obtaining special hepaticas

[Joakim B]

Gunilla I have missed the plant sales in Alnarp even though I used to live very close. I have only been there on STA things at the bulbsale 2005.
I saw something on the Nordic hepatica forum about buying in a plant market, but was not sure where You bought them.
I once went to the fair held by Kristianstad garden club in Bäckaskog Castle where I bought Anemone nemorosa flora plena.

Do these things not exist in the UK where plants are sold by private persons to private persons often for a price below  "market value"?
Has anyone bought a nice plant at these sales?

Kind regards
Joakim

[Diane Clement]

I saw something on the Nordic hepatica forum about buying in a plant market, but was not sure where You bought them ... Do these things not exist in the UK where plants are sold by private persons to private persons often for a price below  "market value"?  Has anyone bought a nice plant at these sales? 

There are plant sales as you describe at all the shows and meetings we attend.  Depending on the meeting, the grower will get between 50% - 75% of the sales price, the balance going towards the running cost of the meeting or show.  There are sometimes bargains to be had!  With regard to hepaticas, I have seen nice potfuls of nobilis, but I have rarely seen any interesting japonicas in this situation.  I think growers of these would rarely have enough spare to be able to sell them in this way.  Private swaps are more likely.   

[Joakim B]

Thanks Diane I thought You in the UK only had "professional selling" at the meetings. Nice to hear that people can make some nice bargains at the meetings yet an other reason to visit them.
Hope You will be able to visit some meetings Rob and make bargains.

Kind regards
Joakim

[yijiawang]

Hello, Can I give a little suggestion that buy Japanese Hepatica? hope I can express clearly in my poor English....

Please link auction of Yahoo.jp http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/0-category.html?alocale=0jp and input 雪割草（this is Chinese means Hepatica,copy and paste it）, and then click 檢索(means search)---I attached that where you should input.

but only local Japanese can bid and purchase flower on Yahoo.jp, maybe you can let your Japanese friends to help you get it. price is lovely, usually between 10~30US$ for red or double flower.

show my Japanese Hepatica:-) 

[mark smyth]

But Rob, £25 to £40 is the same as buying a snowdrop.

Have you gone to Beeches?

[Joakim B]

Here is a translated page of a Japanese house that sells plant.
I do not know if and how they export but some are nice and does not cost a fortune. Getting them to Europe might?
Anyway one can look even if one can not buy? Maybe one can? Last year they had yellows for a nice price.

Enjoy
Joakim

[WimB]

Joakim,

was there supposed to be a link to the site?

[Joakim B]

Ooops Yes but then I need to add it will I not . Me thinking was not enough
Here it is
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.yukiwarisou-tachi.com/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=6&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dyukiwarisou%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN
Click on the text with the flowers called new offering or something and then You will see what they have.
Joakim

[Diane Clement]

['url=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.yukiwarisou-tachi.com/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=6&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dyukiwarisou%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN] Japanese Hepaticas [/url']

Mark you need to remove the apostrophes, they were just to show the code without it translating it.
Japanese Hepaticas

[mark smyth]

Edrom have some good offers
http://www.edrom-nurseries.co.uk/search_results.asp?keywords=hepatica&search.x=19&search.y=4

[Rodger Whitlock]

Fraser's Thimble Farms, on Saltspring Island BC, offers a number of the Japanese double hepaticas. Their latest catalogue lists the cultivars Haruno-awayuki, Kagura, Orihime, Shihou, Shigyoku, Shirayuki, Subaru, Tamamushi, Tougen, and Utyuu (a single) at prices ranging from C$72 (Utyuu) to C$375 (Shihou).

I asked the proprietor if these plants are propagated by tissue culture. He said no, they are all propagated by division, one of the reasons the prices are so high.

I am of course tempted to treat myself to one or two of the less expensive cultivars, but I've never had great success with hepaticas and am reluctant to risk the money.

This leads to a question about soil mixes suitable for hepaticas. The genus seems to be calciophile, which may explain why plants in the open garden do rather poorly here. With our heavy winter rains, all soluble nutrients, including calcium, are leached from the native soils. I can only conclude that a potting mix suitable for hepaticas should be near neutral, or even slightly alkaline, and that a little extra lime on the soil surface from time to time might help them.

A question for those of you successfully growing hepaticas in pots: what soil mix do you use, and what do you think are the key characteristics that make it suitable for hepaticas?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Hi Rodger - I carefully follow the methods explained very comprehensively by Ian Christie in the main website (not the Forum !) - in the second of his "Nursery workshops"

I've been quite happy with the results ! 


http://www.srgc.org.uk/nurseryws/040404/content.html


Good luck !

[annew]

The bit that says "For more mature plants we remove from the pots and cut the lower half of root system away this sounds drastic but on re-potting into same pot with some fresh compost plants grow away very well." sounds very scary, but go ahead and do it. It really seems to give the plants a boost.

[johngennard]

Most definitely Ann.This was advocated by John Massey when I attended his workshop a few years ago and I have practiced it ever since.I lay the root-ball horizontally on the bench and literally slice one third to a half off the bottom with an old carving knife and then remove a good portion of the remaing compost before re-potting with fresh compost.The old brown roots are theoretically of no further use to the plant although I must say that you can identify new white roots emanating from these brown roots but not in abundance.

[Gerry]

Or plant them in the garden; easiest of all.

Gerry