Epimedium 2014

Mark, this one has especially good qualities to show off the flowers!

Bravo!

Insprired by some superb images of lovely looking plants on this Forum last year, we purchased a small selection of Epimedium sp. and hybrids in the Fall. The first is flowering well now. Question is ..... what next? Do we need to do anything, or just leave them to their own devices to grow and grow ?

That's a very nice one Mark, why not name it "Chocolate and cream"

Ron, glad you tried some Epimedium varieties, you can't go wrong with them.  They are "easy doers" and for the most part, very long lived, just leave them to their own and they will increase in size and loveliness each year.  I see you have E. x 'Black Sea' in bloom, one of the earliest blooming sorts, it's a sterile hybrid with E. pinnatum ssp. colchicum, best known for the very dark reddish or purplish black late autumn and winter foliage color.

Trond, I like the name "Chocolate and Cream" but this plant may not be good enough, the spring color is very good for just a short time, and then looks like many other epimediums, but its still in an "evaluation bed".

We still have a 1'-2' mantle of hard-pack snow, reached 52 F today so it felt like spring, but the next few days we're back into the frigid arctic blast. On the warm south side of my house, enough snow receded from a small strip of ground and suddenly out of nowhere there was a single bloom on Colchicum kesselringii.  The epimediums will surely be late this year, if ever spring actually arrives.

Thanks for the advice Mark, that's exactly what we'll do.

I can see a few more being added this year, 

The first epimedium in flower this year. An unnamed plant with strange flowers (are they fully opened yet? Have to look again tomorrow.

Trond, ot looks like it might be E. wushanense; the flowers are not quite open yet.

Thanks Mark.

You are right, the flowers were more open today. I'll take a pic tomorrow.

"Tomorrow" is more than a week later! The flowers opened properly some days ago.

Here are some pictures taken yesterday: (It's difficult to picture the flowers as they hang on the underside of the leaves)

The leaves are mottled in a nice way. Very different from the others (few) I have.

Pale yellow but quite large flowers.

yup, that is E. wushanense.

[quote=Mark McD]

yup, that is E. wushanense.

[/quote]

Thanks Mark. Now I have filed it!

The foliage on E. wushanense is very nice; I like its narrowness and spiny edges.  How long does the mottling last?  And what do you think of the plant overall?  Is it worth every penny it costs?

I have had my plant for only one year so I can't sat much yet. The foliage gets much sun and  is still mottled. It is a little greener in the shaded parts.

Although the flowers are a bit pale they are rather huge and last for a long time. I like the plant and do not regret that I bought it!

Hello Dave

How are your Epimedium seedlings doing? Are some of them in bloom now?