Hepatica 2009

[ian mcenery]

Just a few simple plants flowering in the garden.

Various seedlings first year flowering
H japonica
H pyrenaica

[annew]

That is a very pretty photo of the hepatica flowers with the ferns - simple and beautiful.

[Gunilla]

Ian, that pink japonica is lovely. Such beautiful regular flower shape and good colour. I also like the marbled (is that the correct word  )  leaves.

[Gunilla]

A few Hepatica transsilvanica have started to flower in my garden. Sometimes I wish I had them in pots so I did not have to crawl on the ground to take pics of them.
Hepatica transsilvanica, pure white
Hepatica transsilvanica, blue

[gote]

Gunilla
It is clear that you are in the south. I can just see the first movement of the buds.
By the way, What diameter does your transsilvanicas have (I mean flower)
Göte

[Gunilla]

Hi Göte
I may be in the south but spring is late here this year. Nights are cold but the frost doesn't seem to harm the hepatica flowers.  They are approx 30 mm. 

[Gerry Webster]

Einar,
I would suggest that all arguments work better when based on facts and not on misconceptions.
........You have also been proven wrong with regard to how long Hepaticas have been in cultivation in Europe. (Or do you find 1625 recent?)

No doubt. The only dates cited so far are 1750 by Mickeymuc & 1745, 1659 & 1629 by myself. Could 1625 be a misconception or just simple carelessness?

[Maggi Young]

Re : conservation matters:

I trust, gentlemen, that you will all make efforts that the tone of any discussion can be kept cordial ?

[annew]

Gunilla, your white is a fine form. I have a variety called Eisvogel which has barely survived for the last 10 years, and has given me one miserable flower only 2cm across. Perhaps this is my fault and not the plant's! Does anyone else grow this one more successfully?

[Joakim B]

regarding plant portraits
Just because it is a picture (painting) of a plant does not always mean it is in cultivation.
There are not many old cultivars with name. Just a few double forms of nobilis and a few of transsilvanica that is old. The others are doubles that do not have any specific name. So compared with the great variety of Japanese variants of higher age I think that it is correct to say that nobilis have not been in general culture for so long time in that there has been very little breeding and people has just focused on doubles and colors and not on the multitude of variants in Japan.
It was even a comment last year that hepatica is a forrest plant and not a garden plant for most people in Sweden. (I disagreed at the time but this show that not all see them as garden plants.)

There have been an influx of wild collected material in the Japanese breeding program with the before mentioned reference. This is not the same as saying that seedlings are wild collected plants and I have not seen any such allegation.

To state that some plants have garden origin in a vendor does not make the other less wild collected!
Just because a organization is of some size does not make it legal.
The Chinese plant market is far from controlled and a high interest from west make it more interesting in taking material from the forrest and this is shown by the very high error in the received plants as there is much reports of even here at this forum.
To think twice about buying plants from the east is not wrong. The "new" species might not all come from garden culture so one should control the seller before buying. That is at least my view if one want to be ethical.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Gerry Webster]

Gunilla, your white is a fine form. I have a variety called Eisvogel which has barely survived for the last 10 years, and has given me one miserable flower only 2cm across. Perhaps this is my fault and not the plant's! Does anyone else grow this one more successfully?

Anne  - I have had 'Eisvogel' for about the same length of time. The most flowers per plant I have ever had is 3. Pity, the flowers are rather nice.

[Rodger Whitlock]

. . . the great variety of Japanese variants of higher age

This triggers the question, how old are the various Japanese double hepatica cultivars?

I have noted that one, 'Orihime', a double pink, is described as "old" in comparison with others, but the word is not quantified.

In some groups of cultivated plants with large numbers of cultivars (e.g. roses) many fall by the wayside within a few years and very few are cultivated for more than, say, 10 or 20 years. Of the double primroses, most of the cultivars are quite recent in origin, largely grown from Barnhaven seed. Only the double mauve 'Quaker's Bonnet' is at all "old".

Anyone know the situation vis a vis the Japanese double hepaticas?

[Gunilla]

Anne and Gerry
I have not tried 'Eisvogel' and only seen it on photos so I can’t really compare. The one I have is entirely white without any blue or purple colour on the back of the petals. The whole plant is a paler green than my other transsilvanicas. It is a slow grower and starts to flower very early when we still have winter and frost here. This is a problem as the first buds often open when they are barely above ground and you can hardly see them.  The good thing is that it flowers over a long period and the flowers look better later on in the season.
A seedling I found under this plant has now started to flower and it looks identical to its mother with pure white flowers.

[Gerry]

I've had most transs. forms for about twenty years now including an 'albino' and 'Eisvogel'. Apart from the doubles and x media the staight species and its colour varients don't often put on a good show here. Though I've found that regular splitting helps.

I'm not sure if this is down to climate. But I do know that Mike Myers got a good show from garden grown forms in the national collection - I wonder if he fed them with high potash? He recommended this. Or it may be his southerly location. 



Gerry

[Joakim B]

Some say that transillvanica likes more sun than nobilis and that more sun may help. I do not know if Yours get a lot of sun or not. These grow in a much more southern climate than the nobilis that also in Sweden seems to grow in forests of mixed type generally not amongst firs where I see them but some of our garden escapes lives in a mixed fir forrest.
So maybe more light help?
A neighbour in Sweden has plants the size of 30cm in diameters in west of the house without any other shading. The natural soil is clay but I do not know if she has changed it or how ofthen she waters the plant or feed them. In the botanical garden in Lund the transilvanica are almost a small hedge in a woodland planting that also houses daylillies so there is a lot of sun there also. They also flower but maybe not as much as the ones in full sun.
Hope You have help of people with more experience.

Kind regards
Joakim