Epimedium 2011

[Hoy]

Mark, I agree with Lori!
You can't sleep much or watch the telly - both attending to your work and to your beautiful garden!

[gerrit]

Epimedium gr. 'Circe' is a lovely one. It catched my eye already before. A very good performance with her flowers elegant above the leaves. A very vivid attractive colour because of the long white spur tips. One of the many species, we'll never see here.

Finally the rain has arrived after 2 months with no single drop. We've had a bad epimedium-year, the flowers didn't develop well, with temperatures above 20 degrees C. And sunshine almost every day. The flowers  left only a few days. Maybe we'll see a second flush.

[McDonough]

Finally the rain has arrived after 2 months with no single drop. We've had a bad epimedium-year, the flowers didn't develop well, with temperatures above 20 degrees C. And sunshine almost every day. The flowers  left only a few days. Maybe we'll see a second flush.

Too bad about the drought you've had; reminds me of last summer's terrible record-breaking drought and heat waves.  In fact, for the first time ever with Epimedium, I had a number of losses this spring, I'm sure due to the record drought in summer 2010 (and a large part of Autumn 2010) and with a 100% watering ban in town.  About 10 species/cultivars here were total "no-shows" this spring, and maybe 12-14 others are barely alive with a few late-emerging leaf sprouts and most parts of the rhizomes dead, all weakened from the drought and collapse of all foliage the previous summer.

[McDonough]

A miscellany of Epimedium tonight.  We've been pummeled by rain for the last several days, so, some "eppies" are looking a bit down-trodden, but I snapped a few recent pics to share here, even though they may look a bit dark.

E. pubescens "Shaanxi Forms", the hardy version of E. pubescens.  I like this one because it is very low growing, with colorful foliage, reliably evergreen foliage, and late display of starry white flowers (just starting now) and a rebloomer.


E. x cantabrigiensis "Red Form" - a cute plant with tiny red and yellow flowers.



E. x youngianum hybrid seedlings, the foreground plant shows small thimbles of white with light pink sepals.



Some yellows:
left:   E. davidii EMR x ?brevicornu hybrid (small flowers) and E. davidii EMR open-pollinated seedling plant; much more prolific flowering.
right: E. x 'Lemon Zest' - a cute one with small spur-challenged yellow thimbles.



Left:   E. grandiflorum 'Cranberry Sparkle' - the darkest cranberry red flowers of any "eppie", this high-alpine selection is outstanding.  So far, I haven't gotten a good photo, so what I show will have to do.
Right:  Epimedium hybrid with rich pink sepals and wide-spreading white spurs.



E. x 'Domino' garden scene:

[gerrit]

What a breathtaking view of your woodlandgarden with the majestic E.x domino. I'm so happy, I purchased this one a few weeks ago.
Mark, I enjoyed looking and studying your pictures. Thanks a lot for doing it.
The possible hybrid between E.davidii EMR and E. brevicornu took my special interest. I wonder, how the spurs can be pink, as the parent has white flowers. I was thinking of E. brachyrrhizum perhaps.
The E.gr.'Cranberry Sparkle' is a stunner indeed. A better photo you showed already in reply 87. Is this the most red form of all? I'm thinking of E.gr.'Yubae' and maybe E.gr.'Red Queen'.

Gerrit

[gerrit]

Finally the rain has arrived after 2 months with no single drop. We've had a bad epimedium-year, the flowers didn't develop well, with temperatures above 20 degrees C. And sunshine almost every day. The flowers  left only a few days. Maybe we'll see a second flush.

Too bad about the drought you've had; reminds me of last summer's terrible record-breaking drought and heat waves.  In fact, for the first time ever with Epimedium, I had a number of losses this spring, I'm sure due to the record drought in summer 2010 (and a large part of Autumn 2010) and with a 100% watering ban in town.  About 10 species/cultivars here were total "no-shows" this spring, and maybe 12-14 others are barely alive with a few late-emerging leaf sprouts and most parts of the rhizomes dead, all weakened from the drought and collapse of all foliage the previous summer.

Sorry to hear about this terrible summer last year. I won't complain any more. I watered my plants every day, especially my rock garden with limestones (tufa). They even didn't talk about a watering ban. So actually no problems over here. But to loose so many Epimediums, that's something. When it's such a bad weather, the plants suffer, the gardener suffers too.

[McDonough]

What a breathtaking view of your woodlandgarden with the majestic E.x domino. I'm so happy, I purchased this one a few weeks ago.
Mark, I enjoyed looking and studying your pictures. Thanks a lot for doing it.
The possible hybrid between E.davidii EMR and E. brevicornu took my special interest. I wonder, how the spurs can be pink, as the parent has white flowers. I was thinking of E. brachyrrhizum perhaps.
The E.gr.'Cranberry Sparkle' is a stunner indeed. A better photo you showed already in reply 87. Is this the most red form of all? I'm thinking of E.gr.'Yubae' and maybe E.gr.'Red Queen'.

Gerrit

Congratulations on getting 'Domino', one of the very best cultivars out there.

With the possible davidii hybrid with brevicornu, this is a best guess... the seedling appeared under E. davidii EMR (so I label it accordingly) and close by is E. brevicornu (a very willing parent) and E. stellulatum and E. pubescens "Shaanxi Form", each of those three has tiny white starry blooms.  I have about 1-1/2 dozen E. brevicornu hybrids (many with E. membranaceum), and they all follow a similar theme... small flowers with white sepals (often spotted red or pink, making them look pinkish), and amplified yellow petal cups... cute little things.  The hybrids where I'm quite convinced they involve E. brevicornu x membranaceum pick up the white pink-spotted sepals of membranaceum, showing up a bit more pink in the hybrid.  But, it's just a guess

A few more garden views... all taken on dreary cool and rainy days... lots of Epimedium, but other plants like Pulmonaria, Ariseama, Cypripedium, Phlox, etc.

 

 

[gerrit]

Wow, what a fantastic group of Cypripedium. C.parviflorum pubescens, I guess? If it is so, it's native in your region. Do they still grow a lot in the woods of N.America?

[Hoy]

Mark, your garden is marvellous

[WimB]

A few more garden views... all taken on dreary cool and rainy days... lots of Epimedium, but other plants like Pulmonaria, Ariseama, Cypripedium, Phlox, etc.

Wow, what a fantastic group of Cypripedium. C.parviflorum pubescens, I guess? If it is so, it's native in your region. Do they still grow a lot in the woods of N.America?

Mark, I can only agree with Gerrit, that is one impressive clump of C. parviflorum var. pubescens.

What's the plant growing underneath the two Arisaema sikokianums?

In total it's a very nice woodland corner....I find the best pictures of woodland plants are often taken during these dreary days....wish we had some rainy days (unlike our northern neighbours in the Netherlands we still haven't seen any rain)

[RickR]

I especially liked the E. davidii hybrid, too.  And besides all your wonderful pics of your wonderful garden, Mark, I always appreciate your insightful remarks that accompany.  They are certainly not just pretty pictures!

[McDonough]

Mark, I can only agree with Gerrit, that is one impressive clump of C. parviflorum var. pubescens.
What's the plant growing underneath the two Arisaema sikokianums?

Wim, I answered under a different topic, follow this link:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=593.msg9083#msg9083

[McDonough]

I especially liked the E. davidii hybrid, too.  And besides all your wonderful pics of your wonderful garden, Mark, I always appreciate your insightful remarks that accompany.  They are certainly not just pretty pictures!

Thanks Rick

One Epimedium that I believe should be more widely grown, is a relative newcomer on the horticultural scene, is E. elongatum, found at 9,000'-12,000' in Sichuan Province, China.  The only source I know for this species is Garden Vision Epimediums (it was listed again in the 2011 catalog: $45).  Besides being very hardy (suggested to be at least USDA Zone 4) is that it flowers very late, starting here early June, when most other epimediums are long done flowering.  It is a low grower, wider than tall, with an attractive shield of small crimp-edged leaflets, new foliage light bronze-toned, and airy upright stems and large spidery bright yellow flowers from June-July.  Here's a photo taken yesterday, with a couple stems just starting to rise from the foliage mound.




I haven't shown photos of the flowers previously, here are three photos showing the blooms; they look better in real life:

[McDonough]

One of the best and neatest of the yellow-flowered species is E. ilicifolium.  After being in a spot too dry to its liking the last several years, I finally dug it up last autumn, split it into two, and replanted in a more moist spot.  The foliage is particularly striking, narrow and long, and as its names suggests, prickly edged like a holly.  But what I like about it is its very low compact habit, and light yet luminous yellow flowers, these too on stems that splay sideways rather than gaining any height.  The foliage is evergreen, and it looked great here all year.  I plan on using this species in hybridization efforts, although virtually no progress on such efforts this year, the demands of "onboarding" and ramping up to a new job with lots of traveling and/or long daily commute forced me to give up such efforts temporarily.

[Lori S.]

Terrific plants, Mark!  I wish they were all more available!
The flowers on E. ilicifolium remind me of what used to be called a "mobile".