Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Cultivation => Cultivation Problems => Topic started by: ronm on May 30, 2012, 04:23:32 PM
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I have many many Dicentra cucullaria growing around the woodland area, the semi shade beds, and in pots, but they never flower. They produce plenty of 'rice grains' which I'm thinking may mean somethings not right? ??? The foliage is very healthy and there is no sign of pest or disease in any of the populations. The original plants have been picked up from various suppliers over the years so must (?) be distict genetically, ???.
Can anyone offer any advice please to help promote flowering? Thanks, :)
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Mine are the same
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I have grown these for some years in pots, and I only get flowers when I remember to feed them a bit to get reasonable sized bulbs. I suspect they are so easy, and early, we forget that they want something to fatten up on.
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Don't plant them deeply. In pots I find they are happy just under the surface. Don't let them get too dry in summer. They don't flower very freely but it can be done. See
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=8906.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=8906.0)
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Martin's advice seems to be spot on. Just this past spring in the wild here in Minnesota (USA), we have had the best showing of flowers I have ever seen. Last year's rainfall was perfectly timed right up through August. And though not usual, it is not uncommon to see the corms at the surface.
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Thanks for all your observations / advice so far everyone. :)
Planting depth is very much near the surface in my garden, but I dont feed the garden colonies. I do however feed the potted ones, and they perform as badly flower-wise
I'm wondering now about the summer moisture,
"Last year's rainfall was perfectly timed right up through August." - Thanks Rick :) and Martin :)
Normally our summer rainfall is low, and I know the pots are kept on the dry side. What would be your rainfall figures (or perhaps we should now ask for evaporation rate, ;) ) for summer please Rick? ( especially last summer ).
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Ron, I'm in the East Midlands so rainfall in summer is variable but not high. Pots are kept in an open sand plunge frame with little/no direct sun. Pots in plunge are watered overhead once or twice a week if it's warm and hasn't rained recently.
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I'm wondering now about the summer moisture,
"Last year's rainfall was perfectly timed right up through August." - Thanks Rick :) and Martin :)
Normally our summer rainfall is low, and I know the pots are kept on the dry side. What would be your rainfall figures (or perhaps we should now ask for evaporation rate, ;) ) for summer please Rick? ( especially last summer ).
It was quite unusual last season in that we had no summer drought period until September, when very little precipitation fell from then until the end of this past April. I don't know of any evaporation rate tables, but I would think it would be more than England's and certainly more the eastern third of the USA.
This is the monthly rainfall received in the area of native woods I speak of:
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
2011 1.00 1.12 2.06 2.80 4.04 5.28 5.23 3.03 0.36 0.70 0.30 0.99 26.91
In addition, we had 2-3 inches of rainfall above "normal" that year and even more of that fell in spring/summer to compensate for the drought data from September to December.
For what it is worth, Dicentra cucullaria in the Minnesota wild grows almost exclusively at the bases of trees or perched on small rocky "cliffs", or in a place that somehow resists leaf mulch build-up that would appear to smother the plants.
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Thanks for the regime details Martin. :). Do they flower each year for you? Seeing your plant in the show thread you posted, it certainly seems to work for your plants. 8)
Fantastic information Rick. :). Thank you. I suspected that they may grow in nooks and crannies so they didn't get overpowered. But in these situations where does the food overload come from that they seem to need in cultivation in order to flower? Or is it that they are in 'run offs' and can therefore pick up dissolved goodness as it runs through at times of rain? A shy flowerer naturally? ???
Can anyone advise please if the production of large amounts of the 'rice grains' is indicative of good or poor health of the parent plant ? ???
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Ron, it does flower every year but sometimes only 1 or 2 stems. Lots of 'rice' as you call it is good, means the plant is storing food but it's not like a bulb, the lumps are all connected. Don't separate them.
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Noted, thanks Martin. :)
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... I suspected that they may grow in nooks and crannies so they didn't get overpowered. But in these situations where does the food overload come from that they seem to need in cultivation in order to flower? Or is it that they are in 'run offs' and can therefore pick up dissolved goodness as it runs through at times of rain? A shy flowerer naturally? ???
In some areas where the climate is very favorable for a lot of ephemerals, Dutchman's Breeches grow right along with other plants:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=1019.0 (http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=1019.0)
In other areas, where things are more sparse, NOTHING grows with Dicentra cucullaria. This pic shows a southern Minnesota maple/basswood/oak forest that is pretty much devoid of year-long undergrowth. Where the sun can peak through (where a tree had fallen, for instance) one will find a flurry of growth. Otherwise, where the caopy closes and tree root competition dominates, very little growth continues past tree leaf out. The green you see is Cardamine laciniata. Dicentra cucullaria might be located at the base of large trees with very significant root flares, where the soil level has been lifted slightly by the tree root growth, and thus leaf duff tends not to collect.
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Could there be a relationship between excess water seeping down the tree trunks (and nutrients it might bring with) into the soil there and Dicentra cucullaria's presence? I don't know.
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I have grown these for some years in pots, and I only get flowers when I remember to feed them a bit to get reasonable sized bulbs. I suspect they are so easy, and early, we forget that they want something to fatten up on.
Do you also water well through the summer Brian? What is your feeding regime please?
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Thanks Rick for showing the environment these plants inhabit, and for the lead to the NARGS thread. All very informative. 8) 8)
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Do you also water well through the summer Brian? What is your feeding regime please?
My pots exist amongst other plants so inevitably get some summer water, natural and otherwise, and just get an occasional feed as and when I remember. Slugs stripped them a few weeks ago so nothing left now. Maybe if they had leaves longer they would do better.
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Mine all flower prolifically (two forms), and frankly, never gave it a second thought because they seem so easy; too easy in fact... if they were not so ephemeral and summer dormant, they'd be a dang weed spreading far and wide... in fact I do think of it as weedy, but I do love the lush dissected spring foliage and wonderful flowers. They seem easy in almost any condition, but do best with shade in a nice humus soil.
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Thank you Brian and Mark, for your comments :) :)
I'm going to make sure ours get plenty of water this Summer and through into Autumn. :)
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I find it quite weedy since the rice grains pop up everywhere in my woodland and masquerade as Corydalis turtschaninowii. They do flower but only well fed ones do and then not a lot. They do not seem to need a lot of light to flower I get the impression that it is more a case of feeding. I always water the area if the soil is starting to get dry so I do not know what the influence from watering might be.
Göte
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Thanks Gote. What is it you feed with please?
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When I redo a woodland area I usually mix in leaf mould, a limited amount of well aged cow manure an some bone meal. I topdress with amixture of sandy woodsy soil with some sieved peat and some bonemeal.
Perhaps I should add that this side of the North Sea, peat is abundandly produced by nature.
Göte
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Thanks Gote. That sounds like a well balanced feeding regime and not one that is heavily weighted towards the production of flowers and fruit. As you flower them, and I don't, I will adopt your style of feeding regime. Maybe even post a few flower pics next spring :o 8) ::)
Thanks for the information / advice, :)