Epimedium - various threads gathered together here

[WimB]

Wim, I do indeed have definite goals.  Broadly speaking, hybrids with flowers well presented above the foliage and long season of bloom (brevicornu is prime candidate), hybrids with true flower-power, those with richly colored foliage (many of the sempervirens types, versicolor types, grandiflorums with exceptional foliage like Dark Beauty, many of the asian species), everblooming hybrids, reliably evergreen hybrids (some sempervirens forms again), and rich or unusual flower colors, many of which are already coming onto the scene.  I have very specific goals, within each of those broad ideas.

Those are very good goals. If you can combine that all in one hybrid that would be like 'a theory of everything' for Epi's... 
I'm really interested in the ones with unusual flower colours, could you give me some examples (or are there pictures of some already on the Epi-page?)
The ones with special foliage are also very nice....'Dark Beauty' is a real stunner, not yet available in Europe, or I haven't found it yet...

[TheOnionMan]

Those are very good goals. If you can combine that all in one hybrid that would be like 'a theory of everything' for Epi's...  
I'm really interested in the ones with unusual flower colours, could you give me some examples (or are there pictures of some already on the Epi-page?)
The ones with special foliage are also very nice....'Dark Beauty' is a real stunner, not yet available in Europe, or I haven't found it yet...

Colorful flowers; let's see... those bright red and yellow, or pink and yellow ones, like 'Flame Thrower' (Probst 2009) a large spider-flower of cherry red and yellow, 'Pink Champange' an inverse color scheme in shades of raspberry and white (Probst 2007), to see that one is to want it (but it is EXPENSIVE), 'Windfire' (Probst 2007) which looks somewhat similar to your hybrid, yellow with red sepals (purchased this one last year, it's in bud now), 'Domino' with hard-to-describe white and pink flowers in profusion, omiense 'Akane' (should be available in UK), good red and yellow one, x 'Anamogawa', with elegant reflexed white sepals and a large squat open cup of brownish orange and yellow spurs (I'll post photos tonight, in the Epimedium thread), many others.  Darrell has so many unbelievable hybrids in his trial beds, some with enormous caramel colored flowers... to die for.

I'd like to recreate the orange color, like x warleyense, although that one appears sterile, but 'Orangekonigin' does produce pollen.

'Dark Beauty' produces hybrids in a wide range of coffee and caramel toned leaves.  It'll be interesting to see if the second flushes of foliage are as bright on the hybrids as with Dark Beauty itself.  The wide brown rim on leaves of E. grandiflorum var. higoense 'Bandit' is easily transfered to its progeny, as you've seen in Spring Wedding.  Just salvaged a hybrid seedling of E. sempervirens 'Aurora' that was been overgrown by a hydrangea, it is a huge beast with remarkable red foliage but pallid lavender flowers... but the various sempervirens forms could produce plants with such fantastically colored glossy foliage that they'd be worth growing for the foliage alone.

While "I'm so happy" discussing this, maybe the start of this Epimedium portion of this thread should get moved to Epimedium 2010.edit by maggi: that has now been done!

[arisaema]

I only grow a few species, but I'd be curious to know if there are any species or hybrids that keep their "spring marbling" (see pic) thru most of the summer? (And congratulations, Wim! )

[Maggi Young]

There were several posts on the "Yes! I'm so happy..." thread that referred to Epimediums in the wake of Wim Boens having one named after him......I've moved them here, they have this title :   YES!!! The "I'm so happy" about this Epimedium thread ! 

[TheOnionMan]

Two pics of a 3-year old hybrid seedling from Epimedium grandiflorum f. flavescens 'La Rocaille', selected for it's deeper color yellow flowers than normal; foliage nicely bronzed as well, and the familiar red stems showing off well.

[Lesley Cox]

Hans your 'Sunset' is of a colour to delight any shepherd or sailor (Red sky at night.....)

It seems to me that there are so many named hybrids now and so many synonyms for those hybrids that the situation will become, if it has not already, hopelessly mixed up and impossible to untangle in a short time. While I love all these beautiful plants on the Forum and wish I had many more of them, it has to be said that very many are extremely similar to very many others. Not QUITE as bad as Galanthus, but.....

[TheOnionMan]

It seems to me that there are so many named hybrids now and so many synonyms for those hybrids that the situation will become, if it has not already, hopelessly mixed up and impossible to untangle in a short time. While I love all these beautiful plants on the Forum and wish I had many more of them, it has to be said that very many are extremely similar to very many others. Not QUITE as bad as Galanthus, but.....

I do believe that Darrell Probst has been instrumental in clearing up much of the confusion, and relatively speaking, there isn't all that much confusion in the total scheme of Epimedium things, just a very small percentage.  Some confusion came from early days where people brought back named Japanese cultivars, with the cultivar name written in Japanese characters, so new names where invented in the USA, or in the UK, or both, for such plants.  This is the case with the numerous synonyms - 'Rose Queen', 'Sunset', 'Crimson Beauty'... all of which are actually the original Japanese named E. grandiflorum 'Yubae'.

The problem I'm seeing today, is that a nursery will find a self-sown seedling, and since most self-sown seedlings will be hybrids, they give their single garden hybrid a name!  They do not have a collection of 200 or so named cultivars with which to compare, they just willy-nilly give it a name.  Sure, it's a little bit different, it is probably a nice plant (aren't all epimedium nice plants?) but it might not be sufficiently different to warrant a name.  There is a nursery here in the USA that recently announced two new Epimedium hybrids, and they are completely unremarkable look-alikes for existing species or cultivars.  I wrote to them about their new offerings a couple of times, but never heard back.  Yet, with so many new species becoming available, the gene-pool is becoming larger and richer, and many new exotic and remarkable hybrids (distinctive ones at that) have already started to appear, or are forthcoming.

It is a luxury I suppose, to be so close to what I call the Epicenter of Epimedium, with Garden Vision Nursery a short drive from my home, to see all of the cultivars (certified/verified cultivars) in one spot, and have the opportunity to purchase most of them.  Once one has nearly every grandiflorum, youngianum, diphyllum, sempervirens, and versicolor cultivar available in the USA, and most species, it becomes an essential benchmark to compare new hybrid seedlings against, to make sure anything that might be introduced is truly something new, worthwhile, and not just a look-alike.  Few people have such a resource; this is true of many genera, the reason why the issue of look-alike hybrids can and does happen in many plant genera.  I'm getting hundreds upon hundreds of self-sown hybrids, and have gathered them up, marking them as to which plant they were found under, and have been observing the results these last 5 years... VERY INTERESTING to be sure.  But it raises a clear point, that deliberate hybridization, with intended goals, is critical to end up with new extraordinary plants.

Well, at least it's not as bad as overly popular overly bred genera such as Hosta and Hemerocallis (and of course Galanthus... I agree with you there Lesley ), the genus Epimedium is only getting started.

Oh... I should mention too, that there are important building blocks to hybridization that have lots to do with growth characteristics, such as Wim's recent hybrid named after him.  I have 5 forms of E. davidii, and all so far, have been recalcitrant, barely expanding plants... not sure why they just sit there and never bulk up, when most Epimediums are strong growers.  So, to have a hybrid between a strong yellow-flowered grower like E. rhizomatosum, and the recalcitrant E. davidii, that bridges that gap and creates a strong grower bringing forward some of the E. davidii characteristics, is a very important and significant building block, for garden-worthy strong-growing yellow eppies.

[WimB]

Those are very good goals. If you can combine that all in one hybrid that would be like 'a theory of everything' for Epi's... 
I'm really interested in the ones with unusual flower colours, could you give me some examples (or are there pictures of some already on the Epi-page?)
The ones with special foliage are also very nice....'Dark Beauty' is a real stunner, not yet available in Europe, or I haven't found it yet...

Colorful flowers; let's see... those bright red and yellow, or pink and yellow ones, like 'Flame Thrower' (Probst 2009) a large spider-flower of cherry red and yellow, 'Pink Champange' an inverse color scheme in shades of raspberry and white (Probst 2007), to see that one is to want it (but it is EXPENSIVE), 'Windfire' (Probst 2007) which looks somewhat similar to your hybrid, yellow with red sepals (purchased this one last year, it's in bud now), 'Domino' with hard-to-describe white and pink flowers in profusion, omiense 'Akane' (should be available in UK), good red and yellow one, x 'Anamogawa', with elegant reflexed white sepals and a large squat open cup of brownish orange and yellow spurs (I'll post photos tonight, in the Epimedium thread), many others.  Darrell has so many unbelievable hybrids in his trial beds, some with enormous caramel colored flowers... to die for.

I'd like to recreate the orange color, like x warleyense, although that one appears sterile, but 'Orangekonigin' does produce pollen.

'Dark Beauty' produces hybrids in a wide range of coffee and caramel toned leaves.  It'll be interesting to see if the second flushes of foliage are as bright on the hybrids as with Dark Beauty itself.  The wide brown rim on leaves of E. grandiflorum var. higoense 'Bandit' is easily transfered to its progeny, as you've seen in Spring Wedding.  Just salvaged a hybrid seedling of E. sempervirens 'Aurora' that was been overgrown by a hydrangea, it is a huge beast with remarkable red foliage but pallid lavender flowers... but the various sempervirens forms could produce plants with such fantastically colored glossy foliage that they'd be worth growing for the foliage alone.

While "I'm so happy" discussing this, maybe the start of this Epimedium portion of this thread should get moved to Epimedium 2010.

Mark,

I've seen Pink Champagne, Domino, omeiense 'Akane' and x 'Amamogawa' in reality already (there are a few (I know of two) very dedicated nurseries in Belgium which order a lot from Probst)  but I hadn't heard about Flame Thrower and Windfire. So if you have some pics of them I would like it very much to see them.

You are indeed very lucky to live near to Garden Vision, it must be great to be able to walk between his trial-beds.

[TheOnionMan]

I've seen Pink Champagne, Domino, omeiense 'Akane' and x 'Amamogawa' in reality already (there are a few (I know of two) very dedicated nurseries in Belgium which order a lot from Probst)  but I hadn't heard about Flame Thrower and Windfire. So if you have some pics of them I would like it very much to see them.

You are indeed very lucky to live near to Garden Vision, it must be great to be able to walk between his trial-beds.

Sure thing.  That's one reason I'm posting extensively here in this forum, showing the flowers, but more importantly, the whole plant aspect of as many species and cultivars as I can.  In a week or so Windfire should be in bloom... only got it last year so it is still small.  I'll have to take pictures of Flame Thrower at the nursery, when I attend one or two of the Open Nursery weekend days they do in mid May... coming soon.

[TheOnionMan]

A miscellany of epimediums today:

1.   E. fangii - hardy form.  A rhizomatous spreading species, so I will be moving this one to a place where it can spread. Bronzy spring foliage, yellow flowers with sepals shading to white.

2.   E. fargesii - evergreen basal foliage and tan-bronze new foliage, reflexed white star flowers with small purple petals.

3.   Epimedium hybrid with 'Dark Beauty', showing gold spring leaf coloring.

4.   E. sempervirens 'Mars'- erect red stems and dense clusters of rose-red flowers, which (unfortunately) quickly become concealed under a "shield" of shiny green red-edged leaves.  Makes a tall bold clump.

5.   E. sempervirens 'Mars'- looking "under the skirt " to see the flowers, and lots of cute eppie babies below.

6-7. E. x 'Amanogawa'- hybrid of E. acuminatum x dolichostemon, spring mottled foliage, and lovely upright panicles of reflexed white flowers accented with a dark center, brownish-orange cup shading  to yellow spurs.

8.   E. grandiflorum var. higoense 'Bandit' - deservedly popular, having small leaflets edged in brown-purple, and abundant white flowers.

9.   E. grandiflorum 'Sirius' (originally offered as 'Epstein's Salmon') - a pretty plant with soft foliage and pastel pink flowers shading to a salmon pink at the base of the sepals, a fairly unique color.

10.  E. sempervirens 'Candy Hearts' - WOW for the foliage display, almost looks like waxed plastic.  Even in summer after the leaves turn shiny green, there is always new foliage sprouting forth in hot pink and red candy colors.  Fairly good flowers of palest lilac, but this one is grown for the foliage.  Fantastic.

[WimB]

8.   E. grandiflorum var. higoense 'Bandit' - deservedly popular, having small leaflets edged in brown-purple, and abundant white flowers.

I always fail to see the difference between 'Bandit' and 'Saturn'. Do you know how I could easily see the difference?

[TheOnionMan]

8.   E. grandiflorum var. higoense 'Bandit' - deservedly popular, having small leaflets edged in brown-purple, and abundant white flowers.

I always fail to see the difference between 'Bandit' and 'Saturn'. Do you know how I could easily see the difference?

My plant of 'Bandit' is in full flower, and 10 meters away 'Saturn' is just emerging, still with tiny leaves and a few partially opened flowers.  I can photograph 'Saturn' in a few days to a week, so the comparison can be made.  I believe that 'Saturn' has thinner less pronounced leaf banding, whereas the dark band on 'Bandit' is stongly pronounced and more dramatic.

Bandit is also a bigger plant, about 6" (15 cm) in flower, with a tall second flush of foliage, whereas Saturn is shorter in flower and much more modest shorter second flush of foliage.

[TheOnionMan]

Just a quick post, a new Epimedium flowering for me, E. qingchengshunense, a recently described species, like a smaller E. fargesii.  I have tried in vain to photograph the delicate little flowers, but there's not enough of them yet... no mass to focus on, all I get are terrible photos.  This whole-plant photo isn't too bad, so here it is.  The dark purple outer sepals and spurs show off the white flowers well.

[ChrisB]

I posted a picture of this epimedium elsewhere, its flowers are small and insignificant, but the foliage is so interesting: Epimedium lishihchenii

[Maggi Young]

John Jearrard grows a lot of Epis.......

http://www.johnjearrard.co.uk/plants/epimedium/epimedium.html