amazing Apiaceae (the umbellifers)

I was very pleased to see seedlings of Cymopterus --I think its planosus, but would have to check--they were sown in spring last year, early enough for some cold strat, but maybe not enough-- I got one seedling, which I think didn't survive, so I thought that seed was done for, and didn't even put the pot with others that were overwintering outside.. well, there are at least several coming up now :)

My interest in these plants is being rapidly reignited. Thanks for the images and websites. I have also grown Shoshonea in the past, but didn't look after it well enough. There are some wonderful Mediterranean species adapted to similar but not so winter cold conditions - Athamanta turbith is probably my favourite. Another, Thapsia maxima, has large broad pleated leaves and a football size head of yellow flowers only to about a metre high. It is an extraordinary and fascinating family once you get into it!

Weiser wrote:

I have encountered Cymopterus globosus in it's native haunts. The flowers have rather thick petals very densly packed. The immature fruiting bodies feel like dense, bumpy rubber balls.

seriously cool, and at a glance, un-Apiaceae looking!

Tim, agreed, very cool family :)
There is another I've been looking at, I think a Lomatium, which is a metre or so tall, plus Anthriscus and others, and I have Heracleum growing naturally here--so they do have lots of appeal/potential besides the regular rock garden :)

Tim wrote:

My interest in these plants is being rapidly reignited. Thanks for the images and websites. I have also grown Shoshonea in the past, but didn't look after it well enough. There are some wonderful Mediterranean species adapted to similar but not so winter cold conditions - Athamanta turbith is probably my favourite. !

Fascinating plants being shown!
I can verify that Athamanta turbith ssp. haynaldii is reliably hardy in this zone 3 area, even without snow cover.  I believe Rick grows it in zone 4(?) too.
Shoshonea pulvinata wintered over last year here in a trough... no real record yet, but so far, so good!

Weiser wrote:

I currently only grow only two Lomatiums but there are many around. I like the short matted types with gray leaves.
Lomatium austiniae (syn. L. plummerae)

Lomatium nevadense var nevadense. The flowers always look like they have been peppered. It's the dark purple staymens that give this effect.

Both cool!

A few umbels flowering in our garden at the moment. Athamanta turbith grows on a raised bed along with Lomatium columbianum, and still stands as my favourite of the family in the garden. I think of it as like a symphony of green and white; simple but very beautiful. Later the small seeds are silvery-grey and attractive in themselves. I was introduced to it at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, where I often went to sell plants.

The second, Laserpitium siler, came on the recommendation of a Landscape Architect friend from Belgium, who used it in his planting schemes. It is a tough plant, used to the severe cold of northern and central Europe, slow to establish but very perennial, and with rather distinctive open heads of flowers and greyish foliage.

Thirdly, probably one of the best plant introductions of recent years, Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing', the black-leaved cow parsley (or Queen Anne's Lace). This self-sows under the apple trees with others such as Aquilegias and Brunnera, and they make a fine picture at the moment, even in one of the driest springs we have had for years.

All nice, the last combination especially :)
I have some Raven's Wing seedlings, looking forward to seeing them grow up :) You don't find the Brunnera too vigorous in its selfsowing? a gardener in Manitoba was recently telling a tale of woe regarding all-green leafed seedlings of an expired B 'Jack Frost'....

Amazing scenes, Tim!  You have a fabulous garden!  :o

Mmmm, Lomatium - another genus to try! Thanks for opening our eyes to that one, John!

Cohan, Brunnera macrophylla self sows in moderation here... enough to start giving some seedlings away after a few years.  It's hard to imagine that anyone would find its relatively modest habit excessive though (if I'm interpreting your comment correctly), in comparison to the truly rampant seeding of so many other species!

Skulski wrote:

Cohan, Brunnera macrophylla self sows in moderation here... enough to start giving some seedlings away after a few years.  It's hard to imagine that anyone would find its relatively modest habit excessive though (if I'm interpreting your comment correctly), in comparison to the truly rampant seeding of so many other species!

Good to know, Lori, I haven't grown them, but sort of admired some of the variegated types, at least;
-- the person in Manitoba was giving a warning (coldzone yahoo group, mostly western Canadian members) that this plant must be deadheaded if you were going to grow it at all, or planted by itself far from anything else! I think part of the problem was that the variegated parent died, leaving only green seedlings, and they were coming up in the middle of some more valued plants...lol

Well, that seems like a very extreme view, based on what I've seen, and on never having heard a similar complaint.  ???  

That's good, Lori, since I was kind of thinking about it--if I run across a cheap plant somewhere..lol

Off topic but...
Cohan, if you ever have a reason to visit Calgary, you should let me know in advance... Having a mature perennial garden (that is in a constant state of flux due to needing more alpine beds!), I have many plants that I'd be happy to share!  I tend not to divide many things, but I have lots of seedlings, offsets, etc., often blooming-size plants, that I pot up to give away.

Thanks, Lori, I'll let you know if we are going that way and my driver is amenable to a stop...lol

Re. Brunnera. With me this self-sows hugely and seems to grow as well in full sun as shade. Because I have so many seedlings I have decided to use it as ground cover under our rows of fruit trees - but we have a big garden of around 1 and 1/2 acres.

I neglected to say that Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing' was discovered and introduced by Prof. John Richards of Primula fame. If a nurseryman had found it they could have made a fortune!

Well, live and learn!  :)

Here's Shoshonea pulvinata in a trough, wintered over from last year - a tiny thing at present.   I've only seen it in photos... I expect the flower stems will elongate, unless this is some particularly dwarfish form??  I got it from Beaver Creek, at last year's CRAGS spring plant sale.

Skulski wrote:

Well, live and learn!  :)

Here's Shoshonea pulvinata in a trough, wintered over from last year - a tiny thing at present.   I've only seen it in photos... I expect the flower stems will elongate, unless this is some particularly dwarfish form??   I got it from Beaver Creek, at last year's CRAGS spring plant sale.

Cute!

Very nice, Stephen.  Ahh, I was thinking about what to plant in a big area where we removed a huge old lilac last fall... Angelica would be suitably statuesque!  Lots of great ideas in your photos... lovage is worth growing for its appearance alone (aside from using the leaves for flavouring) - I should get myself another one.
Here are a couple more fairly interesting umbellifers:

Peucedanum ostruthium 'Daphnis' - I don't have many variegated plants but I am fond of this one (though, strangely, I have few good photos of it):
 

Pleurospermum szechenyii:
 
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200015840

Lori, does the Pleurospermum remain that colour, or is that just spring foliage?

Some of these remind of several local umbellifers I am fond of, I'll have to dig up pictures--such as the very charming, subtle Sweet Cicely (blunt-fruited; Osmorhiza depauperata) which is common in the woods here.. I sent seed to Stephen, hopefully he gets some babies :)

cohan wrote:

Lori, does the Pleurospermum remain that colour, or is that just spring foliage?

It's actually dark purple throughout the season.

Lori--then wow!

Stephen, it may have been mid-winter when I sent the seed, though I'm not sure, I might have a pm record of it.. if it does not appear eventually, let me know, I can get more seed this year...

Great to see those various umbels. Stephen you have had better success with Lomatiums than me - I have grown nudicaule and californicum and a few others but had them on a gritty raised bed that may have been too dry and well drained, they never really got going well. I used to sell a few Laser trilobum on the nursery which shows there are gardeners who have a fascination with these plants - you could hardly call it showy. Lori's photo of Shoshonea is nice; this is definitely a plant I will try again - it is reminiscent of Olymposciadum caespitosum, which still grows on my raised bed and on the shady side of this, in deep grit, I have at last succeeded in getting Bolax gummifera to grow (this is a wonderful cushion plant often seen at the Shows and which I must have tried three or four times to date - its relative Azorella trifurcata is much easier and has made a lovely vivid green mat).

The latest umbel to flower - Orlaya grandiflora - an annual species that more than lives up to its name. I am not sure how many gardeners grow it but it flowers just at the right time for the Chelsea Show and is often used on displays there. This and Ammi majus are both superb dry meadow plants mixed with poppies and the like.

With me Orlaya self seeds well, except when the rabbits discover it! Generally umbel seed should be sown pretty fresh and will germinate after a period of winter cold. Orlaya is a Mediterranean annual and should germinate with autumn rains if sown early enough, making strong overwintering plants. It sounds like you were just unlucky.

Umbel seeds are marvellously varied and quite a few have hooked spines like Orlaya, especially in dry habitats.

It is not such an unusual one as some of those shown here, but Myrrhis odorata is looking nice right now...
   

Tim wrote:

With me Orlaya self seeds well, except when the rabbits discover it! Generally umbel seed should be sown pretty fresh and will germinate after a period of winter cold. Orlaya is a Mediterranean annual and should germinate with autumn rains if sown early enough, making strong overwintering plants. It sounds like you were just unlucky.

Umbel seeds are marvellously varied and quite a few have hooked spines like Orlaya, especially in dry habitats.

No chance of it self seeding in the wet north west or surviving the winter. Here it is a tender annual which needs to be sown in a warm propagator in spring and grown on in individual pots for planting out now which is what I have just done.Small country vastly varied climate.It is a lovely plant

Here's an update on Peucedanum ostruthium 'Daphnis'... I've gained a bit more appreciation for it since this thread started, and it really is an attractive thing:

When I first became interested in these plants I was persuaded by the Hardy Plant Society to write one of their booklets on the family. Umbellifers have always been of interest to knowledgeable gardeners in the UK (such as Graham Stuart Thomas and Alan Bloom, both of whom wrote about them). Recently though they have been grown a lot more widely, especially in more naturalistic gardens, and they must always have an appeal even to non-gardeners because they are so recognisable. Even so it is only the very few that are grown in gardens. Looking back through this thread, and with the host of amazing North American umbels which are hardly grown anywhere, I am keen to learn a lot more about them and hopefully put this together in a more comprehensive book on the family (a bit of a tall order since it is such a large family!). There are quite a few nurserypeople I know with a fascination in the family - for example Marina Christopher who used to work with John Coke at Green Farm Plants, and who values them especially for the very wide range of pollinators they attract, and Graham Gough at Marchants Nursery and John-Pierre Jolivot in France.

I would be very grateful for any information from members of the NARGS who grow umbels (there is quite bit already on this thread already which is really helpful and stimulating) or even more who have experience of seeing them in the wild. I aim to try more of the North American species from seed since these are virtually unknown in cultivation. There are also quite a few alpine species in particular that have been introduced from South America.

I think the diversity of the family would surprise many even botanically minded gardeners and the long historical uses of umbels in medicine and as foods have given them such enduring interest. It may be quite a long project but there has been very little written on the family from a gardening perspective. Many thanks in advance.

Some of the Cymopterus really are extraordinary! It is interesting how little they are known in comparison even with many of alpine umbels of South America and New Zealand. Mind you they must be really difficult to grow in the garden in many cases; I have always thought them very like bulbs with their early flowering habit and summer aestivation. I have tried a few of these from seed and had good germination (in some cases in the fridge!), but haven't yet managed to grow them on successfully. They must be good candidates for a sand or crevice bed. (There is a glorious example on the Alplains list - Cymopterus planosus - who would not want to grow a plant like that!!).

It's good to hear that they are easy from seed.  Does that mean they don't need conditioning (stratification) or would you recommend it? 

I've tried Lomatium columbianum a couple of times now with no germination at room temp, or stratified in the cold room, or over the winter outdoors - very frustrating!  I wonder if the seeds have limited longevity?  Then again, I seem to have problems germinating Apiaceae in general... what's the trick?