Epimedium listing: including Epimedium 2010

[TheOnionMan]

Colder temperatures have arrived, yet still no snow, with garden interest provided by evergreen Epimediums and a few late-deciduous types.

1   E. pubigerum Cc950215 - In my opinion, one of the very best all-around clumping species, although a largely overlooked one.  The neat crimped foliage looks great year round, is the most reliable evergreen of all species, and drought-resistant too. The small flowers are produced in open sprays on tallish stems that clear the foliage, not bowl-me-over beautiful but refined and attractive.  Flowers are basically white, but depending on the form grown, can be flushed with pink or red. The number indicates a Darrell Probst collection number; with four forms offered in the past, I have three of them.  From Turkey, in areas near the Black Sea.

2   E. x sasakii - another evergreen "species", a name used by Japanese botanists to describe natural hybrids between E. sempervirens and E. x setosum, but the name not generally recognized.  Since E. x setosum is itself a natural hybrid between E. diphyllum and E. sempervirens, E. x sasakii can be thought of as:
E. sempervirens x (diphyllum x sempervirens).  The sempervirens genes certainly show through, with small rounded evergreen leaves, but with an upright habit more like diphyllum.  Very slow growing clumper.  I grow a couple forms.

3   E. x sasaki 'Melody' - introduced by Darrell Probst in 2001, this is a hybrid that occurred in Harold Epstein's garden, between E. sempervirens (violet form) and E. x setosum.  It is a very good plant, slowly building into a mound of shiny semi-evergreen leaves, taking on dark leather red colors in fall. The spring foliage is flecked with red, and the violet flowers are a bit larger and more showy than other x sasakii types.

4   E. sempervirens 'Candy Hearts' - a fantastic plant, the spring foliage is unbelievable, looking like shiny plastic with bold red edges.  New leaves after flowering also show bold coloration.  Large, heavy foliage tends to flatten out in summer making beautiful low mounds, worth growing for the foliage alone. Absolutely winter evergreen and drought resistant. Palest lavender flowers are okay but not very exciting.  Excellent plant for hybridization efforts.

5   E. pinnatum ssp. colchicum - this evergreen species hardly needs any introduction, a familiar garden plant that slowly spreads into a dense wide mat. Reliably evergreen here, and drought resistant.  The yellow verbascum-like flowers are best appreciated however if the foliage is cut off in spring.  Late autumn and winter foliage takes on dark charcoal shades.

6   E. x youngianum 'Otome' - I keep showing this Japanese variety, but it is so fantastic, useful too for hybridization, and colorful so late into the season, that it's hard not to be fixated on it.  Semi-evergreen, and drought-resistant.

7   Not all grandiflorums are created equal, even with flowers of the same color scheme.  The small plant on the left, showing some red fall color, is E. grandiflorum 'Silver Queen'. The much larger E. grandiflorum 'White Queen' is on the right, taking on some dull brownish-red fall color.

8   E. x youngianum 'Royal Flush'- fantastic copper-red spring foliage, some good foliar color in late spring and summer too, and subtle burnished copper tones in autumn; semi-evergreen.  Attractive lavender flowers. Somewhat similar to the next one, #9.

9   E. grandiflorum var. violaceum 'Bronze Maiden' - in spring this goes through an incredible metamorphosis of leaf color, from chocolate to carneous red and flesh tones.  This plant had a rough time with our summer drought, so it looks a bit tatty, but still showing some burnished leaf color.

10  Two E. x versicolor selections (garden bred E. grandiflorum x pinnatum ssp. colchicum), the cultivar 'Versicolor' in the lower right with deep leather-red foliage, and Darrell Probst's 2004 'Cherry Tart' above it with leather-brown leaves.  Foliage is semi-evergreen, these being a couple of the very best eppies ever.

[gerrit]

Hallo Mark,
This is a part from my garden with a peatwall. With E.gr."Yellow Queen", Corydalis kashmiriana and candelabra primulas.

[gerrit]

Try again ,hopely with picture

[TheOnionMan]

Hallo Mark,
This is a part from my garden with a peatwall. With E.gr."Yellow Queen", Corydalis kashmiriana and candelabra primulas.

Hi Gerrit, well that's a lovely spring scene with some choice plants!  I have E. grandiflorum 'Yellow Princess' but don't know of a 'Yellow Queen', did you mean 'Yellow Princess', or is there a 'Yellow Queen' variety available over there? 

In your plant, the flowers look rich bright yellow, in 'Yellow Princess' they are a very pale yellow, somewhat like forms of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens.  My 'Yellow Princess' was in a spot that becomes very dry from the roots of nearby Arborvitae (Thuya), so I finally moved it to a new location this fall.  E. gr. 'Yellow Princess' is a selection from high mountain areas in Japan, thus one of the very last Epimediums to leaf out and flower in spring, along the same lines as E. grandiflorum 'Cranberry Sparkle', another recent (2002) introduction of a high elevation selection with red flowers, also rather late to emerge in spring. 

I also know of the popular 'Amber Queen' that is orangish-yellow, but that is not a grandiflorum.

I envy your being able to grow Corydalis cashmeriana, I've never been able to grow it, but can grow some of the other Chinese blue ones.  They mix nicely with Epimedium, don't they?

[gerrit]

Yes Mark.

You are defenitely right, I made a mistake, I was so busy to post a photo, that I forgot to think.
This is E.grandiflorum " Yellow Princess". The warm yellow color is somewhat paler in reality indeed.

This Corydalis should be difficult, but it grows for several years on that spot in an mixture of clay, peat and compost. Morningsun.
A nice second bloom in summer. A good spreader as well.
Good to hear she is from a high moutain area. I understand her late flowering now.

I know you do not grow only E. in your garden. You must have a great allium-collection and now you tell me about corydalis.But it must be fantastic to have in you woodlandgarden arisaema, trillium, sanguinaria, anemone, pulmonaria, bulbs,etc. On your pictures I see mostly only E.

[Geo F-W]

Well, i'm very impressed by this thread, specifically, as Gerrit, for your photos and your knowledge Mark. That's very usefull for me.

It's not so easy, here, in France, to find many cultivars of Epimedium grandiflorum. It seems that Darrell Probst sells and hybridizes much of them.

Since few years, the genus of Epimedium is one of my favorite with the Podophyllum, Trillium, Paris & Co and i can't help but collect them.
I'm assisted in this effort by my friend, the french plant breeder, Thierry Delabroye, and others plantsmen such as, as mentioned by Wim and Gerrit, Koen Van Poucke, Daniele Monbaliu from the nursery Epimedium, Marion Basset (who imports some japanese's selections of Epimedium grandiflorum like 'Fukujuji', 'Benikujaku', 'Tokiwa Gozen' etc.)

So I'm really pleased to discover yours, particularly those with outstanding foliage.

Here, I grow about a fifty species and cultivars, most Chinese and some Japanese (and I would like to try them seriously), and many hybrids of mine (wich have been naturally hybridized, I simply harvested the seeds), Thierry Delabroye and Daniele Monbaliu.

I live near Thierry's nursery and I go there regularly in spring. He is particularly interested in foliage, form, color and of course the flowers and got really interesting results, some of its hybrids will be available soon and I’d be happy to present them to you next year if you wish.

And for your viewing pleasure, here's a Japanese blog with some interesting photos of epimediums : http://iroha.s7.xrea.com/ep/

Meanwhile, I put some pictures of epimediums of the garden, and some Thierry's hybrids.

(Sorry for my English, I'm not good at languages! And also sorry for the pictures, some are really bad)

1 - Epimedium acuminatum L575

2 - Epimedium acuminatum yellow form (not sure...)

3 - Epimedium grandiflorum 'Akebono'

4,5,6 - Epimedium 'Amber Queen', from Robin White, hybrid between E.wushanense and E.wushanense 'Caramel'.

7 - Epimedium 'Artic Wings', an hybrid of E.latisepalum

8 - Epimedium grandiflorum 'Benishidori'

9,10,11 - Epimedium 'Buckland Spider', hybrid between E.grandiflorum and E.koreanum, slow but very vigourous.

[Geo F-W]

12,13,14,15 - Epimedium 'Domino', one my favourites

16,17 - Epimedium grandiflorum 'Red Beauty'

18 - Epimedium grandiflorum v.violaceum

19 - Epimedium latisepalum (flowers), floriferous, vigourous, one of my favourites.

[Geo F-W]

20,21,22 - Epimedium lishichenii (flowers)

23 - Epimedium 'Pink Champagne'

24 - Epimedium stellulatum 'Wuddang Star'

25,26 - Epimedium 'Tojen', a japanese hybrid, very small but big flowers.

27 - Epimedium wushanense sp. nova

29 - Epimedium x omeiense 'Stormcloud', very bad pictures, he's so beautiful and very floriferous

[Geo F-W]

30,31,32 - An hybrid of Epimedium davidii I guess

33,34,35,36,37,38 - Seedling, I guess it's an hybrid of Epimedium acuminatum and dolichostemon, any idea?

[Geo F-W]

39,40,41 - Hybrid of davidii? The flowers are bigger, I don't know...

42 - Hybrid

43 - Hybrid of davidii?

44,45,46,47 - Hybrids

[Geo F-W]

48,49,50,51 - A very beautiful hybrid unnamed.

52,53,54,55 - Hybrids

56 - Hybrid, fargesi x acuminatum ?

[Geo F-W]

57 up to 66 - Hybrids

[Geo F-W]

67 up to 72 - Hybrids

73,74 - Hybrid with pale flowers and anormal foliage

[Geo F-W]

75 - Hybrid

76 - Hybrid, I call it 'Bonbon rose' or 'Pink Candy'

77,78,79 - Hybrids


I hope that's not too much photos in one time...

[TheOnionMan]

Hello Geoffrey, welcome to the SRGC Forum, and thank you for selecting the Epimedium 2010 topic to start with and deliver such a feast for our eyes with photos of so many gorgeous epimediums.  I am highly impressed with your hybrids and your extensive post.  And don't worry about your English, it is fine.

There is much to respond to, please forgive me if I miss something that is important to you that you'd like to see a response to, but with 79 photos, there is a lot that I'd like to say.

Photos 33-38, of likely E. acuminatum x dolichostemon, I would agree with that suggestion. Very nice.

Some of your hybrids have flared outer sepals, like the upper bracts on a pineapple, most distinctive.  In particular, I see these erect or flared outer sepals on #41 (davidii hybrid), #48-51 (beautiful yellow and pink hybrid), #55 (one that looks like 'Amber Queen' with orange-yellow sepals/spurs and erect pinkish white outer sepals), and #58 (similar but slightly darker than #55).  Do you know what parent is responsible for the erect white-pinkish outer sepals?  E. dolichostemon most likely, or even fargesii?

Stunning hybrids - many that you show are quite attractive, the pink and yellow #48-51, #64-65 with beautiful slender red and yellow "spiders", #69-72 - perhaps my favorite in salmon orange (outstanding!), #76 - your "Bonbon" or "Pink Candy" with chunky cups of orange-red, such a bright and distinctive flower shape.

The one that gets most of my attention, is #73-74, with the unusual 3-lobed foliage on some leaves.  How many leaves on the plant make that shape, it seems like some leaves are normal.  I have seen seedlings of E. sempervirens make funny lobed leaves, and there is one form of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens that Darrell Probst offers that has three-lobed tips to the leaves... not on all leaves, but the largest most mature leaves show that characteristic. I have also noticed in E. franchetii 'Brimstone Butterfly' that the ends of some leaves show enlarged dentations that could almost be called "lobes". I'm interested in selecting Epimedium hybrids, not only for flowers, but for their foliage characteristics, after all, we see them in the garden for most of the year in leaves only.

==============

#2 - E. acuminatum yellow - not sure what to think; I have seen photos of a few so-called yellow forms and they are cream or very pale yellow, and many labeled as this have been misnomers.

#3 - 'Akebono' is listed by Darrell Probst as a youngianum, although I have seen it listed elsewhere as a grandiflorum.  To me, it seems more like a youngianum cultivar.

#7 - 'Arctic Wings' - very pretty, I like the clean white flowers and new red foliage.

#9-11 - Epimedium 'Buckland Spider', hybrid between E.grandiflorum and E. koreanum. Looks floriferous.  I have many hybrid seedlings that look similar, crosses between E. grandiflorum 'Larchmont' and E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille'.

#25-26 - E. 'Tojen', I could not find anything on that name, but possibly it is actually the same as E. leptorrhizum 'Togen', listed simply as E. 'Togen' on the Koen Van Poucke web site.

Thanks again for posting so many wonderful Epimedium photos, your examples of Epimedium hybrids are inspirational and fire the imagination.