LEMON CORAL® SEDUM in UPRIGHT CONTAINERS
Lemon Coral is often grown in upright containers because it is so easy to mix with other sun loving plants. Its flashy chartreuse color easily complements anything you decide to pair it with, from contrasting plum purples to complementary citrus hues. Rounded bowl-shaped pots and shallow troughs at least 12″ wide will easily fit Lemon Coral and a few companions.
You’ll find that Lemon Coral tends to form a thick carpet of brilliant, succulent foliage. When you first plant it, the foliage will be more mounded in shape, but as summer progresses it will trail over the edges of the container.
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PLANTING YOUR UPRIGHT CONTAINER
- You’ll need a total of three 4-inch potted plants to fill one 12” container. You could fill the entire container with Lemon Coral or you could plant a combination container using two other varieties
- Space the plants equally in the container so it fills out on all sides.
- Use a good quality potting soil in your container. Better potting soils are light in texture and weight, and water drains easily through them.
- Mix a bit of slow release plant food into the potting soil before you add the plants. Follow the package instructions to know how much to use. This will ensure a small amount of food is available to the plants’ roots over the season.
- Water your newly planted container immediately to help the soil settle in around the plants’ roots.
CARING FOR YOUR UPRIGHT CONTAINER
Plentiful sunlight along with moderate water and plant food are all your upright container will need to thrive all season long. Lemon Coral is a garden workhorse that aims to please.
SUNLIGHT
- Like most sedums, Lemon Coral grows best in full sun where its color will be brighter yellow and its shape will be more dense. If full sun isn’t an option, it will also grow in part sun, which means at least 4-6 hours of direct sun per day.
- Even though its color is light, this durable succulent will not burn in full sun, even in warm climates.
WATER
- Lemon Coral prefers for its soil to dry a bit between each time you water it. To figure out if it is time to water, stick your finger down in the soil up to your first knuckle. If the soil sticks to your finger, it is moist enough to make it through the day without watering. If not, it’s time to water.
- If you don’t have much time to water or if you tend to travel in the summertime, consider investing in a WaterWise® self-watering kit. It saves time and water, is simple to use, and waters up to ten containers at once from a single faucet.
PLANT FOOD
- We recommend feeding Proven Winners annuals with water soluble plant food every third time you water. Follow the package directions for rates.
- If you are growing Lemon Coral in more shade, we’ve found that it helps to decrease the strength of the plant food by half to avoid leggy growth.
- During the heat of summer when you are watering more often, your plants are growing faster and need more food to keep up. Feeding flowers is like feeding kids—not so much when they are toddlers but they’ll eat you out of house and home when they are teenagers.
- Any brand of plant food meant for flowers will work for your containers. But we recommend Proven Winners water soluble and continuous release plant foods because they are specially formulated with micronutrients to help our varieties grow bigger, stronger, and bear more flowers.
TRIMMING
- When we said Lemon Coral was low maintenance and worry-free, we weren’t kidding! Lemon Coral has just the right amount of vigor. It will grow well to form a rick carpet of succulent foliage, but it won’t outgrow its container or be a bully to other plants you pair it with. Little to no trimming is required with this role model of a plant.
- If, for some reason, you’d like to give your Lemon Coral a haircut, go right ahead. Just pinch or snip the stems back to the length you prefer. As long as you don’t remove more than 1/3 of the plant at any more time, you can’t hurt it by trimming.