Tell me all about your Epimediums

I will soon start to populate a new heavy shade garden. I have done lots of planning over this too long a winter ;) and in my on line research I often see mention of the epimedium. It appears that there is much this plant has offer ie flowering in spring, able to thrive in dry shade and good foliage. It seems like an outstanding plant for a (dry) shade garden.

Of course I would love to hear about your experiences with this (underused?) plant.

They are terrific in dry shade and need very minimal maintenance. Which ones interest you most?

I love epimediums and have many.
Unfortunately, my bunnies also like them, so bunny browse can be an aggravation.
I have some for floral display, some for foliage, some for groundcover.
For floral display, it's hard to beat Pink Champagne (pic 1).
For groundcover, e x versicolor cultivars are most reliable.
Most available is 'sulphureum', but I prefer 'Cherry Tart' (pic 2) whose flowers are prettier.
For bold foliage, e. wushanense (pic 3) is the best, but flowers are boring.
Epimedium grandiflorum higoense 'Bandit' has beautiful marginal variegation (pic 4).
Finally (pic 5) is another spreading variety, but torturously slow (e. brachyrrhizum).
There are of course many, many others - I could go on & on - I really love the genus.

Thanks so much 'robin' for the suggestions and the accompanying pictures.

Deer (here) do ignore them but deer in any region develop their own taste. They won't touch my dahlias, for instance, but devoured my friend's dahlias and she lives barely a mile from me.

Blood meal works to deter rabbits for me. I don't use it often, just when the new leaves are up and growing since that's when the rabbits seem to enjoy them the most - same with lilies and their new leaves.

I did a quick tour of the shade garden a day ago, and the epimedium leaves are bright red. The new foliage will be green. It is one of those lovely, early plants, tried and true. Blooms are pretty red and white, and it requires very little maintenance. A pretty slow spreader. Rabbits seems to find enough other produce to exist in our yard.

The epimedium was here when we moved in, but I understand it takes a while to establish, so patience will be a requirement. It spreads very slowly for me.

I have one epimedium with yellow flowers. Are you supposed to cut the foliage back? Spring or winter?I just love the color on the leaves, year-round.

Chiming in - I generally cut back the old foliage early, before the flowers emerge so that I can see them better. My Epimedium foliage is pretty well toasted by the time March comes along.

Mine was treated gently this winter. I was born in Sullivan IN and I remember the weather there. A little milder out here. Thanks for the info. I will cut it back next Feb.

This message was edited Mar 26, 2013 1:13 PM

I cut mine back in spring as well, before the new leaves emerge.

This is one plant that does not do well for me. I have several established but they haven't spread at all. Woe is me! I love these guys and I wish I knew why they don't do better. Hoping for Spring soon so I can see of they survived after our severe drought.

Im looking longingly at the ones called Bressingham Ruby. It is rated for my zone, 9a. Is that anyone's favorite?

edited to read "posted in wrong thread"

This message was edited Mar 28, 2013 9:32 PM

I try to cut mine back late winter/early spring, too.
But you've got to be careful. The new flowering shoots are coming up at about that time.
And as careful as I try to be, I inevitably snip off a new flowering stem or two.
Ghopper, some of the popular epimedium cultivars are clumping, rather than spreading.
If you want a spreader, try a epimedium x versicolor cultivar.
'Sulphureum' is the most widely available, but flowers aren't very spectacular.
I prefer 'Cupreum' or 'Cherry Tart' which have more colorful flowers.

weerobin - have to agree with you about the 'Sulphureum' - best spreader (so far) in my collection. Although it is one of my favorites for flowering - maybe it's the yellow color. Had hoped 'Fire Dragon' would have been a little brighter in it's coloring but so far not so much. Another fav is the small 'Niveum', blooming after the leaves emerge. Kinda charming (although I don't use that word much).

That is so helpful -- I wasn't aware that some were spreaders and others clumpers ....

Me too! on Sulphurum. I had originally been disappointed because I was trying to obtain a pink and a white flowered epimedium, and these were mislabeled, and I wasn't a fan of yellow. But what a yellow, and what a plant. When I moved a little over a year ago I took a clump, and came back for another. The spreading quality has been wonderful. And this plant is flexible. In my previous home I had it in mostly sun with polemonium, lilium regale, lilium Casablanca, thalictrum and ferns, and with occasional watering it did very well. Now I have it in mostly shade, and a lot of the plants around it then do well now because they are really sun/shade plants. It's got some new company with aquilegia, and oakleaf hydrangeas.

After five years, I would say that my original clumps have multiplied by three, or four. So two gardens are enjoying them. It's so delightful I have no doubt that I would buy it again, on purpose.

Please note that the other thing about it is that it tends to be far less expensive than most of the others - not due to any lack of charm, but simply because it has been around longer and is more widely available. There are $35 epimediums. I've seen sulphurum for $18.00 on Plant Delights. But while searching for you I also just found it for $9.75 ($9.00 for 3) at Hallson Garden, which has great reviews on Garden Watchdog: 218 positives and 1 neutral.

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/155/

Think I'm going shopping!

And Wee, interesting - NOTHING bothers mine, and I had lots of bunnies.

I don't know what's wrong with your high falutin' Illinois bunnies ...
But no Missouri bunny I've ever met will turn down an epimedium feast!

They really preferred the double tulips I put in every year. 12 white (Mount Tacoma), 12 pink (Angelique) and 12 rose (Maywonder, which is no more). Then they moved on to the Hearts Delight. I started putting down hardware cloth after a year in which they took out about 40 tulips. Wow, the rabbits were fat that year!

By the time the epimedium sprouted I think they had indigestion from the bulbs.

Just what they deserve!
After reading everyone else's posts about 'Sulphureum''s floral display,
I may have to give it a re-evaluation.
I have a sprawling patch of it stabilizing a shady slope,
so I'll be sure to give the flowers a better look this year...

I was looking through pictures trying to find my Sulphureum in bloom,
but didn't find any.
But here are a few others I think are interesting.
I've lost the tag on some of them, unfortunately...
#1 is Mizu Homaru, which has interesting curled spurs. There are a couple other similar cultivars.
#2 is diphyllum nanum. A pure white tiny (couple inches tall) with very small clean foliage.
#3 is Pink Elf, fairly new, but already pretty commonly available at nurseries or in catalogs.
#4 is a beautiful pink free flowering thing - if anyone knows it's name, let me know.
#5 is also a NOID - nice pale lavender flowers set off against dark emerging foliage.
I'll bet over half my plants are unlabeled - some I can eventually figure out, most not.
Bookkeeping has never been one of my strong suits!

In bloom. Mine got lots of afternoon sun, and did very well.

This is in April.

weerobin - #4 - is that a bigger bloom than other Epimediums or just a closer shot? Looks perfect!
Donna - yours have a bigger floral display than mine in crummy, dry amended clay. I must make a note to move some to better soil.

Donna, yours certainly flowers better than mine - I presume the sun makes the difference.
Unfortunately, can't fix the sun exposure in my sun-challenged yard.
Cindy, the flower is bigger, though probably not as big as the exposure makes it look.
But it flowers profusely and the color and size of bloom really gets your attention.
Unfortunately, I don't know what cultivar...

I have amended clay too. They love lots of compost.

Beautiful flowers colors. Will have to be on the lookout for some of those types.

Thanks for the pictures and comments. As always...so many plants and too little space :(.

I have two epimediums that have done really well in my shade garden. Deer have been leaving them alone, which is always a bonus with the deer problem I have here. The first photo is either 'Rose Queen' or 'Lilafee' - I bought both at the same time and planted close together - one made it one didn't. I've tried comparing pictures from internet searches to my photo, but it is so hard to tell. My photo matches pictures of both, but then again most of 'Lilafee' are more lavender/purple and some of 'Rose Queen' are a much deeper pink. Aggravating when I can't id. Second photo is 'Niveum'. I've been wanting to get more of these, but rarely see them in the local nurseries.

General question about mail order plants: They are pretty small. A lot of mine don't make it, but I've always planted directly in the garden. As a general rule of thumb, do you keep them potted until they grow to a bigger size or do you plant them directly in the garden? Do you notice a better success rate with one way or the other?

I usually plant them directly into the garden.
Smaller plants may need some protection, so I use wire cages around them,
both to protect against browsing as well as to help me find them!
Here's a picture of one of the hardware cloth cages I make to protect young plants
or plants the bunnies love the most.

Or here's an example of a commercial wire cage I use, called a gopher cage.
It's meant to be buried around the root ball of the plant to protect against gophers.
But I use it to protect against deer browsing.
My open-top hardware cloth cages don't protect against deer.
I have a much higher success rate with little plants by using these protections.

They are very, very undemanding. I thought that they were one more fad, until I went to a garden center in Wisconsin and saw them in the flesh. I was sold!

Weerobin, I have been successful with voles, rabbits and squirrels, but deer!

I find that the most buff plants come from garden centers. That's where I got my epimediums. I got two alchemilla mollis last year from Santa Rosa gardens that were so small I had to tag them, because otherwise I couldn't see them. One is gone, so I have axed that company.

Something I never considered doing - holding smaller plants in pots for a while. Have only done it once with a very tiny mail order hosta 'Kabitan' - even brought it indoors over winter because it was so small that I thought it wouldn't come back in the spring. How often do you find yourselves holding new plants in pots?
Hmm - the deer here didn't seem to bother Epimediums but loved columbine flowers.
Nice grouping, weerobin. Very colorful.
Gosh - I need to work on amending soil again for the Epis. I consider them so fuss-free that I forget that they could do better with improved soil conditions.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to try the protection methods this year and see if that helps. Weerobin, the cute little plant in your first photo is one I tried and failed - can't remember what it is called, but I liked it. The label tag for reference is in my box of "another one bites the dust". I've been searching on line for epimediums, Plant Delights offers a lot, but pricey... I still need to check out those vendor links that Weerobin posted earlier.

Many other on-line nurseries will carry a few of the most widely available epimediums.
The mother lode for epimediums is Garden Vision, which is the nursery originally owned by Darrell Probst,
who is generally referred to as the guru of epimediums.
He no longer runs it, but it's being carried on by someone who worked with him for years.
It has hundreds of cultivars, but catalog isn't on-line.
I think there's a small on-line site with a link to request a catalog.
My only complaint is that the catalog often arrives late spring,
when I've usually moved on from plant ordering to everything else.
But for anyone interested in unusual varieties, it's a fascinating read.

P.S. the little plant in the cage is anemonella thalictroides Shoaf's Double.

Yep, that was it - anemonella thalictroides Shoaf's Double. I think I saw it in one of your photo posts a while back, and added it to the 'want list'. I was going to root through my tag box when I got home to jog my memory so thanks for the id! I'm heading off into cyber space now to check out Garden Vision and request a catalog.

Cindy, I often hold plants in pots. I got some half price roses from a company that were quite small, and they spent a couple of months in pots. And then I have plants that are gifts from Raulston Arboretum that spend a year or more in pots. Then there are small shrubs that are permanently in pots. I love hydrangea shishiva and was recently given a couple of japanese hydrangeas that are zone 7, so I put them in the back of the garage as the weather cools down, give them a little water once a month, and then bring them out when it warms.

It really expands what I can grow, and every year I remember that there are little "surprises" in the garage. When I take them out and give them real light I can almost hear them cheering.

I should add that I inherited a two and a half car garage.

Now I'm thinking I'll try to hold a few in pots too, and experiment with success rates with the different methods. It is such a shame when you lose those unique plants that are only available from mail order. In the past, my success rate is only about 50%...