Granny shared her sedums with me ages ago when we first moved into our house. I remember seeing the flowers at Granny Gazzie’s and at many other old homeplaces.
The green stalks are full of succulent leaves. And the blooms are small and pink. From a distance they sort of look like a pink haze.
I’ve always thought of the plant as old fashioned and enjoyed the green stalks as much as the flowers if not more. It is a pretty plant.
When I visited Satterfield’s Briarpatch Greenhouse And Nursery earlier this week I learned something new about sedums.
My tour guide Quincey was helping me get some plants when he cut his hand on the sharp edge of a plastic container. He blew on it a couple of times and then said “I’ll be right back. I’ve got to go get something for my hand.”
I assumed he was going after a bandaid, instead he came back with a leaf of sedum. He broke it open and then placed it on the small cut.
As we were loading up to head home I ask his grandmother Betty about the plant having healing properties. She said it was often used for scrapes, burns, and cuts in the same way aloe plants are.
She also told me they called the plant house leek. As soon as she said the common name they use I felt a twinge of memory. I’ve heard folks call it that too.
Betty said she wondered if the name house leek came from the fact that lots of old homeplaces had the plant growing around the edge of the house where the water run off (house leak).
Once I was home I tried to find information about the name house leek but mostly found the plant called sedum or stonecrop.
I’m sorry Quincey got the small cut, but I sure am glad he taught me something about a plant I’ve grown for almost thirty years.
Last night’s video: Foraging in the Yard for Dinner – Eating Dandelions, Chickweed, Hostas, & Violets.
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When I saw what you called a “house leek” I thought you were going to teach me that this plant is edible, which would have been a big surprise and I would have tasted the next one I see! Instead, I’ll remember to try it for cuts and burns. Thanks, Tipper! I’m always grateful for you mentioning jewelweed being useful for bug bites – I use that every summer now 🙂
We have always called the one pictured, House Leek – because that’s what our mother called it. We have lots of other sedums and a few stonecrops too. The good thing about all of them – whatever we call them – is they don’t need a lot of water!
Sedums are a large family of plants. One of our favorites is burro’s tail. We grew them for a long time, but birds eat them up here in Texas; so we can’t grow them.
I never heard that particular sedum called a house leak; so I learned something new today.
Looking forward to meeting Quincey. He is a bright young man to have learned so much so early in life. I predict good things in his future.
Blessings to all . . .
Hi,
We have always had Sedum. My grandmother grew it. Mommy loved it. I think it is a part of my heritage. Watch out for the bees when it blooms. Bees love it. As a result, we have mason bees big time here. I have trouble growing succulents here in the Blue Ridge. I think we have too much water. When it gets cold they don’t tolerate our cold winters. Mommy had a planting outside of succulents. Really nice until the winter came.
I also like cacti.
Take care,
Kathy Patterson
I don’t think I have ever heard of sedum and if I have seen any, I didn’t know what I was looking at but looking at the picture today, it surely is a pretty plant and would love to see it blooming with the small, pink flowers. Knowing that it’s also medicinal is very interesting to me. There is a huge plant nursery here in town and I am eager to see if they have any for sale. I know aloe is wonderful but glad to know about this one. Thank you for sharing. I also enjoyed last night’s video. It’s amazing what folks can find in their own yard to make a meal off of. What a wealth of knowledge you have Tipper! Now if I told my husband we were having dandelions and hosta for supper, he might look at me a little bit funny, but I sure am willing to try it. Have a blessed day all.
We had a big patch of house leeks in the front yard. We went barefoot half the year and we were always getting briers in our feet. I remember crushing those green slimy leaves and tying them on with a rag before going to bed. The house leek would draw out the brier.
I have never used the leaf of any plant to draw out briars, splinters etc. I have used and will still use salty fatback, side meat or streak of lean, whatever you wish to call it, in the same way to draw out such things first before doing surgery on myself.
Hi Tipper, sadly, for us who live way up north (Alberta, Canada) sedum is only a house plant. It would never survive our cold temperatures. It wasn’t one of my favorite houseplants but now I think I need to get one, it nothing else but for it’s medicinal purposes. It would be nice to live somewhere where the planting zone was higher than a 3 so we could have this in our gardens. We still have a foot of snow so planting is way off yet.
Thank you Tipper! I need to look for Sedum for my garden. I have heard of this from my grandmother. I am a retired hospital pharmacist of 45 yrs. Always interested in herbs & plants. Many alternative medicine. Know of anything else please share for I would love to learn.
Love your blog.
Thank you Alicia Jean’nette
Thanks Tipper, I have learned something. Like others I had no idea of the medicinal properties.
I have them growing at our home as well and learned something new this morning from your story. I’ll try it next time that one of us gets a cut.
I’ve never seen nor heard of this plant before. I’ve heard of stonecrop and I have tons of sedum growning like weeds around my house. But they do not look anything like what is in the picture. Must be different varieties that grown down here in Florida. Now you’ve sent me on a researching trip, also. I must say, most people grown aloe around here for healing but with so many different varieties, I don’t know which one does what: soap aloe, shampoo aloe, burn aloe, ulcer aloe, on and on. I’m growing yarrow to help heal cuts and hurts this year – love experimenting and learning new uses God has for his plants.
One other nice thing about this plant is how much the bees love it. When it is in full bloom, my plant is covered in honey bees.
Wow. I just noticed a mound of Sedum growing up now in my ‘new’ flower beds at my ‘new’ house in my new location – must be cousins to those in your picture! This information is valuable. VERY. (Did I say, ‘Wow’?) Thanks, Quincey!
Absolutely love house leeks… fond memories. Both Mom and Gramma used them medicinally. My fondness for them is because my fair skin would always burn and blister in the summertime. After a day swimming, Mom would split the leaves and rub them wherever I got burnt that day. Soothed it away real quick. Course she also rubbed vinegar straight from the bottle on the sunburn… said it took the sting out of the burn and keep me from peeling. Both of them always worked on me. As a side note, Autumn Joy sedum have been quite popular in landscapes for 5-10 years or so… they’re beautiful. I believe that what we know as house leeks (and always will) are in the sedum family. The similarities are unmistakeable.
Autumn sedum is a lovely, lovely plant. Its gorgeous burgundy blooms are indeed a harbinger of fall. To learn it will stop a bleed is some useful information. I had aplenty and when I moved, I left them behind. I have made up my mind just now to purchase a slew of them because I just love them. To me, they beat hostas severely.
It is amazing how much succulent plants provide various forms of moisture for healing, etc.. El Cajon, Calif, where I grew up, lies just to the east of San Diego, at the base of the 6000+ foot mountains that separate the coast from the desert. It is mostly a Mediterranean climate. The area was mostly sage brush before being settled and green grass and trees were planted everywhere. It went from a barren valley that was crossed through to get to the mountains from the ocean, to mostly dairy and grapes grown for raisins, to a city of about 120,000. Growing up there, I hated succulent plants. I found them boring. I wanted to be around the flowers and plants from the places that had real four seasons, rain, and real American history. Not desert plants, Mexican history and architecture. It wasn’t until I moved back to San Diego several years ago after living in the Midwest a few years, that I actually appreciated the rich Mexican-American history of Southern California, and the life saving properties of succulent plants in the dry conditions of the desert and Mediterranean west coast. I am actually amazed that you have succulents here in North Carolina. I thought they would only tolerate desert conditions to grow in. Trust me, it is so lushly green here in North Carolina compared to El Cajon, I thought all this rain here would overwhelm the desert plants. I think it is wonderful Quincey is so knowledgeable in plants for his young age!! I am looking forward to this video!
Donna. : )
Sedum seems to be one of the few plants that actually thrive for me – or maybe despite me. I didn’t inherit a green thumb from my grandparents and parents. But my Mother’s sedum plant outlived her and I have given it to my daughter, who lives next door. I still have the one my other daughter shared with me plus the one we picked up on the roadside years ago that a neighbor had just thrown out. I didn’t know to use them like aloe. Thanks for sharing.
I love serums. I have a couple at the front of our house. I didn’t know of their medicinal properties.
I really love getting your emails every day.
Now I have learned about Sedum.
It is such a pleasure reading and seeing all your videos. Makes me want to get to a much simpler time. I lived near Ocala, FL in a small country town, but the very crazy building boom is here, farms are getting sold to make way for housing developments and stores. It is not a happy thing. I grew up in South Florida in the 1950’s when it was country and I moved here because the south had all become big cities right up to the Everglades.
So you all are a touch of Sunshine for me.
Cyndi Cervera Sampson
A lot of never’s this morning, I have never heard my mother or grandmother mention this plant and both loved their flowers and had a lot of them and I have never ate flowers for supper. Mother would have let me starve before she would have cooked her violets if the ones you are talking about are the same as hers. Going back to yesterday and tadpoles, about 36 degrees this morning and a big frost on the windshields and rooftops this morning, hopefully the last frost until November. I shore am glad I went ahead and covered up Grandmother’s peony last night, it will soon be blooming.
I watched your video about the dandelions and can’t wait to try some of the greens in cornbread like you and Corie did. Looks delicious as well as the chicken. It is amazing how much new info I have gleaned from you guys. I have watched those plants and flower being mowed down year after year. No any longer, I can’t wait to pass that lesson on. Thanks and God Bless.
About three years ago we moved into my husband’s childhood home and stonecrop ( what I’ve always heard them called) was growing in the yard and one of the flower beds. Since then, I’ve split them and planted them in many locations in our yard. I think the flowers are very pretty, but like you I love the green leaves. Thanks for sharing about the healing properties. I didn’t know that. Glad to have another plant in my medicinal arsenal.