Epimedium 2010

[McDonough]

I'm pleased to kick off this "Epimedium 2010" thread.  For many North American gardeners that must deal with shady wooded conditions, often rather dry too, I can think of no better candidate to grace such conditions as the many members of the genus Epimedium.  They are tough, drought tolerant when established, have beautiful graceful flowers and gorgeous foliage often strikingly colored in spring and in a second-flush of color post-flowering, many with excellent fall color as well.

For me, the "Onion Man", there is life beyond the genus Allium, and I'm a serious admirer and collector of Epimedium as well as many other plants.  I call my beloved Epimedium plants "eppies" for short.  I am most fortunate being located just a mere 40 minutes drive from the "epicenter of Epimedium", the epimedium extravaganza that is Garden Vision Epimediums founded by epi-jedi master Darrell Probst, in Hubbardston, Massachusetts. The nursery is now run by Darrell's ex, Karen Perkins, a lovely person and trained horticulturalist herself, still with a mutual association with Darrell Probst and his important Epimedium breeding work.

Let me start with a single recent species, E. wushanense, a species of only recent and rare obtainability, an imposing tall species with large creamy white flowers. Epimedium wushanense "Spiny-leaved Forms" is a selection from several clones grown by Darrell, growing much lower and leafier, with shorter condensed panicles of large bloom.  I got my plant at a local NARGS auction 3 years back, where Darrell as usual generously donated a wonderful selection of "choicest of choice" epimedium to benefit our chapter.

This species has proved hardy (most epimediums are bone hardy) and completely evergreen in my harsh Zone 5 garden (a number of eppies are indeed evergreen here), with bold, glossy, spiny-edged foliage, and dense spikes of substantially large white and yolk-yellow flowers in May.  The only problem with the flowers is that they droop downwards towards the ground and get dirt-splashed.  In the photo, I am lifting up two flower spikes.  I think this species has incredible potential for breeding.  More to come.

Garden Vision Epimediums publishes an extensive list of eppies for sale, all completely identification validated, with inumerable rare species, special variant forms, and many of Darrel's latest gorgeous hybrids. Send an email to Karen Perkins requesting a catalog to: epimediums@earthlink.net.  The catalog is due out soon, and includes 10 or more color pages of photographs, truly worth having as an Epimedium reference alone! In addition to Epimedium, there are choice woodland Iris species, many Iris cristata cultivars, some novel Primula sieboldii cultivars, and other choice woodlanders.  For those who live within driving range, the nursery is open each year on two consecutive May weekends (includes Fridays before each weekend).  I typically place an order and elect to pick it up at the nursery, where I get to see swathes of fantastic eppies, many new to science, swathes of new hybrids, discuss these with Darrell, and buy even more plants that are for sale at the nursery.  Ahhh, to satiate ones plant desires.

[Hoy]

A wonderfull plant! Epimedium is one of my favorite genuses too! But the ubiquitous slugs take their toll. I have lost several fine specimens particularly when the plants are young. At least I believe it is the slugs to blame. They devour the young shoots early in spring. Gingers too are affected badly.
You are lucky to live near a specialist nursery. Except a few common hybrids, "eppies" are almost impossible to get here in Norway. Have to buy from foreign nurseries which can provide phytosanitary certificates.

[McDonough]

Epimedium grandiflorum forma flavescens - William T. Stearn recognized E. koreanum as a separate species distinct from E. grandiflorum as recently as 2002 (e.g., a yellow-flowered entity akin to grandiflorum yet distinct), and Darrell Probst has supported and enriched our gardens with both species and numerous collected forms of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens.  The key difference is that E. koreanum spreads aggressively, whereas all E. grandiflorum f. flavescens forms are tight clumpers.  I grow 9 selections of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens, they are roughly similar, yet each with their own distinct characteristics and charm.  I am only exploring a couple of these forms here.  All are available from Garden Vision Epimediums, contact Karen Perkins at epimediums@earthlink.net

One of the very first Epimediums I purchased was "Epimedium grandiflorum flavescens" from George Schenk in 1977. This plant is now identified as a cultivar; E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille', honoring the name of Harold Epstein's garden where this particular form was found.  Back then, it cost $14 in George Schenk's catalog when most of his nursery offerings were between a mere $1 - $2 American dollars. While expensive, it was a worthwhile investment because I still have the original plant, now 33 years old, and it has provided considerable pleasure in all those years.  It is what I call an "epimedium island', this curious effect among clumping epimediums where after a great number of years, a sizeable 2' (60 cm) clump never seems to spread any more... it just sits there content on being a happy large clump.

A few years ago in spring, I chopped off a piece (with great difficulty) and replanted it. The offset grew surprisingly quickly to fill the void and assume the same tight-clump proportion in only a few years.  In this series of photos, I show both the original 30+ year old clump, and a new clump.  In all forms, the elegant pale yellow flowers appear below a canopy of fresh foliage.  Perhaps not as showy as other epimediums because the pale flowers are partially hidden, this variety is elegant and refined and certainly worth a choice spot in the garden.

Photos:

1 & 2 - View of young 3-year old clump of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille'.  Notice the beautiful dark color stems.

3,4,5 - views of an old clump of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille'.  Pointed spring foliage is strongly tinged red, lasting into early summer.

6 - E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'Nanum' - most "flavescens" forms grow 14" - 22" (35 - 55 cm), but this one is much shorter (6 - 8", or 15-20 cm in flower), with the flowers extending out to the periphery.

7 & 8 - views of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens #4 (Darrell Probst numbers his forms), this is a tall one, almost 2' (60 cm) with thin, wiry bright red stems, airy sprays of narrow foliage, and nice light yellow flowers.  The first photo is a flower closeup, the second shows E. x rubrum in flower, with the tall expanding red stems of "flavescens 4" in the upper right.

Plant any of these "flavescens" forms up on an embankment, to effectively show off their shy flowers and deep color stems.

[McDonough]

Found two more old photos of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille' as the leaves and buds emerge, showing off the trademark cinnamon red stems, a subtle yet exquisite form.

[McDonough]

While all the new exotic Chinese Epimediums entice us with different plant habits, uniquely beautiful flowers, and bold spectacular evergreen mottled foliage, many other Epimedium species and cultivars are more quiet and subtle, yet fundamentally beautiful and essential to the garden.

I grow 39 Epimedium x youngianum forms, and love them all.  This group represents hybrids between E. grandiflorum and diphyllum, but one can also assume some of the lines have been blurred in the hybridization process.  They're all charming small clump-forming plants, equally nice for the flowers as the foliage, all suitable to smaller gardens where space is a premium.  Here's a classic example: E. x youngianum 'Jenny Wren' taken on May 11, 2007, low and floriferous in bloom with showy bloom above the foliage, and with nice speckled foliage season round.

[McDonough]

A few Young ones  (E. x youngianum cultivars)

All of the "youngianums" (hybrids between grandiflorum and diphyllum) are dainty little clump-forming plants.  Young spring foliage is often flushed or speckled with color, and a second leaf flush after flowering also shows some foliar interest. While generally rather small plants, the second leaf flush in June can give the clumps significantly more height and width.  Here's a sampling:

1.  E. x youngianum 'Fairy Dust' - Darrell Probst 2004 introduction. Pale but perky flowers, coffee tinged foliage.

2 & 3.  E. x youngianum 'Tamabotan' - originally from We-Du nursery, known under 3 other names.  Has the effect of double flowers because the petals and sepals are similarly sized.

4 & 5.  E. x youngianum 'Marchacos Sprite' - D.Probst 2003 introduction, good bright pink cutie.

6 & 7.  E. x youngianum 'Azusa' - a personal favorite with largish white flowers, red sepals and stems.  Fall color is rich mottled red.

8. E. x youngianum 'Azusa' - fall color.   Also fall color on E. diphyllum 'Variegatum' and E. grandiflorum var. violaceum.

9  E. x youngianum 'Hanagaruma' - floriferous light pink

[McDonough]

Epimedium x versicolor represents a group of semi-evergreen hybrids between E. grandiflorum and E. pinnatum ssp. colchicum.  All of the half dozen or so cultivars are first class plants, valued for their beautiful foliage, often highly colored in spring and with good fall color too, and their bounty of uniquely hued blooms.  The plants clump up and spread slowly, making fine foliage mounds, and showing remarkable durability, prospering even under very dry wooded shady conditions.

I thought I'd put together some photos that help show the differences in two Epimedium cultivars, E. x versicolor 'Cupreum' and E. x versicolor 'Versicolor', which are sometimes confused.  They have the same seed parents are are indeed similar, but when observing both in the garden, they are distinctive enough to easily spot which is which.

Compared to E. x versicolor 'Versicolor', the salmon pink and yellow flowers in 'Cupreum' have a deeper color, especially noticeable in the dark color red buds, and foliage of 'Cupreum' tends to be more intensely bronzy-red giving greater emphasis to the green venation.  Overall, I find find E. x versicolor 'Versicolor' a faster growing plant, more floriferous, with masses of softer pastel salmon flowers.  It is gorgeous!  In late autumn and early winter, the fall foliage color is different, a bright orangish-red (with yellow underlay) in 'Cupreum', a lustrous mahogany brown-red in 'Versicolor'. In the last photo, E. x versicolor 'Versicolor' is on the left, E. pinnatum colchicum 'Thunderbolt' on the right, showing intense fall color.

I hope to capture photographs of two more recent of Darrell Probst's versicolor hybrids, 'Cherry Tart' and 'Strawberry Blush'; both were too small in previous years to warrant photos, but should be good this year.

[McDonough]

There is frequent confusion between E. x versicolor 'Sulphureum' and E. x versicolor 'Neosulphureum'.

'Sulphureum' has flowers a deeper yellow color than 'Neosulphureum'. The spurs of 'Sulphureum' equal the length of the inner sepals, whereas the spurs on 'Neosulphureum' are short, only about half as long as the inner sepals.  I am uploading several photos of E. x versicolor 'Neosulphureum', one looking up at the flowers clearly showing the short spurs.  Also, 'Neosulphureum' is much lower growing, has denser growth, and burnished bronze spring foliage, altogether a better plant than 'Sulphureum'.  The latter has much more open growth (shown in Photo 7), taller stems, and slightly red-tinged foliage in spring, and the aforementioned flower differences.

In Photo 6, we also see a recent evergreen species, E. lishihchenii, with bold corrugated leaves and large light yellow flowers, the fresh new leaf growth is vibrant light green compared to the darker burnished evergreen leaves below.

[McDonough]

Epimedium timeline:  E. sempervirens 'Violet Queen'

Here are a series of photos documenting this partcular epimedium from April - December.  I draw from photos over several years, so the size of the plant may look different depending on the photo, but the goal here is to show early flowering and foliage emerging, the bountiful floral display on this selection (on a mature plant, such as the photo taken on 4-29-2009), the brilliant color of spring foliage, sprinking of bright new foliage in the start of a "second foliar flush", and ending up with the smoldering fall color that lasts well into winter.

The transition from photo 5 & 6 beautifully illustrate the transformation from a flowering plant, to s foliar plant, where the brilliantly color foliage rises above the fading flowers.

[McDonough]

Epimedium profile:  E. sempervirens 'Candy Hearts'

With E. sempervirens, the best aspect of the species is the foliage, spectacular in some cultivars such as this 2001 introduction from Darrell Probst.  I include a number of photographs, as it presents itself differently day to day, week after week, and under different lighting conditions.  In late spring and early summer, there are flushes of colorful new leaves.  The flowers, while large, are a pale washed-out color (described as silvery lavender pink), but it is definitely worth growing for the foliage alone.  This is a very slow grower, and a clumper not a spreader.

Seedlings show interesting variation.

[McDonough]

More Epimedium sempervirens.

Epimedium sempervirens are unsurpassed as foliage plants.  One of the best is E. sempervirens 'Aurora'.  It has pale lavender blooms, but it is the shiny foliage that really stands out, which can be beautifully edged in red. In the second photo, there is E. x setosum in the upper right with tiny white flowers (x setosum is a hybrid between E. diphyllum and E. sempervirens). In the 3rd photo, a more general view of an enbankment with several E. sempervirens cultivars, the cultivar 'Aurora' in the center, E. sempervirens 'Vega' in the lower right with very shiny pointed leaflets. The 4th photo shows E. sempervirens "Aurora' again, but later on when the colorful second flush of foliage appears.

[McDonough]

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Dark Beauty' - partial spring to summer timeline.

This is among my very favorite eppies, a chameleon to be sure, almost a different color and aspect every other day.  It emerges with foliage that is near black-red, but quickly assumes more muted tones of red and green, eventually giving over to green but strongly tinged red on the older foliage, the new leaflets still black-red.  The flowers are large spidery two-toned lavender and purple, showy and worthwhile in their own right.  The famed "second flush" of foliage after initial flowering is almost as spectacular as the initial foliage, young leaflets blood red, shading to paler suffused red tones on slightly older leaflets.  Eventually new leaflets are luminous light green against the darker green of older leaflets, yet still sporting red juvenile foliage through the season.  Fall color is an unremarkable yellowish.

[McDonough]

Another dark-leaf beauty, colorful aspects of Epimedium grandiflorum var. violaceum 'Bronze Maiden'.

This is a 1999 introduction by Darrell Probst, another of those dark-leaf selections that goes through a dramatic cameleon-like transformation of foliage color.  The mahogany brown-red foliage is so shiny that it can look like polished leather.  It is a solid clumper with showy sprays of lavender flowers above the neat foliage.  By June the leaves turn green, but new foliage in the second flush of foliage and sporadic new leaves all summer, are richly red-tinged.  Outstanding!

[McDonough]

Three miscellaneous grandiflorums, E. grandiflorum 'Saxton's Purple', a fairly unique color, E. grandiflorum 'Princess Susan', a 1999 Darrell Probst introduction with showy bi-colored flowers of clean white and bright rose, and E. grandiflorum var. violaceum with lively flowers and contrasting dark color spring foliage.

[McDonough]

Epimedium x sasakii (hybrids between E. sempervirens and  E. x setosum)

A modest species to be sure, but still attractive in a demure way.  Slow growing, attractive colored foliage in spring, sprays of small pale flowers. This one is now a bittersweet memory for me, as Sasaki Associates is the name of the company I was recently laid off from after 20+ years service.

I grow two forms offered by Garden Vision Epimediums, and his 2001 introduction E. x sasakii 'Melody', a more robust showy hybrid.  These have evergreen foliage, which can be seen in the last photo.