Is Stonecrop (Sedum) deer resistant?

Succulent leaves that deer sometimes nibble in a drought and rarely destroy. In a wet year they ignore it entirely.

The universal failure is flopping. A sedum that opens out from the middle in August, splayed flat with a bare center, has been fed or watered or grown in shade, usually all three. It wants poor, sharp, sunny ground and no attention at all.

If yours already flops, cut every stem back by half in late May. The Chelsea chop delays flowering slightly and produces a shorter, self-supporting plant. Leave the seed heads standing over winter: they hold snow well and are one of the few things worth looking at in a January bed.

Do deer eat sedum?

Yes, more than its reputation allows. Rutgers rates showy sedum Occasionally Severely Damaged, the third tier, "Showy Sedum, Sedum spectabile," which is the plant now sold as Hylotelephium spectabile, Autumn Joy and its relatives, and NC State lists white-tailed deer under Problems rather than among the challenges it resists. The succulent leaves that make it drought-proof are water in a dry August, and that is when it is eaten: the flower heads just as they color, and the tops of the stems. Rabbits it resists. Deer it does not.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 4a to 9b, full sun to partial shade, 1 to 2 feet, flowering "late summer to fall" in flat heads "4-6 inches across." Drought, rabbits and salt are on its resistance list. NC State on shape: "To maintain a bushy shape and thick stems, cut or pinch back the stems in early spring."

Protecting sedum

The heads are the target and the season is short, so the 20 percent egg spray Colorado State rates High goes on in August as the buds form, once, and again at about thirty days if the display is meant to stand into October. In a dry summer, earlier.

If it is browsed

A sedum topped in August produces side shoots and small late heads, and the plant is not harmed; the loss is the year's display, and the flower was the point. Stems cut back by half in May flower later and shorter anyway, and a browsed plant behaves like a chopped one.