Epimedium - various threads gathered together here

[Hoy]

Rick,

You certainly have quite a lot of nice Epimediums!


And you also, Gabriela.


Before I got those big brown slugs I had some nice plants also. A few of the biggest clones still survive but young plants disappear in a year or two as the new shoots are devoured by the slugs and snails.

[Leena]

Rick,
you have  so many really beautiful Epimediums!
I like E.'Beni-Goromo', beautiful flowers and really nice autumn foliage!
Also the cloud of flowers in E.brevicornu are lovely. I have nothing like that in my seedlings (yet, they are not very old).
Here it is difficult to buy cultivars of Epimedium, except the most common ones. It is possible to order from special nurseries from Europe, though, but I haven't done it,
because there are so many seedlings still growing, and I want to see them first:).
It was good to see E.lishihchenii, I have seedlings from it which may flower next spring for the first time. Their new foliage has the same color as in your picture, very nice.

[Leena]

Gabriela, thanks for those pictures. E.stellulatum is a cloud of flowers in your garden.
Mine looks similar to your hybrid, and actually I like it because there is more yellow in the flowers:).

Rick, 'Amber Queen' is also here just in border if it is hardy enough. It doesn't flower reliably every year, but when it does, it is very beautiful, and long flowering and I like how flowers grow so high above the foliage. It should be evergreen but here its foliage gets very damaged during winter.

[Gabriela]

I haven't grown from seed on purpose, but I do get a few seedling volunteers now and then.  Nothing 'worthy' has come of them, though.
Epimedium 'Amber Queen' - marginally hardy here.  I had it for 3 years.

I don't know why you call it marginally hardy Rick, for me it looks like doing perfectly well.
Here's mine, looking just the same (a bit older too). Some years the flowers can be destroyed by late frosts, but that's happening for all others as well.


And here's the E. lishihch. although I'm sure I already showed it before. It's hard not to take pictures with it every spring.


In my experience, the Chinese species are the best parents to obtain interesting seedlings. From E. davidii and another unknown parent I obtained I nice one, which I previously shown.
And there is another one which I will keep; I call it 'Curly'. The foliage is extremely leathery and with waved margins, seen better on new foliage.
Picture taken yesterday when we had 15C and noon.

New foliage is bronze in early spring then changes to green.