The Roof Garden continued

These are the elements for the next piece of roof garden. The plug of sedum will allow the casement window to open, the larger plants will go behind.

Crassula radicans is blooming right now. Sedum Aurora is the familiar "pork & beans"--- but pink.

The low growing sedum is "green sedum".

 Unable to resist a variety of plants,  tried to repeat the colors in the original half--sort of.

 The 2 sedums are the same variety, the barrel cactus repeat the barrels of the original half....  but the euphorbia can only be justified on the basis of outstanding good looks, color  and a repetition of shape. 

 Here's the completed garden.

For looks, it certainly  beats a grey composition roof. The roof garden willl cut the reflected  heat coming into the window by about 50%, and cut the energy costs of keeping this room, west-facing , cool in summer.

The Ford Plant in Dearborn,MI
These men are installing a Green Roof at the Ford Motor Co.( the photo was taken by J. Kyle Keener and ran in the Detroit Free Press.) This is Very Good News. Green roofs have been used all over Northern Europe for decades with Germany taking the lead, but now are just beginning to be favored in the U.S. by the corporate world.  Green roofs improve the famous bottom line .No,we are not talking about how well you will look in your new jeans but something closer to the corporate heart---profit.Suddenly sedums are IN. Not to mention sempervivums.

Semperviums are alpine plants, sedums come from all over. Sedum are also called "stonecrop". They work better on roofs than grass since their succulent leaves store water.They are also quite beautiful.You can see lots of them on this site: www.sempergreen.com .