Showy stonecrop
A succulent garden perennial; its pink flower heads from August to October offer easy nectar and are among the busiest bee plants of autumn.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0,3-0,6 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Showy stonecrop is a fleshy-leaved rock garden plant from China and Korea that opens flat pink flower heads in late summer. Its shallow, open flowers offer nectar easily; on hot, sunny days honey bees, bumblebees and butterflies cover the plant. In gardens it is one of the most visited bee plants of late summer and autumn.
Flowering
It flowers for a long time from August to October. The pink flowers darken with age; the dried seed heads stay on the stems into winter.
Honey and pollen
It also gives a small amount of pollen. It is not harvested as a separate honey, but it provides the colony with fresh food while winter stores are being built.
Note for the beekeeper
The best-selling garden cultivar 'Herbstfreude' (Autumn Joy) is a hybrid of this species and Hylotelephium telephium and is visited by bees just as much. It is very drought-tolerant, needs no watering and flops over if overfertilised. In urban beekeeping it is a reliable choice for autumn forage; its old name is Sedum spectabile.