Frequently Asked Questions

Important stuff, Plant stuff, and Technical stuff.

A. Important Stuff

1. What is the purpose of this site?

   Sedumphotos.net showcases high-quality photographs of plants of the family Crassulaceae, especially sedums. Our hope is that these photos will be useful to people around the world for purposes of plant identification, research, and good old-fashioned starin'-at.

2. Who owns these photos?

   All the photographs on this site, unless otherwise explicitly noted, are copyright Wayne Fagerlund, who reserves all rights.

3. May I use these pictures for a personal, educational, non-profit, or governmental purpose (i.e. in a brochure published by a municipal government; as visual aids for a summer plant ID class for kids; etc.)?

   Any use of our pictures requires Wayne's prior approval. (He'll probably approve, but we want you to ask anyway; it's a good way for us to keep track of where our pictures are going, and protects against unpleasant surprises.) If you want to use a photo, Email Wayne explaining what pictures you want to use, how you intend to use them, and—if the issue is a little fuzzy for your particular project—it wouldn't hurt to explain why you consider this a non-commercial use.

   Wayne Fagerlund retains all copyright for any photo we grant permission to use. Permission to use a photo is considered a one-time agreement; significant revisions, new editions, and unrelated future publications all require re-approval by the copyright holder. For all uses, we require that both Wayne Fagerlund and Sedumphotos.net be credited for the photo.

4. May I use these pictures for a commercial purpose, such as tags, advertisements, a book, or a catalog?

   All of the above applies (to wit: talk to Wayne and get his approval first), plus we're going to charge a fee. Email Wayne to talk about the relevant fees and conditions.

   Wayne Fagerlund retains all copyright for any photo we grant permission to use. Permission to use a photo is considered a one-time agreement; significant revisions, new editions, and unrelated future publications all require re-approval by the copyright holder. For all uses, we require that both Wayne Fagerlund and Sedumphotos.net be credited for the photo.

5. Who are you guys?

   Wayne Fagerlund is a nurseryman and plant hobbyist who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He takes all the photographs, compiles all the information and descriptions, and grew most (if not all) of the plants showcased here at his business, Evergreen Valley Nursery.

   Nick Fagerlund is a student/wanderer/writer (for now) who tends to bounce between Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest. He administers, designs, feeds, and waters the site, which also entails hacking on the software and putting out the associated fires. In addition, he's occasionally fed and watered the plants themselves.

   Evergreen Valley Nursery is a wholesale-only nursery in the Pacific Northwest that specializes in perennials and succulents, especially sedums and sempervivums. EVN financially supports this site as a public service to plant lovers everywhere.

6. How can I get in touch with you?

   If you want to ask permission to use a photo, ask questions about plants, suggest a correction to a plant's label or description, or talk about photography, you need to talk to Wayne. You can email him at wayne@sedumphotos.net.

   If the site isn't working for you, you've noticed a glitch in the site, or you have some other technical question or issue, you need to talk to Nick. You can email him at webmaster@sedumphotos.net.

7. Can I buy these plants from Evergreen Valley Nursery?

   No. Sorry! EVN sells only to retail nurseries within the Pacific Northwest, and has no interest in becoming a retail outlet, an internet merchant, or any combination of the two. However, we encourage all of our readers to ask their local nurseries and garden centers about succulent plants.

   If you represent a retail nursery in western Washington State and are considering doing business with EVN, you can contact Wayne (see above) for more information about us.

8. What is the Sedum Society? Is this website affiliated with it?

   Sedumphotos.net loves the Sedum Society. We aren't directly associated with the Society, but we hold it in the highest esteem (and Wayne is a member). If you're interested in learning about why it's so great, you should read Wayne's article about the Sedum Society, and then go visit the Society's website.

Important stuff, Plant stuff, and Technical stuff.

B. Plant Stuff

1. What are sedums?

   Sedums are drought tolerant succulent plants that usually have star-shaped flowers with 5 petals, 5 sepals (leafy structure around base of flower), 5 carpels (seed pods), and 10 stamens. (There are always exceptions to the rule with more or fewer petals showing up on some plants. However, there are always twice as many stamens as there are flower petals and the number of petals, sepals, and carpels always equal each other.) Sedums can be found around the globe almost exclusively in the northern hemisphere. They range from the Arctic Circle to the equator in fast draining soils in situations where competition from other plants is minimal. Sedums are often found in mountainous areas where these conditions are common. There are several hundred species and several hundred hybrids in cultivation today. There are annuals, biennials and perennials (both herbaceous and evergreen).

   Flower colors are usually in shades of yellow, white, and pink, but are sometimes purplish, sometimes red, and, in one lonely species, light blue. Most sedum varieties bloom sometime from early summer through the fall but there are some spring bloomers. Some of the Mexican varieties bloom in the winter. Most sedums bloom in clusters but there are exceptions to that as well.

   Leaves of sedums vary tremendously. Leaf color can change rapidly during stressful situations, bringing out strikingly beautiful reddish and purplish hues. Many of them are very succulent and have the ability to take up and store a substantial amount of water when it is available to slowly use up during the dry times. Quite a number of species have a white powdery covering (pruinose) that reflects the sun rays, keeping leaves cooler and reducing moisture loss. There is also another feature of sedum leaves that helps prevent moisture loss when the sun is shining: Unlike most plants, the stomata (breathing holes) on sedum leaves close up during the day and open up at night when it's cooler, thus cutting way back on moisture loss through transpiration.

2. Are all of the plants pictured here sedums?

   Nope! While sedums are our main focus, we're also interested in other Crassulaceae succulents, many of which are pictured here.

3. Can I grow sedums? Are they difficult to care for?

   By and large, sedums require remarkably little maintainence, and can be grown in most of the world. Talk to your local nursery or garden center about what varieties will do well in your home climate and how to care for them.

4. I found this crazy sedum growing in my yard/on a mountain in Turkey/somewhere totally improbable. Can you help me identify it?

   First, we encourage you to search through our photos to see if you can identify it yourself—plant identification is a fun and useful skill. If you're stumped or if it's something we simply don't have, we invite you to ask Wayne what he thinks. (Please be aware that if business is hectic, he may be slow to reply.)

5. I want to talk about propagation techniques, crazy adventures I've gone on in order to find sedums, ideal zones for different varieties...

   Wayne loves that sort of stuff. Also, you clearly need to join the Sedum Society.

Important stuff, Plant stuff, and Technical stuff.

C. Technical Stuff

1. What web browser should I use to view this site?

   Something modern! In addition to all the high-res photographs, Sedumphotos.net uses XHTML, CSS, Javascript, and probably a little bit of well-hidden DHTML, so you should be using the current version of a major browser.

   For 90% of viewers, this means either Firefox 1.0 or higher (Windows, Mac, and Linux), Internet Explorer 6 or higher (Windows only), or Safari 1.2 or higher (Mac only). I personally recommend Firefox.

   If your taste in browsers is more exotic, all of the Gecko-based browsers (Camino, SeaMonkey, K-Meleon, Galeon, Epiphany, etc) and all of the WebKit/KHTML-based browsers (OmniWeb, Konqueror) ought to work fine. I haven't tested Opera, but I wouldn't expect any serious problems from it.

   THAT SAID, whatever works, works.

2. [Insert site feature here] isn't working right.

   We hate it when that happens. Email Nick (see above) with a detailed description of the problem, and he'll get right on it.

3. The plants in this album don't seem to be alphabetized correctly; one of the plants is showing up out of order.

   If a plant has quote-marks or parentheses in its name, we have to fix the alphabetization by hand. We think we have it fixed for everything currently uploaded, but you never know—tell us if you find a glitch!

4. What is that "Login" link in the upper-right corner for? Do I have to log in?

   That's for our use, when we need to change things around or add more pictures. Everyone else can ignore it; using Sedumphotos.net does not require any sort of login or registration.

5. What software does this site run on? Can I use it too?

   Sedumphotos.net is powered by an open-source web application called Gallery 2, which requires MySQL and PHP. It's flexible, powerful, and free, and can handle sites a good bit more complicated than this one. You can learn more about it on its website. Nick likes it, but it can be a little complicated to modify, and the documentation isn't exactly first rate. To counterbalance that, it has a pretty active user community that will often help with issues you encounter.

6. Where is Sedumphotos.net hosted?

   We use shared hosting purchased from Dreamhost.