nursery here locally and none carry them even though they will grow here.

so will find an online source for them and the local folks wonder why so many go to online ordering!!

$oo

Home Depot or Lowes might sell it. We grow it and so do our neighbors, and I doubt we went to a nursery for it.