Miscellaneous Woodlanders

[Hoy]

The primulas are coming now!
This one, a P denticulata lookalike (I think it is from one of Chadwell's allocations) has a lot of farina on the early buds. The flowers open early down between the leaves but the scape elongates soon.

Super cool Trond! Mine are still a few weeks away from bloom, but with temps going up into the 50'sf all week perhaps I'll see flowers much sooner!

Thanks Amy
Here the temp stays in the lower 40's F so everything develop rather slowly except the slugs. I've already sent quite a few to their eternal greenery.

[McDonough]

Epigaea repens (mayflower) is already budded, it'll be interesting to see if the flowers will open in March if we continue to get unseasonably warm weather, or hold off until April (which is still early for a mayflower).  Photos taken today, March 17, 2012.

This is a colony growing on a wooded roadcut just a couple minute walk from my house.  Observing the colony, there are obvious patches of variable forms, in the first photo you can see a lighter green leaved type on the left, and a darker green leaved form on the right. The photo on the right gives a view of the steep roadcut covered in mayflower.




On the left is a strong healthy looking form with large rounded dark green leaves.  On the right is a particularly small leaved form, of a lighter green color, and with congested more leafy growth.  The flowers are mostly very pale pink in this colony.




Are there any named selections of mayflower? I see photos of some strong pink color forms, but I don't know of any named selections.  Has anyone grown this plant from cuttings, if so, any suggestions?

[cohan]

Cool to see, Mark, this is one I'd like to establish- I have some unsown seeds.. 

[WimB]

Epigaea repens (mayflower) is already budded, it'll be interesting to see if the flowers will open in March if we continue to get unseasonably warm weather, or hold off until April (which is still early for a mayflower).  Photos taken today, March 17, 2012.

This is a colony growing on a wooded roadcut just a couple minute walk from my house.  Observing the colony, there are obvious patches of variable forms, in the first photo you can see a lighter green leaved type on the left, and a darker green leaved form on the right. The photo on the right gives a view of the steep roadcut covered in mayflower.

On the left is a strong healthy looking form with large rounded dark green leaves.  On the right is a particularly small leaved form, of a lighter green color, and with congested more leafy growth.  The flowers are mostly very pale pink in this colony.

Are there any named selections of mayflower? I see photos of some strong pink color forms, but I don't know of any named selections.  Has anyone grown this plant from cuttings, if so, any suggestions?

Very nice to see, Mark. And almost impossible to find over here. I've sown it three times now and killed them two times when transplanting. Now I have a third batch of three year old seedlings. I planted them out this spring without disturbing their roots... I just dug a hole in the shape of the seedbox and put it in like that....

[Harold Peachey]

Mark, Dean Evans of the Berkshire chapter has successfully propagated this species from cuttings.  One plant he gave me years ago still survives in my old Averill Park garden.

[Hoy]

I've wanted to grow mayflowerfrom the first time I saw a picture of it! As Wim says it is next to impossible to buy here and I have never had any luck with seed
Maybe I should try cuttings if anybody have some to spare . . . .

[Lis Allison]

I've had mixed results with cuttings. In 2009 I took 18 cuttings from plants growing in woods nearby. I stuck them into acidic sand collected near where the plants were. By late fall all had rooted and were showing some new leaves. I left them in the flat over winter ( in an improvised cold frame which collapsed on them) and in the spring gave some away and transplanted the rest to my garden. Six or so plants now seem well established and have lots of buds right now.

In 2010, thinking I knew how to do this, I got another 12 cuttings and did the same thing as before: small cuttings, stuck into acidic sand, covered with a plastic dome and kept in the shade all summer..... and they all stayed green but did not root and in the spring they all died.

Last summer I tried putting the cuttings into peat moss as described in H. Lincoln Foster's book. They died quickly. This summer I hope to try the sand approach again.

I've never gotten any seeds to germinate. The seedlings are so tiny maybe I just didn't see them but in any case none got big enough to stand up and be counted.

It must depend on getting the cuttings at the right time. Foster suggests early June, which is what I did, but of course every year is different so what does that mean.

[RickR]

It must depend on getting the cuttings at the right time.

Michael Dirr says in his propagation book that August into September (I assume in Georgia) is the best time to take cuttings of Trailing Arbutus.  ("Mayflowers" denote Thalictrum thalictroides were I live.)  Untreated in sand/peat mix gave 94% rooting in 5 weeks.  Cuttings include part of last season's growth.  October cutting rooted at 50%.

[Hoy]

I prefere cuttings to tiny seeds

[Tim Ingram]

That primula would make a great time lapse film! I've had thoughts of doing this on beds in the garden but so far haven't built up the resolve - it needs a bit of planning. Fern fronds expanding, Jeffersonia coming in and going out of flower (or Sanguinaria); in both cases it is only a few days. With Giant Fennels you can virtually watch the flower spike growing! I'm convincing myself that this would make a good project.

[McDonough]

That primula would make a great time lapse film! I've had thoughts of doing this on beds in the garden but so far haven't built up the resolve - it needs a bit of planning. Fern fronds expanding, Jeffersonia coming in and going out of flower (or Sanguinaria); in both cases it is only a few days. With Giant Fennels you can virtually watch the flower spike growing! I'm convincing myself that this would make a good project.

I have always wanted to do a time lapse photography of Arisaema heterophyllum (the form I grow is a giant, reaches 6' (2 m) to the spathe tip), typically it doesn't emerge until late May or early June, then in the span of 3 weeks it reaches 6 feet!

Thinking about time-lapse photography, in notheastern USA we've had a full week of record breaking mid-summer like warmth, each day to 79-80 F, people going around dressed in shorts and tee shirts.  As if by magic, everything starting popping open; Magnolia soulangiana trees (widely planted here) are in full bloom, as are M. stellata and salicifolia, Forsythia, Cornus mas, Rhododendron mucronulatum, daffodils, and everything else pushing rapid growth.  Suddenly Jeffersonia dubia is in bloom, the plants looking foreshortened and not flowering normally.  Predicted to go down to 19 F (-7 C) tomorrow night, below freezing the following night(s) too; I anticipate the level of freeze damage that will occur with so much soft and advanced spring plant growth.

Mayflower or Trainling Arbutus, Epigaea repens is in bloom, now in New England we must call these Marchflower  Here are a couple photos taken near dusk on my way home from work a couple days ago.  It's a near white form, I did take a photo of a single deeper pink form, but it came out blurry.

[Hoy]

Mark, white or pink, March or Mayflower; it is a gem!

Thinking about time-lapse photography, in notheastern USA we've had a full week of record breaking mid-summer like warmth, each day to 79-80 F, people going around dressed in shorts and tee shirts.  As if by magic, everything starting popping open; Magnolia soulangiana trees (widely planted here) are in full bloom, as are M. stellata and salicifolia, Forsythia, Cornus mas, Rhododendron mucronulatum, daffodils, and everything else pushing rapid growth.  Suddenly Jeffersonia dubia is in bloom, the plants looking foreshortened and not flowering normally.  Predicted to go down to 19 F (-7 C) tomorrow night, below freezing the following night(s) too; I anticipate the level of freeze damage that will occur with so much soft and advanced spring plant growth.

Although we have had nice sunny weather we haven't reached that warm temperatures! Neither do we get freezing nights either
In the eastern part of Norway they have had all time high temperatures in March and my sister in Oslo tells  she'll have flowering daffodils in the garden before Easter for the first time ever!

Mark, are you sure it is an Arisaema and not a bamboo you grow?

[WimB]

Some plants which are flowering here now in the shade-garden.

Hepatica transsilvanica 'Eisvögel'
Hepatica nobilis (white)
Hepatica nobilis (blue)
Adonis ramosa
Thalictrum thalictroides 'Amelia'
Thalictrum thalictroides 'Big' and Primula 'Cowichan Red'

Forgot a few 

Hepatica x media 'Blue Jewel'
and Thalictrum thalictroides 'Pink Flash'

[Hoy]

Nice stuff, Wim!
I'm jealous of your different T thalictroides cultivars. Have tried to establish some here with little success

[cohan]

Wim- many nice things in flower there, as always!