Inside-out-flower: Vancouveria - my American dream!

[Hoy]

I have grown Vancouveria hexandra for several years and the colony expands in my small wood (consisting of one giant sequoia, one tulip tree, one arborvitae and some shrubs) in front of my house. I have been looking for the other Vancouveria species but not succeeded yet.

[Todd Boland]

Looks great!  I've never tried this genus....I heard they are not that hardy so I have been reticent to try it.

[Lori S.]

I grow Vancouveria hexandra here, Todd, and have over many years, so it's hardier than one may assume from its natural range!

[McDonough]

Vancouveria hexandra is rock-solid hardy here too, although comes with the warning that it is too aggressive a spreader.  Knowing this, I planted my plants down in my dry woods under moisture-wicking Sugar Maple trees, farther down in my property than any water hoses reach. And in 20 years the V. hexandra patch is about 9-10' (3+ meters) across in all those years, actually fairly moderate spreading compared to many much more vigorous spreaders.  I documented this on the Scottish Rock Garden Club, so rather than repeat it here, I'll post the links.

Trond, there are only 3 species of Vancouveria, all three are available in the USA (but only in a couple specialty nurseries), although I only discovered this fact recently.  I would love to have the yellow C. chrysantha. I'm working on getting seed of both V. chrysantha and V. planipetalum, and if I do and I'm able to raise fertile plants, I can share seeds.  The part I worry about, it might be that two different clones are needed for seed production... out of hundreds upon hundreds of multi-flowered inflorescences on V. hexandra, not 1 seed was set!

Vancouveria chrysantha
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4769.msg156964#msg156964

Vancouveria hexandra and V. planipetalum
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4769.msg154427#msg154427

[RickR]

Vancouveria hexandra grows here also.  For some here it is a thug, but for most it is fairly benign.

[McDonough]

Vancouveria hexandra grows here also.  For some here it is a thug, but for most it is fairly benign.

I wonder if it is moisture level that brings out the thuggishness?  So, just for laughs, I tried some hybridization of Vancouveria hexandra pollen on some epimediums, we'll see in 2-3 years whether anything worked.  I know this is something that Darrell Probst has considered as well.

[Hoy]

Vancouveria hexandra grows here also.  For some here it is a thug, but for most it is fairly benign.

No thug at all even if it spreads. But it is confined here between roads and walkways. In the spring the huge Anemone 'Robinsoniana' cover all with their bloom and a few other plants put their heads through the groundcover of ivy.

[Lori S.]

I wonder if it is moisture level that brings out the thuggishness? 

Maybe so.  It's rather slowly-spreading in my yard, where it also competes for moisture with trees.  (It may also be at or near its hardiness limit here, I suppose.)

[AmyO]

I've grown it in 2 different gardens...first in zone 5 Massachusetts in a good loamy soil and it was quite rapidly spreading through the garden competing with Primula & other woodlanders. But here in Vermont zone 4 it's more well behaved. I planted it along a stream with Phlox stolonifera, Primula japonica and some Iris sibirica and it seems to be staying within it's allotted space. But time will tell.

[McDonough]

Amy, It shall be interesting to see how the Vancouveria does growing streamside in conditions where Primula japonica would grow, most likely with much more moisture situation, compared to my dry dry dry woodland under the water-shedding umbrella of mature Sugar Maples with their thirsty roots.  However, I like the fact the Vancouveria can survive and look relatively lush in such a dry woodland situation.  Jeffersonia diphylla and Pulmonaria rubra also naturalize my dry woodland, although the Pulmonaria foliage flags terribly with the dryness but persists regardless.

[McDonough]

Some more Vancouveria links, and some photos from spring 2010 that I haven't shown here yet.

Vancouveria hexandra - white insideout flower
http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch?mode=symbol&keywordquery=VAHE
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+0210+0547

Vancouveria chrysantha - Siskiyou insideout flower
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+0106+1163
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+0605+1171
...foliage and pods
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=1351+3163+4290+0084

Vancouveria planipetala
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Vancouveria+planipetala
(A couple images in the gallery might represent V. hexandra and not planipetala).

photo of V. planipetala by John Weagle of Nova Scotia:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4769.0;attach=224675;image

A few views of my wide carpet of V. hexandra, Jeffersonia diphylla leaves visible in the first photo:







Up close, the little parachute shaped flowers of Vancouveria are cute.  I wonder, if Vancouveria and Epimedium could be crossed, what the flower shape would be like?  I goofed around and tried making some crosses, we'll see what happened.

[Lori S.]

Terrific photos, Mark.  I always find it hard to photograph such airy, insubstantial things as the flower stalks on Vancouveria, Thalictrum, etc. but you have aced it.
V. chrysantha is especially intriguing with its golden flowers.

[McDonough]

Terrific photos, Mark.  I always find it hard to photograph such airy, insubstantial things as the flower stalks on Vancouveria, Thalictrum, etc. but you have aced it.
V. chrysantha is especially intriguing with its golden flowers.

Thanks Lori, I had 1001 other photos where the flowers were out of focus   My daughter and I share an entry level ($99) Nikon Coolpix camera, with a number of known shortcomings or limitations, but I've learned a number of tricks to compensate.  You're right, one of the hardest things to capture are skinny airy plants, but I get lots of practice with slender Alliums.

The camera is also terrible with light color flowers (white and light yellow especially). One of the advantages of being unemployed, is that I can reshoot my pics over and over again at various times during the day, to find the most optimal lighting conditions.

[Hoy]

Excellent pics, Mark! It is not only difficult to picture such airy stalks but with white flowers too! My old camera didn't focus on white flowers at all. Fortunately it broke so I had to buy me a new one for Yule present
By the way, anybody having a piece of rhizome of V chrysantha for trade (when it thaws)?

[RickR]

And there was one of those really great looking leaf forms of Jeffersonia diphylla you have, too, Mark.

Are you saying that you crossed Vancouveria and Epimedium and may have gotten viable seed?
That would be awesome!