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It is that time of year when Hepaticas are starting to draw attention again from the woodland floor. This year I notice that most H. americana show marbled foliage.
Very nice wild plant. Here deer eat Hepatica leaves so much that it is difficult to find them in the wild this time of year:(.Lucky that I have now fence mostly around the garden so they won't be eaten in my garden any more.Herman and Gabriela, thank you for the discussion about 'Millstream Merlin'. I have loved it in pictures and it just happens that I bought it couple of weeks ago, and it is coming tomorrow in mail:).
Very interesting discussion on a superb plant.I got mine some 15 years ago from Robin White at the Kent Show (those were the days !! ) Still going strong and it's had many babies since.
I checked in the two books by Linc Foster that I own, to see what he had to say about Millstream Merlin, but he didn't write about it at all. Instead, he was excited by a pink one:"It has taken ten years to build up a stock and introduce into the gardens of friends H. acutiloba 'Millstream Pink'. This is a vigorous plant with large blossoms of vivid deep pink, an outstanding individual in any collection. Distributed now into many gardens, this solitary plant, found after long search amidst hosts of plants in many sites, will perhaps persist in cultivation. It might have been destroyed in the wild!"I wonder if that one has persisted.
It has been a mild autumn this year, and some Hepaticas have already very big buds above ground. The most advanced are H.japonica and H.x schlyteri and to some extent also H.pubescens. H.nobilis doesn't show buds yet.Many times we can have cold temperatures without snowcover in the beginning of winter, it is often -10C and it can be even -20C.Last winter was very mild, -13C was the lowest (with practically now snow) and there were no damage then, but I don't remember if buds were this advanced then. What would you advise be to protect these buds of H.japonica? Can I put more soil around them or is that bad? I have dry oak leaves which I always spread on top of my most precious plants just before the frosts come, but is that enough?