Epimedium - various threads gathered together here

[Maggi Young]

I use an axe when I divide Agapanthus I assume it would do for Epimediums and Hostas as well. 
Göte

But Göte, my husband does not consider me to be safe when in charge of an axe......

[mark smyth]

I need to tell you the plants is in a polstyrene box covered in hypertufa. This morning I tried to lever the plant out but stopped when I heard a crack.

[Maggi Young]

I need to tell you the plants is in a polstyrene box covered in hypertufa. This morning I tried to lever the plant out but stopped when I heard a crack.

Is the trough to big/heavy to up end in push/shake the plant out that way, with the extra help of gravity?

[gote]

I use an axe when I divide Agapanthus I assume it would do for Epimediums and Hostas as well. 
Göte

But Göte, my husband does not consider me to be safe when in charge of an axe......

That is an excellent excuse for letting him do the job 
Göte

[Maggi Young]

I use an axe when I divide Agapanthus I assume it would do for Epimediums and Hostas as well. 
Göte

But Göte, my husband does not consider me to be safe when in charge of an axe...... 

That is an excellent excuse for letting him do the job 
Göte

Well, no, because I do not consider MYSELF  to be safe when HE has the axe! 

[vivienr]

I find the best tool for splitting tough clumps is a machete we bought in Mexico (for getting into coconuts) many years ago and brought back in a suitcase via the USA. I don't think we'd get away with doing that these days

[TheOnionMan]

The eppies are waking up and starting to unfurl their fuzzy shoots.  I thought I'd put together some photos that help show the differences in two Epimedium cultivars, E. x versicolor 'Cupreum' and E. x versicolor 'Versicolor'.  They have the same seed parents are are indeed similar, but when observing both in the garden, they are distinctive enough to easily spot which is which.

Compared to E. x versicolor 'Versicolor', the salmon pink and yellow flowers in 'Cupreum' have a deeper color, especially noticeable in the dark color red buds, and foliage of 'Cupreum' tends to be more intensely bronzy-red giving greater emphasis to the green venation.  Overall, I find find E. x versicolor 'Versicolor' a faster growing plant, more floriferous, with masses of softer pastel salmon flowers.  In late autumn and early winter, the fall foliage color is different, a bright orangish-red (with yellow underlay) in 'Cupreum', a lustrous mahogany brown-red in 'Versicolor'. In the last photo, E. x versicolor 'Versicolor' is on the left, E. pinnatum colchicum 'Thunderbolt' on the right.

I hope to capture photographs of two more recent of Darrell Probst's versicolor hybrids, 'Cherry Tart' and 'Strawberry Blush'; both were too small in previous years to warrant photos, but should be good this year.

[monocotman]

Hi there,
my favourite tool for hacking up reluctant plants is an old saw.
It should make short work of epimediums as it is successful with ancient agapanthus plants
several years old. You can also be fairly exact as to where you want to cut!
Regards,
David

[TheOnionMan]

Epimediums are literally jumping out of the ground, after nearly a week of rain followed by warm sunshine, and temperatures up to 25 C.  This morning I took these photos of the hairy, muscular, frond-like uncoiling shoots of E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille'.  And from 2 days ago, on 04-02-2010, fuzzy mass of shoots and buds on E. x versicolor 'Versicolor', and red-tinted shoots on E. grandiflorum 'Red Queen'.

[TheOnionMan]

More Epimedium spring foliage and stems emerging:

1.  E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'Chocolate Lace' - dark emerging shoots
2.  E. grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille' - forrest of shoots (further along than inearlier photos)
3.  E. x versicolor 'Versicolor' - budding, a few first flowers open, the very first "eppie" to bloom.
4.  E. grandiflorum var. violaceum - emerging growth catching afternoon sun.

[Hans J]

today now some pics from my ( poor ) collection of Epimedium

Epimedium diphyllum
Epimedium pauciflorum
Epimedium platypetalum Og. 93085

Could please anybody confirm the ID of the E.pauciflorum ...I have it received from a Bot. Garden .....

Thank you
Hans

[TheOnionMan]

Epimedium pauciflorum
Could please anybody confirm the ID of the E.pauciflorum ...I have it received from a Bot. Garden .....

Thank you
Hans

Hans, your E. pauciflorum looks correct, you took a good clear photo, the rounded spiny-edged leaves (with red mottling on new leaves) is characteristic.  I was attempting to photograph my plants yesterday, but since it was raining, the photos came out bad, will reshoot them today.  My plant came Darrell Probst.  Not sure where you planted it, but this one comes with a warning... it is a "rampant" spreader, with annual advancing rhizomes of 8-12" (20-30 cm), and is best planted in a wilder part of the garden or woods where it has room to spread.  And as Epimediums go, it is true to its name, few-flowered and not as showy as many others.

E. platypetalum is a charmer isn't it.

[TheOnionMan]

Hans, for comparison, here's Epimedium pauciflorum photo taken today, 04-10-2010.  This is supposedly an evergreen species, many eppies are evergreen here, but for our climate I would call this one semi-evergreen at best.  It leaves behind persistent dead leaves that are difficult to pull off, making the plant look scrappy.  I had to hold a flower stem steady, as it is bitter cold and windy today.

[gote]

  Not sure where you planted it, but this one comes with a warning... it is a "rampant" spreader, with annual advancing rhizomes of 8-12" (20-30 cm), and is best planted in a wilder part of the garden or woods where it has room to spread.  And as Epimediums go, it is true to its name, few-flowered and not as showy as many others.

I second that. I had to move mine to under what is supposed to become a Rhododendron hedge. However, Olga wrote last year that she uses them as ground cover under her cyps!
I try to cut tattered last year's leaves of most Eppies with a pair of cissors.
Cheers
Göte

[TheOnionMan]

  Not sure where you planted it, but this one comes with a warning... it is a "rampant" spreader, with annual advancing rhizomes of 8-12" (20-30 cm), and is best planted in a wilder part of the garden or woods where it has room to spread.  And as Epimediums go, it is true to its name, few-flowered and not as showy as many others.

I second that. I had to move mine to under what is supposed to become a Rhododendron hedge. However, Olga wrote last year that she uses them as ground cover under her cyps!  I try to cut tattered last year's leaves of most Eppies with a pair of cissors.
Cheers
Göte

A better species for underplanting would be E. rhizomatosum, described in 1998... also a strong spreader, but definitely more evergreen, very low growing, and with handsome red-speckled mottled leaflets.  The best aspect is that it flowers late spring and most all summer, and even into fall!  It has large spidery yellow blooms.  I moved mine last year, as it was infiltrating neighboring plants, and planted it the base of a 5-meter long Lilac planting.  It is just starting to leaf out now, will get a picture posted in a few days when in fresh spring growth, and flowers in the summer... it is a species I currently lack a good photo of.