Hi all,
Some of the best trees I’ve ever seen were made from a plant called Sedum or Segum? Does anyone else use this to make trees and if so where can you get it from. Do flourists carry it, do you think I can score some off of my LHS? I’m covered in snow up in the North East so won’t be able to find any outside right now.
HELP? Please. 
Check with your neighbors. Sedum is a plant that you cut back every year. If you plant one in the spring, you will have plant growth in the fall. If you find someone who has an old plant, they will have larger clumps.
These are off two year old plants.
Sue
Generally a florist will not sell sedum, but can inform you on the plant, best bet is a nursery whrere they sell the plants, they grow well, (even in Canada), wait till fall till they dry a little, then harvest them. paint them, and cut the trunks to the length you need, the price is right. Your neighbours will be glad to give you as many as you want.
although i have never done it myself, some of the best looking trees i have seen used sage brush. i’m sure it doesn’t grow where you live but it would make a good excuse to travel out west on your next vacation.
grizlump
As others have said, make friends with flower gardeners. There must be many around you, They love to talk to people. Tell them what you want and come back in the fall.
While your at it, also look for Queen of the Prarie (great Birch and Aspen) and Astilbe (varieties of tall Christmas tree types like in Colorado).
If you really are an Altoona Railroader, you must have some growing near you. My in-laws, who live in State College, have tons of it. I have a couple in my garden (in CT, transplanted from PA), enough to provide me with a lifetime of armatures (if the darn deer would leave it alone!).
Here is what a natural stalk looks like – this one is 7" high by about 5 1/2" wide. You can build them naturally or prune and combine for great trees.
Look over in the Layouts topics for a post on “Trees on a Budget”. One of the posters put a link to a nice tutorial on using sedum for trees.
In my back yard!
Lee
Same here, except in the front garden!
As to where you can find some RIGHT NOW, the plants in the wild or in neighbors gardens are probably buried in snow…
Generally, though, you’re not going to find one in a store except if a nursery has one that they’re keeping over the winter. If they didn’t cut it back, they may let you harvest some flowers, or they may make you buy the plant, but you won’t know if you don’t ask.
These plants are perennials, and when they reach a certain size, they can be split and replanted to expand your crop.
I actually have a couple years’ worth of blooms dried out in the garage waiting for the next big push of layout construction. I harvest enough to make around 300 trees each fall… But who’s got that kind of time![:P]
Lee
If you guys want to get rid of your Sedum, I will take it from ya. Kevin
I would like to plant some Sedum this Spring for future “trees”. Which variety is best for our purposes?
Thanks for the pic and the advice. I’ll have to look around and start taking walks around the yard and neighborhood next summer. There should be some around. Isn’t it purplish when it’s growing?
Not to throw cold water on this thread but I would point out that sedum “trees” bear little resemblance to any actual trees found in most regions of the U.S. and particularly those found in the more northern climates (they do, however, resemble certain tropical examples).
Sedum was (particularly from the 1930’s to the 1970’s) and sometimes still is, used in professional architectual models to respresent highly stylized trees, basically because their “greenery” is limited to their very tops and therefore will not block much of the structure model, or site plan. When used on model railroads, especially when compared to other quality tree products available today (such as ScenicExpress’ Super Trees), they appear highly unrealistic looking.
CNJ831
Check out tree silhouettes and you can find almost identical trees to sedum. Cypress, elm, dogwood, black locust, etc. The key to using sedum is to not use the whole long stem, cut off the short branches as whole trees, the shorter and longer branches give completely differnt tree types.
Tatans, I would urge that you consult a good dendrology reference with illustrations of the shilouettes of mature trees by species. Of the trees you named, only a certain few species of cypress bears any resemblance whatever to the sedum, with or without cutting the branches.
CNJ831
I started a similar thread a couple years ago on “another” forum. I had found a great source of tree armatures in a strip mall parking lot, across from my workplace. I have literally thousands of trees to choose from. The plant is Spirea. It seems like a lighter, more detailed tree then Sedum.
Here’s a link to the thread. Found a nice tree source.
I hope it’s helpful.
Fortunately, model railroading is a very individual hobby. Keep the sedum off of your layout if you so desire. In fact, DEFINATELY don’t use puffballs and bamboo skewers, because heaven knows that they don’t look anything like a real tree. Because everyone knows that if something doesn’t exactly resemble its prototype down to the last 1000th of an inch, it has no business on a REAL model railroad.
In point of fact, that undoctored, untrimmed sedum branch I posted the picture above bears an uncanny resemblence to the oak tree I see out my back window right now (or would, if it weren’t dark).
Wow! You’re pretty exacting with you scale models. I only round up to the 100th of an inch.[:D]
I found a good post a while back about sedum. I can’t remember the author though, but if you search you should find. If you cut off the stem, and rearange the stems, it looks very realistic.
Autumn Joy is my personal favorite. Lots of blooms to use, and looks great all year! We have 8 plants. I cut everyone of them down each fall, and dry them in my basement. I then spray them with florists hold and use them for the next year. Yes, it’s slim pickings in early fall, but I catch up in the Winter. Autumn Joy also expands nicely each year, and doesn’t require any work in your garden. It stores water in its leaves, and only needs water at first, or in a drought. It also isn’t invasive, and grows almost anywhere.
Sorry this post is a little rambly. I am watching The Office while writing it.
MadSinger