Epimedium 2011

[Peter George]

Tomorrow starts the 3 day Epimedium extravaganza here in Central Massachusetts, as Garden Visions has its annual sale. Over the past few years I've brought home about a dozen Epimedium species and hybrids, but the one that I look for first when I go out to the garden is E. x versicolor 'Versicolor.' The leaves and the flowers look almost too perfectly matched, and it's grown to a very impressive size in 3 years. It's easily my favorite, and tomorrow I'll bring home at least one more of this beauty, plus a few more I've lusted after for years.

[gerrit]

Lucky guy, living in the epicentre of the epimediumworld Peter. I like E. x versicolor 'Versicolor' too.

When you come back with you precious little E. show them please.

[McDonough]

It's wonderful, to go out in the garden in the early morning, as I do with my wife, who has become enthusiast of epimediums too, or as you do after a day of working with your photocamera and admire the new flowers blooming, or the appearency of new hybrids flowering for the first time.

That super-flowering x youngianum 'Liliputian' is really unbelievable. Compliments from my wife too.

I'm happy, I could purchase E.gr.'Purple Prince', you mentioned above.

One of the last flowering epimediums here in my garden, Epimedium wushanense nova. I'm real proud of it. An impressive appearance, altough it is a young plant, flowering for the first time.

Gerrit, very nice... an impressive E. wushanense... a plant with such substance.  Mine is just starting to open it's first flowers; I'm so pleased it is the weekend because I get to observe these beauties in more detail, maybe dab some pollen here and there.  In the morning (Saturday), I shall be heading out to Garden Vision Nursery (indeed the epicenter for epimedium) with a friend, to pick up a small order. 

Thanks for the compliments on the super-floriferous hybrid selection from E. x youngianum 'Liliuptian', but as a reminder, all of the hybrids that I currently show are the work of bees. But the ultra-floriferous one is a reminder to watch plants, give them space to develop, and watch them for 3-4 years to see what they are actually about in terms of growth characteristics, to reveal their special features.  Next year I should be able to show a few seedlings plants in first-flowering from my manual crosses, and in 2 years, lots more.

[McDonough]

Tomorrow starts the 3 day Epimedium extravaganza here in Central Massachusetts, as Garden Visions has its annual sale. Over the past few years I've brought home about a dozen Epimedium species and hybrids, but the one that I look for first when I go out to the garden is E. x versicolor 'Versicolor'. The leaves and the flowers look almost too perfectly matched, and it's grown to a very impressive size in 3 years. It's easily my favorite, and tomorrow I'll bring home at least one more of this beauty, plus a few more I've lusted after for years.

Peter, you characterized it well, this cultivar is amazing, with unique flower color and abundance of flowers, and perfectly matched vibrant foliage color within the same harmonious color range, that it is hard to beat.  Feel free to ask for divisions of any Epimedium, I have about 200 types, and the number keeps growing

[McDonough]

Headed out to Garden Vision Epimediums on their "open nursery weekend" to pick up a small order.  This year, the open house took place at Karen Perkin's residence in Phillipston Massachusetts (central MA).  The morning was warm and sunny, with a haze of tree pollen burning my eyes and making me sneeze frequently and my nose run like the wind, and with swarming clouds of biting gnats, my fingers bloodied from whacking them off my forehead or when they enter my ear canals... ah, spring in rural Massachusetts. I reduced the gnat population slightly by inadvertently swallowing a few.

Karen's property is rustic and scenic, with lots of grade change and beautiful stone outcrops and massive boulders.  Already in a short time, the grounds are shaping up and looking great, showing much potential.  And there they were, the rows of tables with Epimediums lined up alphabetically, such enticement.  A couple "eppies" I wanted were not available, but still was able to add a modest number of new types to my collection, here's what I bought:



E. sempervirens 'Candy Hearts', E. elachyphyllum, E. flavum, 'After Midnight', 'Starlet', 'Flame Thrower', and Iris gracilipes Buko, I. cristata 'Navy Blue Gem', and I. cristata 'Brumback Blue'.


Flowering in her new display beds was an Epimedium from Diana Reeck at Collector's Nursery, named E. 'Hot Lips', visually jumping out from the rest with a low shield of waxy shiny bronzed foliage and uniquely hued flowers of light pink sepals, raspberry pink centers and long arched spurs that shade to near white at the tips.  Wow!  I want that one!  Also looking fine, were clumps of Trillium pusillum 'Roadrunner' in perfect bloom.

[McDonough]

Here's another hybrid selection, a 3-year old plant.  It looks promising, with exceptional star-like flowers with long straight points, the sepals edged in purplish-pink creating a broad white star zone on the back of the sepals.  The foliage is small and bronze-tinged.  I'll try to get a photo when more fully developed and under better light conditions.




A veiw of a bed under Cornus kousa 'Milky Way' with about approximately 120 Epimedium hybrid seedlings, mostly 1-2 year olds and a few 3-year plants.  This is the best part... getting to review new flowering on hybrid plants.

[WimB]

Headed out to Garden Vision Epimediums on their "open nursery weekend" to pick up a small order.  This year, the open house took place at Karen Perkin's residence in Phillipston Massachusetts (central MA).  The morning was warm and sunny, with a haze of tree pollen burning my eyes and making me sneeze frequently and my nose run like the wind, and with swarming clouds of biting gnats, my fingers bloodied from whacking them off my forehead or when they enter my ear canals... ah, spring in rural Massachusetts. I reduced the gnat population slightly by inadvertently swallowing a few.

Karen's property is rustic and scenic, with lots of grade change and beautiful stone outcrops and massive boulders.  Already in a short time, the grounds are shaping up and looking great, showing much potential.  And there they were, the rows of tables with Epimediums lined up alphabetically, such enticement.  A couple "eppies" I wanted were not available, but still was able to add a modest number of new types to my collection, here's what I bought:


E. sempervirens 'Candy Hearts', E. elachyphyllum, E. flavum, 'After Midnight', 'Starlet', 'Flame Thrower', and Iris gracilipes Buko, I. cristata 'Navy Blue Gem', and I. cristata 'Brumback Blue'.

Flowering in her new display beds was an Epimedium from Diana Reeck at Collector's Nursery, named E. 'Hot Lips', visually jumping out from the rest with a low shield of waxy shiny bronzed foliage and uniquely hued flowers of light pink sepals, raspberry pink centers and long arched spurs that shade to near white at the tips.  Wow!  I want that one!  Also looking fine, were clumps of Trillium pusillum 'Roadrunner' in perfect bloom.

What's a gnat? Something like a mosquito? I don't think we have those over here   We do have pollen though....always fun for someone with tree-pollen and grass-pollen allergies like me  

Looks like you bought a nice selection...I wish we had such a selection of I. cristata cultivars to buy over here.

Those hot lips   look really nice....don't want it, need it!!!

Trillium pusillum is not very easy here, managed to kill it a couple of times already.

[WimB]

Here's another hybrid selection, a 3-year old plant.  It looks promising, with exceptional star-like flowers with long straight points, the sepals edged in purplish-pink creating a broad white star zone on the back of the sepals.  The foliage is small and bronze-tinged.  I'll try to get a photo when more fully developed and under better light conditions.

Very nice, Mark,

the spurs look like they are elongating the star on the upper sepals. Name-worthy! Mark's Star  

Could you show a pic of the inside of the flowers?

[McDonough]

Gnats are small blood-sucking insects.  They swarm for a period of about 1 month in spring, parts of northern New England are (in)famous for these beasties, making it very difficult to be outside without some sort of strategy of self protection, which may include hats with head netting attached.  While it was a warm day, I wore a sweatshirt and hat, and while I hate to do it... lathered up with insect repellent.  In a few weeks gnat season will be mostly over, to be replaced by mosquito season the rest of late spring and summer

http://www.google.com/search?q=gnats&hl=en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zIvGTeHHA4vAgQfAxrnMBA&sqi=2&ved=0CFAQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=809

Earlier I was going to post a photo of my Trillium pusillum 'Roadrunner'... glad I didn't as it is still a runt, need to get it into a richer soil situation and possibly more sun, to have it start "running" as its doing in Karen Perkin's garden.

[McDonough]

Here's another hybrid selection, a 3-year old plant.  It looks promising, with exceptional star-like flowers with long straight points, the sepals edged in purplish-pink creating a broad white star zone on the back of the sepals.  The foliage is small and bronze-tinged.  I'll try to get a photo when more fully developed and under better light conditions.

Very nice, Mark,

the spurs look like they are elongating the star on the upper sepals. Name-worthy! Mark's Star  

Could you show a pic of the inside of the flowers?

I'll try to get some better photos soon, I was dodging thunderstorms and lightning yesterday afternoon.  The other 2-year hybrid plant I showed a few messages back (http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=630.msg8577#msg8577) has the sharpest defined "white star" on the of reddish-pink of any hybrid I've seen.  One reason I bought E. 'Starlet', another of Diana Reeck's (Collectors Nursery) hybrids, is to compare the star-like color effect, although from what I can see, the white star is diffuse in that selection.
http://www.collectorsnursery.com/cat03/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=29

By the way, 'Hot Lips' is available here, what a beauty:
http://www.collectorsnursery.com/cat03/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=24

[Peter George]

Our 'gnats' are actually called Black Flies, which are sometimes referred to as 'Buffalo Gnats' since they have a sort of hump in their back. They are small, black blood sucking insects which are actually more painful and irritating than mosquitoes because the females literally slash the skin and lick up the blood as it pools. Black flies breed in flowing water from rivers and streams. After mating the female deposits the fertilized eggs on rocks or other substrate in swift flowing water. Larvae emerge from eggs and develop aquatically, feeding on algae and organic matter flowing by in the moving water. In 7-10 days they develop into pupae. Adults emerge from the pupal case through a slit and float to the surface on a bubble of air. Emerging adults live from 2-3 weeks. They are usually found from spring through fall, with the greatest numbers appearing in the late spring and summer. They are active during the day, with peak activity in the morning and early evening. Here in MA we get them for about 1 month, and for that period, insect repellent is essential, unless you are a masochist.

I'm finally learning how to take pictures, given the necessity of not embarrassing myself here on the Forum. I may even get a better camera, and possibly even take a few lessons! Here is E. brevicornu, about 3 years old, growing in east end of my garden, with morning and late afternoon sun.

[Peter George]

Another nice small Epimedium, E. x youngianum 'Be My Valentine.' It's been in the garden for 3 years, originally purchased from Garden Visions. It's now about 1 foot across and is about 10 inches tall. The flowers are beautiful, and can be seen from quite a distance.

[cohan]

More charming plants!
We have a lot of some kind(s) of tiny flying things which we might call gnats or 'no see 'ems' etc (in my house we say 'pinwall'(sp??) a word my housemate uses, not sure if it has any origin outside his mind or not..lol) thankfully, they do not bite, since they are here any time its above (or not far below!) freezing and too small to be stopped by the screens!
Meanwhile, we still have snow in some deep shade spots, and mosquitoes are already out!

[Lori S.]

Off topic but...
Here, or at least to me  , "gnats" are basically unidentifiable little flying objects, mostly harmless to plant and animal; often seen swarming later in summer in cyclonic clusters that I presume to be mating groups... ?   
Black flies are readily-identifiable blood-sucking pests with humped backs that spend their larval period attached to rocks in rivers, as Peter has described (and although I don't find the bites themselves painful, the itchy inflammation afterwards is maddening), and no-see-ums are... well, I actually have only encountered them in northern Saskatchewan and North Dakota (or something like them), not here, but they are miniscule biting flies with razor jaws.  Having said that, we only get some mosquitoes and a few black flies here... 
"No-see-um" netting has long been available as tent screening and works like a charm; perhaps it's available for windows too?

[McDonough]

Both Epimedium brevicornu and E. x youngianum 'Be My Valentine' are among my favorite epimediums.  Be My Valentine does indeed stand out with rather perky bright color flowers, one of the best youngianum introductions,.

Wim: following up on your request, here is a photo showing the face-view of the flowers on "Mark's Star"   Clean white inside.