Sunday, December 02, 2007

Barrenworts For The Barren Winter




As the tentacles of winter begin to wrap themselves around our garden, it is fading so fast that I feel like I should start scanning the obituary column for news of its demise. There are, however, little clumps of life here and there; especially with the epimediums. Some are evergreen, some semi-evergreen, and some are deciduous for us; all are nice. Actually, I prefer to call them 'angelwings' rather than their other common name 'barrenworts'; the latter name sounds like a disease of the feet in old people living on the moors of the far northlands.
The foliage of the evergreen epimediums stays pretty nice until Christmas or so, and some of them remain almost intact clear through the winter; an amazing sight to see in January. Above are several epimediums: from top, hybrid Cherry Tart, stellulatum, perrulchicum, and rubrum (Cherry Tart is pretty much deciduous, rubrum and stellulatum semi-evergreen, and perrulchicum evergreen) in our climate.
Posted by Picasa

Comments:
Each and every one of the leaves would look beautiful in a winter arrangement! Gorgeous!
 
Love the association you make with the name "barrenworts." LOL Cherry Tart is lovely!
 
Hello Don;

The storm that passed you a few days back left 14" of snow here yesterday and seemed to be about 8 hours behind all predictions. It's still snowing here and time to fire up the truck and gets the roads plowed before going to work.

Your epimedium pictures are very good and serve as reminder to folks unfamiliar with them that this is a plant worth a try. I always like to look at Darrell Probst's site, The Epimedium Page, but then I get a feeling similar to your feeling about "winter is too long" but mine is "my pocket is too empty". Just the same, buying one or two a year makes for a nice collection over time and they are a great plant.

George Africa
http://thevermontgardener.blogspot.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com
 
George... this is shaping up to be a monumentally BAD winter; snow is forecast here about every day for the next week. You are going to get buried.
Don
 
Beautiful foliage. Now I'm Very encouraged about starting my own collection! (Done with only reading about them!) ;-)
 
Shady... they are VERY addictive; I probably have fifty varieties (species and cultivars).
Don
 
Ohmyword! I didn't know there were so many! Are these your favorites?
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?