Up-and-Coming Epimediums

New discoveries offer delicate flowers and colorful foliage

Epimediums are scarcely commonplace plants in the United States , but they should be . As more and more new species and varieties are being key in Asia , a few of us nurserymen are doing what we can to make this genus more of a front in American gardens . I recently generate from China , where I pass a calendar month research hillside in search of Epimedium .

Although often mistaken for orchids because of their flower , epimediums are member of the barberry class ( Berberidaceae ) . These spring - blooming perennial mix well with fern , Hosta , lungwort ( Pulmonariaspp . and cvs . ) , hardy gingers , and other shadegarden industrial plant . Depending on the mintage , the number of bloom produced per plant can vary from just a few to literally hundreds covering a single stem . Flower colouring runs the gamut from ashen , pink , rose , and purple to chickenhearted , orange , and red . And the blossom can be solid , bicolored , or a combination of several colors . Individual flowers last for three days , then shatter , to be replaced by Modern efflorescence along the stem . Epimedium foliage can be deciduous , semi - evergreen , or truly evergreen , calculate on the species or hybrid and the climate in which it is grown . The leaves are made up of pamphlet , which can range in number from 3 to 50 and in sizing from as petite as a sparrow ’s egg to 6 in long . They are generally heart - shaped , but can range from round to pointer - shaped . Epimedium vary in habit from clumping types , which reach 6 inch across after three years , to spreaders , which travel by rhizomes up to 12 inches in one year and mold thick mats of dense foliage . Before I attempt to grow an epimedium I ’m unfamiliar with , I examine to determine what I can about its aboriginal home ground . Of the 30 or so species of genus Epimedium I have keep in the wild , most seem to thrive in rich , organic loam on gentleto- steep northeast- or northwest - facing slopes , in dappled nuance . But I have also get a line epimediums maturate well in crushed rock and corpse soils , in moist and dry sites , in the cracks of wet limestone cliffs in almost full sunshine , and in the deep shade of a Cryptomeria timber in highly constitutive grime .

When growing in deep spectre , either in the wild or in the garden , plants are generally marvellous , have with child leaflet , and are slower to form large clumps than are those in dappled shade . They also have fewer flower halt per industrial plant . In my garden in Massachusetts , epimediums that get four to five minute of lineal sunshine are unforesightful , much more floriferous , and produce small leaflets . However , plants sited in verbatim sun require decent moisture in the estrus of summer , or the leaves may sunburn . In southern gardens , epimediums are best continue in the shade .

One of the best traits of epimediums is that they are comparatively innocent of pests and problems . They are , however , susceptible to several foliar computer virus that are usually transferred by unclean dividing practices . plant life with mosaic patterns of yellow or cream on the farewell are credibly infected and should be discarded .

Unlike many perennials , Epimedium can last for decades with minimum care . The one thing I may do is hack back the late year ’s foliage in early spring before the fresh ontogenesis emerges . But , if last year ’s evergreen farewell are still attractive , they can be lead , and the new leaves will mount above the honest-to-god stems . A light dressing of an organic or tedious release plant food scummy in atomic number 7 followed by a top dressing of organic matter each spring is about all they demand . Epimedium are self - sterile ( they wo n’t set come unless pollinated by another plant ) , and breeding from seed is complicated . The plants can not be rapidly propagated through tissue paper culture or stem cuttings , either . Division of a rhizome is the most effective method acting of extension . On clopping smorgasbord , however , this unconscious process is very slow , so these case of genus Epimedium dominate higher prices . Deciduous species can be divide in either spring or spill , while evergreen species perform better when divide from recent August into September . In the rush to cash in in on the increasing interest in genus Epimedium , some nurseries have resorted to buying wholesale quantities of plants from disreputable sources . They often terminate up with inferior plant that are wrong named or plagued by viruses . In the guinea pig of the newer Formosan species , they buy plant collected in the wild and straightaway resell them to the public without circularize , evaluate their performance , and ensuring right recognition .

Being patient about propagating genus Epimedium will help preserve waste populations and will ensure quality plants . As more gardeners fall in love with epimediums , as I have , they are doom to become garden staples .

Hunting for epimediums

At Cobblewood , my garden in Massachusetts , the end is to gather , grow , and preserve a sampling of the transmissible diversity within the genus Epimedium . I puzzle out with radical like NACPEC ( the North American China Plant Exploration Consortium , a mathematical group that foster academic relations and the exchange of transmitted cloth between North American and Chinese botanic garden ) and qualified individuals to responsibly accumulate Epimedium and bring them into cultivation . I have traveled to China several times as well as to Japan and South Korea to study genus Epimedium in their aboriginal habitat and to obtain living plants and herbarium sample for research in the U.S. I keep elaborate support records , including individual rise to power figure which bear the abbreviation Cc . ( Cobblewood collection ) . It can take three to five yr of propagating before I have enough plant to deal through Garden Vision , my nursery , and from 10 to 20 years until a plant is usable in the general wholesale trade .

The huge raft ranges of fundamental China have testify rich in undiscovered epimedium species . Many of the species discovered in the last 25 years have neat ornamental potency . On a recent month - prospicient joint expedition with the Sichuan Research Institute of Forestry , we happen upon as many as seven species that are perchance novel to science , broadening the diversity within the genus . How many more new coinage await discovery ? This is the interrogation that celebrate me fail back for more .

Epimediumspp.(e - pi - MEE - dee - um )

• Epimediums are perennials that are kind of a wide orbit of soils .

• Hardy from USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9 , they opt shadiness or part sun . void direct sun in red-hot climates .

• Keep novel plants moist but not stiff , especially through their first summertime .

• When planting , do not place the crown of the plant more than 1/2 in deeper than the filth surface .

• Emerging shank are susceptible to late natural spring frost , though most species hold flower stem in reserve . Slugs and black vine weevils can be a nuisance . plant point foliar virus should be discarded .

Epimediums for foliage

Many Epimedium have tell apart leafage shapes . While the come out stem turn and leaves can be a striking maroon in the outflow , some genus Epimedium will even color up again in the fall . The most extremely recommend plants for coloured natural spring leafage areEpimediumxversicolor‘Versicolor ’ and ‘ Cupreum ’ ( zone 4 to 8) . The young fountain foliage is a vibrant , deep rosebush - red , broken by a pattern of green vein . With frost , summer - gullible leaf slow turn a dark brownish purple . In the South , these cultivar will persist evergreen . In the North , they are deciduous . Dense head of medium - size bloom unresolved to a beautiful , rich salmon , which pales as they senesce .

Epimediumxperralchicum‘Frohnleiten ’ ( Zones 5 to 8) is an excellent evergreen groundcover , go around 6 to 8 inches per year at only 6 to 10 inch grandiloquent . saltation foliage is mottled rose - red , with brilliant - immature veins . The minuscule shiny - yellow flowers are remindful of a Verbascum , with large , glossy , chickenhearted inner sepal smother tiny gold and carmine petal .

An epimedium with narrow , arrow - forge leaflets that are heavily mottle with Bourgogne - red in spring isEpimediumx ‘ Kaguyahime ’ ( zone 5 to 8) . spraying of sprightly , roseate - pinkish sepaled flower with brusque , curved dark - purple spur complement the dramatic foliage .

My favourite for a outpouring foliage show is the deciduous , glob - formingEpimedium grandiflorum var . higoense‘Bandit ’ ( zone 4 to 8) . These ground - hug plants , each under 6 inches tall in flush , bring out mass of large livid bloom in spring above numerous minor leaflets , each edged with a wide striation of dark purpleness . Once the flush have go by , a second flush ( and sometimes a third ) of larger pamphlet grows to 12 to 15 inches tall , each leaflet sporting an even wider dark - imperial border . It is said to tolerate more alkaline soil than do the distinctive species .

Collected by the U.S. National Arboretum near the Black Sea in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia , Epimedium pinnatumssp.colchicum‘Thunderbolt ’ ( zone 5 to 8) bears foliage that slowly darken in mid - autumn from deep green to blackish purpleness beneath a pattern of light-green veins .

Epimediums for flowers

spray of diminutive flowers in a wide reach of colors and shapes hang above the foliage of Epimedium . Plants typically blossom during April in Zones 7 and 8 and in May into former June in Zones 5 and 6 . Some species may rebloom in late summertime or drop .

aboriginal to Japan , Epimedium grandiflorum(Zones 4 to 8) is a clump - forming genus Epimedium that it is only deciduous when grown northwards of Zone 7 . Of the 25 or moreE. grandiflorumcultivars now available in the U.S. , my favorite admit ‘ Rose Queen ’ ( synonyms are ‘ Yubae ’ and ‘ Crimson Beauty ’ ) , with deep - red - red flowers and red - tinged new leafage . ‘ Tama No Genpei ’ ( sold as ‘ Rose Queen ’ in the U.K. for a time ) has lilac-colored inner sepal with white spurs . ‘ Lilafee ’ ( Lilac Fairy ) produces more soft , violet - lavender flowers with cocoa - purple tones to the new leaf .

One of the many enceinte - flower species of late bring out in China , Epimedium epsteinii(Zones 5 to 8) is an excellent groundcover , spread 6 to 8 inches per year . It has beautiful , glossy dour - green leaflets , and produces 10 to 30 gaudy flowers per root , with wide white inner sepal and counterpoint plum - over-embellished spurring .

Epimedium davidii(Zones 5 to 9 ) is a cluster - forming metal money with humble leaflets that make a low mound 6 to 8 inches eminent . The airy flower sprays , which stretch to 12 to 18 inches magniloquent , concur the rich yellow flower well above the leafage . In cultivation , it tolerates a across-the-board range of ground types , let in very acid corpse soil . With adequate moisture and fertility , E. davidiiflowers periodically throughout the growing time of year .

Epimedium franchetiiproduces large , fragile , atomic number 16 - yellow flower spurs with light - unripe inner sepals ( Zones 6 to 9 ) . Show - stopping new foliation , with leaflets 5 inches long and 21/2 in wide , emerges salmon - pink on some clones in the spring and later turns dark light-green . This mintage forms knee - high-pitched clumps .

Epimedium brachyrrhizum(Zones 5 to 8) combines clumps of rough-cut , sheer foliage stomach near to the land with large , pale- to cryptic - rose - pinkish flowers with long inner sepals . untested leave often stay pinkish to rise - purple for a month during spring . The colorful cultivar ‘ Karen ’ , which I have named in honor of my wife , acquire a stunning showing of deep - blush wine - pinkish flush above rich rosaceous - over-embellished leaves in leap .

The author’s guide, Ke-hua Mou, prepares an epimedium for photographing.Photo/Illustration: Darrell Probst

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The author’s guide, Ke-hua Mou, prepares an epimedium for photographing.Photo/Illustration: Darrell Probst

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On a plant hunting trip in Nanchuan, Sichuan Province, China, the author spots his first epimediums. They are either a rare yellow flowered form of E. acuminatum (not available in cultivation) or perhaps a species that has not yet been described by science.Photo/Illustration: Ke-hua Mou

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