Sedum is the old shoe in my garden. It's so low-maintenance that I tend to forget about it. And during summer, when other plants are bursting with blooms and calling attention to themselves, sedum recedes to the background.

But fall is sedum's turn to shine. While my other plants are looking spent and scraggly, my sedums are just coming into their own, with big clumps of tiny blooms that put on a show of fall color.

I have the ubiquitous Autumn Joy but there are many other varieties, from the variegated Pink Chablis to the dusky Black Jack.

Sedum isn't maintenance-free but it's pretty darn close. Mature plants need to be divided every few years or they tend to collapse in the middle. Or so I'm told. But to be completely frank, I haven't divided ANY of the sedums that I acquired along with my house 14 years ago, and they still look pretty darn good.

Sedum is tough as nails in garden beds, but it's equally indestructible in pots. I bought some Dragon's Blood sedum plants seven years ago to trail over the edges of my patio pots. Every fall, I just leave them in the pots and let them freeze. And they STILL come back, year after year. That's a survivor!

What's your favorite sedum?