Pure Joy starts spring as a low, rounded mound of tiny blue-green leaves that makes a tidy edger. Through the season the leaves grow and lighten to fresh green, and by late summer the plant is covered in a big dome of bubblegum-pink star flowers.
Deeper pink seed heads follow in fall. It is compact, dependable and drought tolerant, well suited to the front of a sunny border or a rock garden, and a late-season favorite of bees and butterflies.
What it looks like
A massive dome of small, star-shaped flowers in bubblegum pink completely covers the foliage in late summer, later turning to deeper pink seed heads. Leaves are small, fleshy and sharply toothed, cool blue-green in spring and lighter green by late summer. The plant is a low, rounded, semi-upright mound 10 to 12 inches tall and 16 to 20 inches wide. At peak it looks like a soft pink cushion with barely any green showing.
Growing it with lavender
This compact sedum thrives in the same hot, sunny, well-drained ground as lavender, and its rounded succulent mounds make a neat, contrasting edge along the front of a lavender bed while blooming after the lavender is cut.
Care
Plant in full sun in average to poor, well-drained soil; it is very drought tolerant once established and rots in soggy ground. Hardy in zones 3-9; cut back the old stems in early spring before new growth starts.
At a glance
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Botanical name: Hylotelephium
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Flower color: Bubblegum pink
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Foliage: Blue-green in spring, lighter green in summer
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Growth habit: Low, rounded, semi-upright mound
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Mature size: 10–12 in tall × 16–20 in wide
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USDA hardiness zones: 3–9
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Light: full sun
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Bloom start: Late-August
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Peak bloom: Mid-September
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Bloom pattern: Long Blooming
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Deer resistance: Moderately resistant
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Pollinator value: Excellent
Sizes and shipping
Dormant bare-root plant, sold in boxes of 25 per variety (order in multiples of 25). Bare-root plants ship or are picked up March 1–May 31 only. They are soil-free, so they may ship to every state in that window. Dormant plants often show little or no top growth on arrival; plant or heel them in promptly.