Hepatica

[Joakim B]

Finally the hepatiocas I have on my south facing balcony in a pot together with heleborus.
One is light blue and I show it in half bud and a few days later in full bloom.
The other is the normal blue of hepaticas.

That all folks
Joakim

[PEAK]

I have never been into Hepatica, I beleive that most Swedes look at them as "to common" for the garden. But I must say that I enjoy the blue carpets that right now is starting to form in the forests of the Stockholm area!
OK, this have changed seeing these fantastic pictures on the forum, you have got me addicted
I have found this Swedish Hepatica nursery
http://www.hepatica.se/undermenyer/index_englisch.htm
(hope they are better plantsmen than spellers)
What do you say about the prices, would it be cheaper to buy them in UK?

Cheers

[Joakim B]

Per Åke  I must protest.
I think hepaticas have been grown in gardes for a long time in Sweden!
I know we have done it, and recently it has become a bit of a fashon as can be seen on Swedish forums.
Not everyone has acces to the lovely blue hills of hepaticas and they are getting further from people as more and more are city people. The hepatica is seen as a sign of spring that is a true sign (snowdrops can bloom and then there will be snow again). And generally spring is always very wellcome in Sweden with the light and maybe some wormth.

I think that the big change now is that people are willing to pay for them and not only take them from the forrest (that is not allowed in (southern) Sweden). There have been cultivars of pink and red as well as doubles that are hardy in our climat (and there still is) for a long time that has been going around in collector groups and not much in the gardencenters or the professional plantsmen. But there are other Swedes in the forum that also have an interest in hepaticas as can be seen on their webpage.
The non hardy Japanese has been of less interest since we do not have that much "under glass" in Sweden. It is generally to cold so the wonderfull japanese have only been with a few only.
But hepatica nobilis and hepatica trans. have been grown for a long time in many nice forms.

Kind regards
Joakim

[mark smyth]

I mentioned that web site late last year. I got some great Hepaticas from him

[Joakim B]

Mark I presume the dotted one You showed earlier comes from them?
"Prickel" or something.
Joakim

[mark smyth]

Yes

[PEAK]

I have noticed your protest Joakim I think you are absolutely right in that there is a growing interest in Hepatica among plant interested people in Sweden. But I still believe that Swedes in common don't find them garden worthy. Most of the Hepatica breeding work in Sweden has been done by Severin Schlyter who sadly died last summer. He used to offer seeds from a lot of different crosses each year in our Swedish seed-ex. I'm embarrassed to say that I never ordered any, I just didn't realize the true value of these offerings
I think I have read that Severin's plants and breeding programme has been tranfered to the agricultural university. I can only hope that they   recognize the value of his work better than I did!

Cheers

[Stephenb]

Per-Åke: I thought that I read in the STA (Swedish gardening association) magazine (the one with the seed list) that Severin's Hepaticas had been donated to Wisley Garden in the UK..

We have wild Hepaticas in the wild part of our garden, but it's still 2 weeks before the flowers emerge...

I have a few others, e.g., one white flowered called Tamsa from Estonia, transylvanica and here's a couple of pictures of one I was given from a lady whose mother had had it in her garden for at least 50-years. It's just called "Fylt Rødveis" (or double red anemone, although not what I would call red...).

Stephen, Malvik, Norway

[Joakim B]

Stephen
Nice flowers
Is it light pink as in the second or is it more pink as in the first.
It is always hard to get the true colours on hepatica I think.
Very nice and well growing.
Thanks for showing the Scandinavian interest in hepaticas
We have a nice one in the summerhouse that is pink that gets lighter pink towards white as the flowers become older. I hope my mother can take a picture of that.

Per Åke Please share the blue meadows with us less fortunate, not having them close by.

Kind regards
Joakim

[PEAK]

Thanks for the clarification Stephen, Wisley makes me feel a lot better about the continuation of Severin's work

I will sure try to photograph the "blue carpets", but at least in Stockholm there are still some weeks to go! It's quite interesting that these native plants not are fooled by an early spring, they have some kind of built in calendar telling them when to start growth and flowering! I guess that it has to do with the length of the day!

Cheers

[Geebo]

Hi Chris,
I was wondering could you possibly post your Japanese Hepatica society website address I have lost it.Thanks.
Best Wishes.
Guy

[Joakim B]

I am not Chris but here is a link to wonderfull hepaticas that is Japanese.
It is more pictures if one click around on the cite.

http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~sainohana/newpage6.htm

Even if it not the right one enjoy
Kind regards
Joakim

[Maggi Young]

I'm not Chris either, but here is a reply that Diane W. made earlier in the thread, I think the link is the one you want, Guy :  www.ihsj.org/

The url of the International Hepatica Society is www.ihsj.org/ but they still have no link to the word "English" on their homepage. So, instead of going directly to their site, do a Google search for
International Hepatica Society, and click on (Translate this page). Google has a Beta version of
a Japanese translator and it isn't bad, though it takes concentration to understand some
of the technicalities in the article on breeding for doubles, and English seems to need more space than Japanese, so there is doubling up in some areas.

Then click on the word "Japanese". I didn't do this last year as I assumed the articles would all be in Japanese, but they are all translated into English by Google. This will lead to the menu which includes cultivation - 5 articles from different places in Japan - this is necessary because of the climatic differences - for instance, Tokyo with its hot steamy summers requires a different method of growing.

[Maggi Young]

Joakim, that is a super site that you give the link for, Thank You!

[Stephenb]

Stephen
Nice flowers
Is it light pink as in the second or is it more pink as in the first.
It is always hard to get the true colours on hepatica I think.
Very nice and well growing.
Thanks for showing the Scandinavian interest in hepaticas
We have a nice one in the summerhouse that is pink that gets lighter pink towards white as the flowers become older. I hope my mother can take a picture of that.

Per Åke Please share the blue meadows with us less fortunate, not having them close by.

Kind regards
Joakim

My "colour memory" is not one of my strong points. I'll check and report back when the plant is in flower again in a few weeks.

Hepaticas are quite commonly grown in gardens here. If you come from an area with Hepaticas (Blåveis in Norwegian), it's nice to grow a few plants as a memory of the home area (plants from friends or wild collected). Keener gardeners will often grow other species (particularly transylvanica) and cultivars. Plants are sourced from other gardeners - can't remember having seen Hepaticas in garden centres here.

A sign of spring is when the local paper shows a picture of the first local kids to find a Hepatica flower (and, earlier Coltsfoot or Tussilago). However, it's not uncommon for kids to stumble on a flower in midwinter - they might have trodden on a plant and the unopened flower has appeared. Most people are unaware that the flowers form in the autumn.