Epimedium 2011

[Hoy]

Do you never run out of extraordinary plants to show, Mark?

[McDonough]

Do you never run out of extraordinary plants to show, Mark?

Nope, not as long as I grow Epimedium hybrids by the hundreds, if not thousands.

Today I started planting a new Epimedium bed.  It is an area approximately 30' long x 7' wide, with a path down the middle of the long length. Into the top layer of soil, I mixed in a 6" layer of decomposed pink bark mulch, the eppies love it.

The seedlings going in were sown in flats last summer, the flats sitting out in an open shaded location exposed to the elements, and keep moist.  Wire screening was placed on top of each flat to keep chipmunks and squirrels from digging and eating the seed.  Left to the elements all winter, most flats show lots of germination.

Epimedium 'Purple Prince' x OP (open pollinated) is demonstrated here.  I knock out the flats when moderately moist/dry, the soil is gently crumbled to release the seedlings, they are easy to feather apart.  I hold each seedling by its leaf.




I plant the seedlings in row, spaced closely at only about 3-4" apart, where they can stay for 2 years growing in together vbut still easily separated.  In the second year, many will bloom, and I will be able to start culling through the better or worse sorts.  Differing blocks of varieties are separated by about 6" distance.  After planting, I spread a layer of pine back mulch, and then my favorite part, hand watering.




View of a portion of the new bed, showing a 15' length, with little "points of green"




For some interest, I also planted out a few larger 2 or 3-year hybrid plants, just for some immediate color and interest.  Two views of Epimedium membranaceum x brevicornu.  This is interesting, because it demonstrates an aspect of hybrids that people don't always pay attention to.  In this case, the plant looks just like E. membranaceum, with flurries of large yellow spider flowers, but in the second photo showing a close up of the flower panicles, notice the dense hairy fluff on the stems and pedicels, a strong characteristic of E. brevicornu, which it almost always imparts on its progeny.




Last year I found a hybrid seedling under E. brachyrrhizum, this seedling (left) certainly has a lovely second flush of colorful foliage.  On the right is a seedling I just noticed today, probably a 2-year plant which was growing amongst E. fangii, no doubt a E. brevicornu x membranaceum hybrid with small white flowers and a yellow cup and spurs; I have dozens of similar such hybrids appearing because both membranaceum and brevicornu are planted right next to each other, and overhanging my patch of E. fangii.

[gerrit]

I totally agree, what you said about Epimedium illicifolium,Mark. It is no love at first sight, when you see it for the first time, but this one is one of the best the genus Epimedium can offer us, in my opinion. A slow grower in my garden, that's a pity. One of the last in the season. I put it on an embankment, in order to see the horizontally growing branches.

I post a picture from about a month ago.

[gerrit]

Funny to see the rows of your seedlings Mark. Isn't there a risk of damage by birds, chipmunks,and others looking for food?

[McDonough]

Funny to see the rows of your seedlings Mark. Isn't there a risk of damage by birds, chipmunks,and others looking for food?

The risk of any planting in my garden is from squirrels incessantly digging holes in the garden; in the fall they bury a million acorns in every part of the garden and the rest of the year they dig a billion holes looking for them.  Some days in spring when I go out, it looks like a war zone in miniature, with hundreds upon hundreds of small "craters" from squirrel digging; this drives me absolutely batty!  I do trap and relocate squirrels, but chipmunks and squirrels are like gas... similar to a gas that expands to find equilibrium with the density of air, so too will these varmints spread into the landscape, no matter how much trapping is done.

Of course, the acorns germinate, and there isn't a day that I don't pull ten or more sprouting oak trees, including from potted plants and flats unless protected with a wire cover.  



Once the seedlings are a year old they are well enough established that they survive the infernal squirrel diggings (such as in this view with 1-2 year seedling plants), when seedlings are newly planted they do run the risk of being uprooted as a collateral casualty of squirrel digging, but not as food.

PS: good idea about putting your E. ilicifolium up on an embankment to see the plant form better; I need to situate a couple epimediums that could also benefit from better visibility.

[Hoy]

Seems we have all our own war to fight, Mark!

Your planting is even more regular than I manage to do in my kitchengarden, very impressive

[gerrit]

I enjoyed your story of those miserable neighbours in your war zone-garden.

Some Eppies look better on an embankment indeed. Especially all those Epimediums from the x omeiense group. Not only Epimedium ilicifolium (with one l indeed).

Mark, you mentioned E.wushanense 'Spiny leaved Foprms'. In the catalogue of GVN it is listed for a 125$. Does it bloom at yours now? And please when it does post a picture. It is the only wushanense-form at GVN. I wondered why, because here in Europe we can order easily all E.wushanense species. including the 'Spiny leaved Form', which is a Darell Probst introduction.
I didn't buy this one for 12 euro (15$) and I regret.

[McDonough]

Mark, you mentioned E.wushanense 'Spiny leaved Foprms'. In the catalogue of GVN it is listed for a 125$. Does it bloom at yours now? And please when it does post a picture. It is the only wushanense-form at GVN. I wondered why, because here in Europe we can order easily all E.wushanense species. including the 'Spiny leaved Form', which is a Darell Probst introduction.
I didn't buy this one for 12 euro (15$) and I regret.

I didn't take many photos of E. wushanense "Spiny-leaved forms" this year, and the ones I did take, didn't come out well.  I don't have it situated well; unlike normal E. wushanense with upright flower stems, the spiny-leaved form that Darrell selected is low growing and the flowers are produced on nearly horizontal stems that tend to be hidden under the leaves.  The plant is another one that would benefit from being planted high up on a mound or embankment to see the flowers better.  The photo I show is poor, because the creamy white flowers with yellow centers invariably come out overexposed when using my cheap entry-level Nikon camera.  I'm going to move and divide it shortly... currently it is planted on the backside of a sloped garden bed, now getting swamped by an enlarging clump of Jeffersonia diphylla.

[McDonough]

Epimedium season is not yet over, as long as you grow E. membranaceum, one of the few everblooming species.  With sufficient moisture this summer, this species, and it's hybrids, just keep on going!

[McDonough]

Out of numerous hybrid seedlings, only a few show prolonged summertime colorful foliage.  This one is the most pronounced, with strong red leaf coloring since spring.

[Lori S.]

I'm going to move and divide it shortly... currently it is planted on the backside of a sloped garden bed, now getting swamped by an enlarging clump of Jeffersonia diphylla.

How regrettable... to have plants swamped by overlarge Jeffersonia diphylla... 
I must go searching for E. membranaceum - the repeat bloom looks wonderful!
Thanks for finding time in your busy schedule to post these mouth-watering plants, Mark!

[Hoy]

I am never that lucky to have plants swamped by species I actually love to grow!
I hope it is possible to get E. membranaceum here too

[McDonough]

Still thinking about Epimedium, there are literally hundreds of self-sown seedlings springing up here and there, and everywhere.  Usually I dig them up, row them out in flats, and label them to include under what Epimedium they were found.  I didn't do that this year, no time, but the seedlings will be fine until next spring, but I will need to pot them up and move them to keep my named forms clearly identified.  I should probably weed them out, but I don't have the heart, I have enough room to grow on these cute seedlings for years to come (photo on left shows a couple seedlings).  The middle and right-hand photo show E. youngianum 'Liliputian' in the front, with various other hybrid Epimediums; a nice hybrid E. sempervirens on the right in the middle photo, these photos taken to show the incredible plant size difference available in Epimedium.




Late this afternoon, with the afternoon sun back-lighting a hybrid Epimedium that has shown bright red leaves all summer long (both photos), growing below Magnolia sieboldii (Korean form) grown from seed.  In the right photo, there is a Magnolia seedling that I came across today... can't be M. sieboldii as my young trees only bloomed for the first time this year, unless it is a late-germinating seed after 4 yrs; more likely it's a seedling from a nearby Magnolia... oh, such weeds to have




I know I keep showing E. membranaceum (photo on the left), but it just keeps on going and flowering into autumn, there will be waves of blooms.  Hybrids from it will do the same thing. I still have lots and lots of Epimedium seedlings to row out from my great "year-of-unemployment-2010-hybridize-Epimediums-like-crazy" year, where I sowed nearly 50 flats of hybrid seed.  The photo on the right shows seedlings planted out late this afternoon (while battling a fresh brood of small but zippy & ravenous mosquitoes), left row#1 is E. membranaceum (open pollinated seed), row#2 is hand pollinated seedlings from a selected E. membranaceum x brevicornu cross x hand crosses, row#3 is E. x 'Lemon Zest' (open pollinated), and row#4 is E. x setosum - various hand crosses.

[RickR]

Regarding the red leafed hybrid, Mark: is that the second flush of leaves, or are all the leaves red at a younger age?

[McDonough]

Regarding the red leafed hybrid, Mark: is that the second flush of leaves, or are all the leaves red at a younger age?

It was a second flush (although the first flush was red too).  It's fairly unique, because the red color in the 2nd flush lasted all summer, it never faded to green as most others do.