Pulsatilla 2014

[Tim Ingram]

David - to me that leaf looks a lot more like Anemone multifida (magellanica), but if that's the case the seed would have been woolly and quite unlike pulsatilla seed. American botanists, it seems, don't recognise the genus pulsatilla and place the two American species into Anemone, which seems pretty confusing. Chris Grey-Wilson writes about how close these two genera are, and the quite distinct differences there are between them, in his book on Pasque flowers, and one of the most obvious is the feathery plumes on pulsatilla seed. If the seed was pulsatilla-like then Lori's suggestion seems logical.

[Lori S.]

If the seed was pulsatilla-like then Lori's suggestion seems logical.

I believe that was Susan's Oops, Diane's very logical suggestion in another thread on the same subject.   Hard to remember what seeds look like, for me, unless perhaps I was already suspicious of the ID for some reason.

[David Nicholson]

David - to me that leaf looks a lot more like Anemone multifida (magellanica), but if that's the case the seed would have been woolly and quite unlike pulsatilla seed. American botanists, it seems, don't recognise the genus pulsatilla and place the two American species into Anemone, which seems pretty confusing. Chris Grey-Wilson writes about how close these two genera are, and the quite distinct differences there are between them, in his book on Pasque flowers, and one of the most obvious is the feathery plumes on pulsatilla seed. If the seed was pulsatilla-like then Lori's suggestion seems logical.

Tim, you may well have cracked the problem, thanks very much indeed. I have an Anemone multifida in the garden and I've just been out to check and it has a marked similarity to my seedlings. I don't have a clue what the seeds looked like and as I said in my reply to Diane Clement I'm hard pressed to remember what I had for Dinner yesterday!

[Lesley Cox]

Perhaps some problems are not problems at all if one doesn't know about them? I have a quite old plant of P. vernalis, maybe 20 years now, which has been in 4 gardens as I've moved, and potted in between each pair of gardens FOR the move, and though it currently looks distinctly shabby and is showing no sign of flowering this coming spring, it does still survive. It's about 25cms across. I've read that pulsatillas shouldn't be disturbed but have had to move some from time to time and I don't think I've ever lost one. Sometimes if there's a really good colour form, it's worth the move to retain it. Seedlings are not always true.

[Tim Ingram]

Lesley, Susann - my father-in-law has a saying, 'this is one of the few things I don't know!'. Experience is all isn't it - I shan't be too worried if I have to dig up a pulsatilla from now on - and I thought I knew everything there was to know about plants

[Lesley Cox]

Well Tim, there's that other well known gardeners' saying, "the more I know the more I realize I don't know" and  if nothing else, I know beyond a doubt that THAT one is true for me. I also know that I've forgotten more than I currently know, which probably says more about the state of my ageing brain than of anything else.

[fermi de Sousa]

Well Tim, there's that other well known gardeners' saying, "the more I know the more I realize I don't know" and  if nothing else, I know beyond a doubt that THAT one is true for me. I also know that I've forgotten more than I currently know, which probably says more about the state of my ageing brain than of anything else.

That's close to one of my dad's favourite sayings (usually when talking to me about gardening) "I've forgotten more than you'll ever know!"
cheers
fermi

[Susann]

I think I would like your father Fermi, not shy at all, is he?

[greenspan]

this year i prepared a planting bed for such Pulsatilla species, which prefer acid soil. i mixed peat with sand, lava, coarse-grained sand + perlite and "build" a little knoll using some sandstones. i decided to situate the bed in full sun, expecting a better flower result than in shadier places. i planted Pulsatilla vernalis, P. alpina ssp. apiifolia, P. occidentalis, P. sugawarai, P. taraoi.  here my interim results with some photos

Pulsatilla sugawarai from sakhalin. in july 2013 i got some seed + in november 2013 5 young plants from yuzawa nursery. i planted the young plants in tall pots + stored them in my cold but frostfree greenhouse for overwinter. some seed germinated in autumn 2013 too. starting in spring, 2 of the young plants rotted, also some of the seedlings (4 seedlings remained). after replanting the potted sugawarai in my peat bed, one of them rotted soon (but i noted, that the root stem is in good condition, so i hope the plant sprouts again next year). the remaining 2 plants continued growing well. i decided to replant the remaining 4 seedlings directly from the seed pot into the peat bed. they continued growing without any problem. all sugawarai seem to have no problem with full sun. compare the increasing growth of the sugawarai from flowering status to seed setting:



sometimes i water the "peat knoll" with rainwater with some sulphur acid (ph ~4). till now it seems it works, but let's wait how they can withstand our rainy winter.

[greenspan]

i also got 5 Pulsatilla taraoi (kurile islands) last year from yuzawa nursery. treated the same as the sugawarai plants. 1 plant rotted in spring, still potted. i planted the remaining 4 plants in the peat knoll in full sun. don't do that! what i can say is, that Pulsatilla taraoi needs a shady place in my climate area. maybe the place could be sunnier in GB, norway, sweden in more humid climate (coastal areas). the hot sun burns the leaves. i planted a shady grove + gave some extra shade by a shade cloth. now the plants seem to recover:



from another german nursery i got 8 seedlings of Pulsatilla occidentalis (seed origin Yakima Co., Washington). when i got the "plants", they looked like just germinated. after planting in the peat knoll, 3 died very quick, but the rest is growing well in full sun.



here some P. vernalis, grown from seed (germinating autumn 2012). they "exploded" in full sun in the acid peat soil. the left one just produces 2 flower buds:



Pulsatilla alpina ssp. apiifolia, seed grown, germinating autumn 2012. in my experience, alpina is quite slow growing + i'm happy, that they grow good in full sun:

[Susann]

Congratulations! I hope that you realize that most of even the most skilled Japanse alpine growers kill Pp sugawarii and taraoi before reaching flowering stage? Your soil mix seems to be just what they want. Yuzawa grows their acid loving Pulsatillas in pure -I can only describe it as grit- that they get straigth from a vulcan, it is a quite corse grit. I am sure there are a lot of strange minerals in their grit that we dont know about and therefore can not copy.
Here in Sweden P vernalis is not a problem at all, of course. It selfseeds in the rockeries and grit paths and sometimes I am worried they in the end will become to many. I grow it in south facing, southwest facing, no problem. Usually our summers has lots of rain but this year July was sunny as in Europe.
My experience of P alpina ssp apiifolia is that it germinates the first year after sowing-but only a few-and then, the second year, it is like a 100 % germination. I have grown it many times, with different sources and it has always the same pattern in my garden. But I would agree with Greenpan saying they are slow in my garden. But many things are as I do not use fertilizer. I prefer to let the plants take their time as in nature and just let them "recycle".
What else do you grow in your knoll?

[Lesley Cox]

Greenspan, your Pulsatillas look WONDERFUL! So richly green and healthy. Thanks for showing these photos with their different and easy to identify foliage forms. I hope we'll see more of them soon.

[greenspan]

thx lesley    i hope i can show more photos next year...cross all fingers. growing Pulsatilla, success and flop is close together and can change very quick...unfortunately mostly into flop. at the moment i noted it with my P. aurea...got 8 seedlings, 5 developed to good looking plants + from then on one by one rotted over months. now only 2 plants remained...exasperating.

Yuzawa grows their acid loving Pulsatillas in pure -I can only describe it as grit- that they get straigth from a vulcan, it is a quite corse grit. I am sure there are a lot of strange minerals in their grit that we dont know about and therefore can not copy.

i guess the substrate is "Kanuma", an acid mineral. here a description: A granular Japanese Potting Medium for Ericaceous (Acid Loving) Bonsai. This particular material comes from the Kanuma Area of Japan which is basically the center of Azalea Bonsai Growing. Again, you must understand as with Akadama, that this is the stuff that the Japanese have out in their back yards ... it's their "dirt." This material is dug out from 10 feet down, allowed to dry, crushed and then sorted as to grain sizes. It is more acidic than Akadama, and therefore, used mainly for Azaleas, Camellias, Gardenias and other acid loving Bonsai.

in my opinion, the soil components aren't the main key for growing acid-loving Pulsatilla species successfully (of course the mineral components have to be not calcareous). a stable ph-value around 4 seems to be the key. note that simple pure rainwater has ph ~6-6,5! peat will hold the ph-level low for some month till the acid buffer is exhausted. after a year or so the ph-level increases more and more and then you will note, that plants grow backwards inexplicably + die slowly. so you have to water your prepared soil with acid water from time to time to decrease the ph value (some use vinegar, i prefer sulphuric acid).

when i talk to my gardenfriends here in germany, Pulsatilla vernalis is said to be a short-living Pulsatilla..1-2 years, max. 3 years. i made the same experiences till i watered with acid rainwater. now i grow vernalis for many years. @lesley...you told about your 20-years old vernalis...could it be that your common gardening soil in new zealand is naturally acid?

[Susann]

Wow, thank you for the very detailed and interesting information. ( I know exactly from which vulcan Yazawa gets their "grit" as I climbed it. I just have to find the notes. But I can tell it is not from Kanuma area, as the vulcan is situated at Hokkaido, but surely it is something similar)
Your information made me so happy so I decided to add one more picture despite the trouble to find it and convert it to JPEG. More pictures will come later.  Wíth "later" I guess I mean "autumn". I do not know when that is. I always think that "in autumn" and "in winter" I will do all the indoor jobs, but autumn seems very short and always gives me lot of energy to work in the garden. Right now I have some strong men living in my B&B and they have asked me if I need any help in the garden. Some of you might remember I posted a picture of huge stones that were dumped in my front yard last year. Well, I have a plan...
Anyway, here is the image, please enjoy:

P bungeana v tenuiloba that I know that you grow, Greenspan.

[greenspan]

susann, where did you made the photo of your bungeana? i don't know, whether my bungeana ssp. tenuiloba was correct labelled. here the photo again:



looks different to your plants. your photo reminds me to a habitat like a grassy slope. this is very different to bungeana habitats e.g. in mongolia (altai mountain). i found a project of university of greifswald ("Virtual Guide to the Flora of Mongolia") with 7 Pulsatilla records. the bungeana there grow in desert like habitats + the plants are similar to mine (flower):

plant1 - plant2 - plant3
habitat1 - habitat2
(overview to all bungeana records in the database with more photos)

is bungena so different or do we speak about different species? on the greifswald project, the botanists treat bungeana and tenuiloba each as single species.

herbar photos of tenuiloba