Corydalis 2014

[David Nicholson]

Please could some one help with advice about how to propagate Corydalis Blackberry Wine. I've had it for a few years and it seems to like my shady conditions and I love it. I've not been able to find any seed and the plant does not spread at the root although the top growth is very vigorous. I'm loathe to dig it up incase I loose it. Do you think root cuttings might work?

Can anyone help Margaret with this problem please?

[Maggi Young]

Please could some one help with advice about how to propagate Corydalis Blackberry Wine. I've had it for a few years and it seems to like my shady conditions and I love it. I've not been able to find any seed and the plant does not spread at the root although the top growth is very vigorous. I'm loathe to dig it up incase I loose it. Do you think root cuttings might work?

I don't know the parentage of this plant - I believe it is thought to be a hybrid.  I would have thought that a gentle lifting of the plant and division might be the best start. After all, you're going to have to disturb it quite a bit even to take root cuttings.  Most of  the hybrids with that sort of "look"  can be divided. If you manage a single split to start with you may also get some roots to experiment with.  'Nothing ventured', and all that!   

[ChrisD]

I don't know the parentage of this plant - I believe it is thought to be a hybrid.  I would have thought that a gentle lifting of the plant and division might be the best start. After all, you're going to have to disturb it quite a bit even to take root cuttings.  Most of  the hybrids with that sort of "look"  can be divided. If you manage a single split to start with you may also get some roots to experiment with.  'Nothing ventured', and all that!   

Yes that would be my approach too, but only if you can see several "growing points". Otherwise I would either leave it alone or move it to somewhere else where perhaps it would "bulk up" quicker.

It is one of those plants that I have never seen growing and from the pictures I cant make up my mind about it. What sort of soil does it grow in?

Thanks

Chris

[Jacek]

Re: corydalis "Blacberry Wine"

Margaret,

I have no experience in propagation of this corydalis. Instead, I can refer to the book "Bleeding Hearts, Corydalis and Their Relatives" by Tebbitt, Liden and Zetterlund (2008), page 142: Corydalis taliensis ... is a perennial ... that is only marginally frost hardy. ... C. taliensis can be increased vegetatively, since the nodes of the plants often root when they come into contact with the substrate. ... Corydalis shihmiensis is similar to C. taliensis. ... The cultivar "Blackberry Wine" is offered by several nurseries in the US and can take colder climates than C. taliensis. In the wild, C. shihmiensis seems to be usually annual or biennial, but despite this the cultivar is propagated by in vitro culture. ...

My personal experience is low. While it is rated to be hardy down to zone 5 by some US nurseries or services, it has not survived the first winter in my garden.

[Jacek]

In flower from May to October.

Hi Bolinopsis,

Is it your own cross of elata and flexuosa? All the plants of the flexuosa complex that I have flower once only for me (late spring), then go dormant and do not reflower in Autumn. I would like to know if this is the matter of climate or I do not have appropriate plants. I would love to experiment with your plant in my garden. Do you think it is possible?

[Jacek]

Do you know the factors promoting cleistogamy in Corydalis cheilanthifolia? I have not seen nice flowers, yet. Especially in the autumn the flowers tend to be invisible. Now I try to plant the seedlings in more sunny places. May be it will help.

[Margaret]

David - thank you for remembering about me.

Maggi - thank you for the encouragement. I'm a bit scared of killing it. Roots and stems are very brittle. I've tried to layer the long flowering stems but they are not having it.

Jacek - thank you for the reference and the advice. As it happens I've just sown some seed of C. taliensis and so it will be interesting to compare them, if germination is successful.  It has similarities to C. Blackberry Wine below. (Sorry about very poor pics)  The close up is meant to show one of the flowering stems starting to shoot which it does at some speed!

[arisaema]

The problem with C. shimienensis 'Blackberry Wine' is the fact that it is self sterile, and only a single clone is propagated. When grown alongside other clones it self seeds prolifically, to the point of being a bit of a nuisance, and behaves (at least in my former Norway garden) like a biennial, or rarely as a very short lived perennial.

[Maggi Young]

 This section from the Flora of China 7: 295–428. 2008 -
18. CORYDALIS    Candolle in Lamarck & Candolle, Fl. Franç., ed. 3, 4: 637. 1805, nom. cons., not Medikus (1789), nor Ventenat (1803–1804).
紫堇属 zi jin shu
Zhang Mingli (张明理), Su Zhiyun (苏志云Shu Tsi-yun); Magnus Lidén  -  is available online, all 135 pages of it :
http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/pdf/pdf07/Corydalis.pdf

[Steve Garvie]

A few Leonticoides Corydalis in flower.
Last autumn they were moved to my greenhouse as their normal cold-frame home is leaking and in need of repair. Unfortunately this resulted in earlier watering and increased heat which has wakened them earlier than I would have liked resulting in some etiolated foliage.

Corydalis verticllaris

An Iranian species purchased from Janis Ruksans last summer.


Corydalis cryocentra

A rather variable and fairly small-flowered species from Krygyzstan. This individual has quite a striking flower and came from Jan Jilek last year.


Corydalis sewerzowii

This individual has the largest flowers I have ever seen on a Corydalis (though I've not seen that many Corydalis). As each flower matures the saccular end becomes increasingly yellow and loses the wrinkles whilst the post mature flower takes on a reddish hue before withering. This individual is a survivor from the mid 1990's (I subsequently lost my way and my interest in bulbs/alpines for about 15 years losing most of my plants to criminal neglect in the process!), the label is long lost so I have no idea of its provenance.

[Maggi Young]

This individual has the largest flowers I have ever seen on a Corydalis

measurements, Steve?

[ashley]

Nice plants and such clear photos Steve.

Corydalis sewerzowii This individual has the largest flowers I have ever seen on a Corydalis

Perhaps it's your clone. Mine are 3.5-3.8 cm, so nothing exceptional, albeit first flowers from seed sown Sept 2011 (Vladimir Koblintsev coll., Abail, southern Kazakhstan).

[Steve Garvie]

Maggi & Ashley,

I found it rather difficult to measure!
My biggest popovii flowers (corolla) measure about 43mm but a few of the flowers on this sewerzowii are close to 46mm -the spur in both plants curves at the end.

[udo]

My first Corydalis for this year,
Corydalis popovii, a large corm with around 15 shots in a ring

[Steve Garvie]

Impressive popovii!!!