Monday, December 04, 2006
Epimedium Black Sea
Epimedium Black Sea is one of the foliage highlights of our early winter garden; it was one of the first epimediums I bought, and it is one of the best. In the spring, shown below, it has bright green leaves and butterscotch yellow flowers. It stays crisp looking all summer, then when cold weather returns in the fall, its leaves become progressively darker and shinier, as if Jack Frost shoepolished them during the cold nights. I have it planted at the base of a Heritage birch, and in late fall, it is indeed as if the Black Sea is washing up against the lighter birch trunks. It was once thought to be a species, called pinnatum ssp. colchicum; now it's known to be a hybrid, x perralchicum. Black Sea's foliage is not evergreen here, but it does many years hold its leaves until almost the end of the year, and if there is good snow cover, some of its leaves may, in fact, persist until spring.Epimediums are escalating in popularity; they perhaps have suffered from bearing the common name barrenwort, which does little to move them off the nursery benches. Garden catalogue writers, those masters of the exclamation point, have tried to remedy this by calling them "fairy wings", but this hasn't really caught on. Even so, the variety available (admittedly there are way too many named clones of, for example Epimedium grandiflorum) has skyrocketed in recent years; I count 125 offerings in one catalogue. Black Sea would be a nice start for most gardeners.
// posted by IBOY @ 6:40 AM 
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Not familiar with this epimedium, but I like it. I'll have to find a spot for it in my nest year.
Bob
Bob
Sorry for the type-o, My mind goes faster that my fingers can move :)
What I wanted to say is I'll have to find a spot for it in my garden next year.
all the best,
BOB of bobsgarden.com
What I wanted to say is I'll have to find a spot for it in my garden next year.
all the best,
BOB of bobsgarden.com
So, are there epimedium you, as yet, don't have, Don?? I bethca you have almost all of 125! How do you keep them straight?!
Bob... it's a beaut. I highly recommend it.
Sissy... I think I've got most of the available spoecies that I can grow, but only some of the eight jillion hybrids, a lot of which are #1 much alike, or #2 very expensive Japanese hybrids (like $80 for a plant that looks just like one I got for $8). I have very good plant labels now. Unfortunately, when I first moved here, a ton of stuff from my last garden got thrown together in baskets without labels, so a bunch of my more mature plants have no names.
Don
Sissy... I think I've got most of the available spoecies that I can grow, but only some of the eight jillion hybrids, a lot of which are #1 much alike, or #2 very expensive Japanese hybrids (like $80 for a plant that looks just like one I got for $8). I have very good plant labels now. Unfortunately, when I first moved here, a ton of stuff from my last garden got thrown together in baskets without labels, so a bunch of my more mature plants have no names.
Don
Jenn... no pests, drought tolerant, care-free... not many drawbacks... only things I can think of are slow-growing at first (better later), and no flowering during the summer; the flowering season is not terribly long, but nice late fall foliage should make up for that. Oh, the flowers are pretty small, but a fair number of them.
Don
Don
Where do you buy all your epimediums? Have you tried growing them from seed? You must be in regular correspondence with Darrell Probst no?
Great looking epi!
Great looking epi!
Ki... the catalogue I've been buying epi's the most from lately is Naylor Creek Nsy. (they're online). They have the biggest selection I know of, and while the plants are small, the prices for regular varieties can be as little as $5.50-8.00. I've not tried them from seed yet.
Don
Don
Thanks for the Naylor Creek nursery source. I checked them out and they do have a huge selection of plants at very reasonable prices. Cheaper than the place I bought my edpimediums from.
Have you seen any seeds on your plants?
Have you seen any seeds on your plants?
Ki... you know, I've never really have never looked for seeds (I'd imagine they would be tiny); I'll look next year. I've read that epimediums are extremely slow growing when little, which is why they are kind of expensive, so I would think from seed they'd take a long, long time.
Don
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Don
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