Hepatica 2009

[Gerry]

Hi Joachim

Durham is in the middle of Britain, just south of the Scottish border. Its sunny enough, but I'm sure we don't get Romanian temperatures. I have plants in full sun, dappled shade and full shade. The ones in full shade just throw leaves. The other sites give mixed results.

I suspect the real cause is no 'real' winter. Does anyone in NE Scotland flower them?

Gerry

[Joakim B]

Gerry do they grow well?
The Swedish plants may get "real" winters or not depending of where they are. The ones in Lund (just east of Danish Capital Copehagen) may some year just have a few days below zero. Other years they might be covered with snow and yet others just in cold frozen ground -15C. Some of the plants start to flower in December in the botanical garden.  Good summers have max on 25C (great almost 30C) so we are also far from the inland climate of Romania. Maybe these plants are a bit hungrier than other hepatica? They might need more feeding than nobilis to do well? The plants do get bigger so they might need more feeding to bloom?
All of this is just from the results around me and not my own doing.
Kind regards
Joakim

[Gerry]

Sounds like British weather to me Joachim.

I have Ballardii, and this flowered well in damp gritty compost in the garden next to the raised edge of a small wall. I know that British gardeners have long lamented shy flowring H transs.

Gerry

[Joakim B]

Yes the Swedish weather in the south is not to far of the colder parts of Britain but might get a bit colder some time.
You see what Gunilla is showing now and she is just 100 km north of me (in Sweden). Might be a few weeks behind some here but not that much.
In Northen Sweden it is much colder and much different light and shorter season with the exception for the winter that is loonger
Kind regards
Joakim

[annew]

I'm not sure if this is down to climate. But I do know that Mike Myers got a good show from garden grown forms in the national collection - I wonder if he fed them with high potash? He recommended this. Or it may be his southerly location. 
Gerry

He's north of me!! Just. None of my transylvanicas do particularly well, and I think the flowers are taken by birds or slugs.

[Gerry]

Slugs are a problem, specially in mild English winters. I cut the leaves off [when I get the chance / remember] to limit their thuggery.

Anyway, how are the Yorkshire cotton fields doing these days?


Gerry 

[Katrin Lugerbauer]

Last weekend the hepaticas started to bloom, but now it is snowing again.
The bicolor-nobilis are the first this year.
Best wishes from Austria,
Katrin

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Very very attractive Katrin !

[Joakim B]

I echo Luc and and that it is a well grown plant with nice number of flowers. 
Well done
Kind regards
Joakim

[johngennard]

I've just caught up with the hepatica thread again and a lot has been happening since I last viewed.Ignoring all the political stuff because I am not into that, I would like to add my own experience of growing transylvanica.I have had a patch of it about a metre across for about 25 yrs.and it has never flowered profusely in all that time this year being the worst ever.However,divisions taken twelve months ago have each produced a flower.I also grow several cultivars including Karpatenkrone,deBuis,Winterfreude,Eisvogel and others.I have only had the cultivars for 4yrs.so they are comparatively young but they have all flowered this year though not profusely.They are all growing well and starting to form nice clumps but I fear that we cannot expect them to flower with the same profusion as nobilis.However,when growing healthily I think their foliage is worth the space that they occupy as it retains its condition all though the Summer and into Winter forming an attractive carpet when several plants are groupe together.

deBuis a fortnight ago
Eisvogel     "          "

[annew]

Aha! maybe I should stop ignoring them and give a little TLC (tender loving care).
John, I wanted to ask you, are your super show plants repotted yearly, and are they repotted as a clump, or as several plants per pot?

[annew]

Katrin, that's a very pretty hepatica you pictured. Is it a wild one?

[gote]

Hi Göte
I may be in the south but spring is late here this year. Nights are cold but the frost doesn't seem to harm the hepatica flowers.  They are approx 30 mm. 

Hello Gunilla,
We had -9° in the town this night meaning about -12 where the hepaticas grow. I have never seen any harm to the nobilis ones but my only transsylvanica does not like my winters. I have had these 30mm flowers only once in several years. Most winters it barely survives. It would be interesting to know how it fares in other gardens with a colder climate.
Göte

[Gerry]

 
[/quote]
Hello Gunilla,
We had -9° in the town this night meaning about -12 where the hepaticas grow. I have never seen any harm to the nobilis ones but my only transsylvanica does not like my winters. I have had these 30mm flowers only once in several years. Most winters it barely survives. It would be interesting to know how it fares in other gardens with a colder climate.
Göte
[/quote]

So if they don't flower well in mild climates or cold ones....... I'll try feeding them with tomato fertiliser this year. Having said that I still get decent flowering from the double forms.

Gerry

[Katrin Lugerbauer]

Hello,

thanks for your answers. Yes, the showen plants are wild ones (I hesitated to write it, but they aren't protected in my province). Now I'm looking forward to get seedlings.

Katrin