Re: Sedum & Epimedium

You're wrong, Walter, it is a VERY GOOD THING!:-)  You can't have too
many Epimediums:-)  I agree with Merri, Darrel Probst is my epi guru
- and, I'd be willing to bet he'd help you with your ID problems if
he has the time; very nice man....he tends to be busy, but if you
catch him when he's between trips and not during shipping season, bet
he'd look at some pix and help you figure out what you've got....if
anybody on this planet could, he's the man.

I'm not sure I have words of wisdom as I have only recently started
expanding my collection.  Like some other genera I'm currently
fixated on, I had a few of the more common for many years and enjoyed
them, but didn't pay them a tremendous amount of attention.  When I
finally started paying attention to this genus, I got well and truly
hooked.  I've got about 15 forms now, but the majority have not been
in the garden long enough for me to really know them - it takes me at
least 3 seasons to even learn who is who by sight - keep having to
unearth the tags and say the name over and over again before it
begins to stick in what passes for my brain.  If the squirrels get
the tags, learning the plant gets a lot more interesting.

I have learned that some species are extremely tolerant and quite
vigorous and some are a bit more picky about siting and slower
growing.  Some seem immune to slug damage and some are not.  They
also vary a good bit in size and leaf form - some have
extraordinarily interesting foliage as well as enchanting flowers.  

Some of the more common and vigorous forms will cover ground at a
fairly good clip - and can swamp more reticent plants; most all that
I have warrant placing along path edges or where you can get up close
and personal so you can appreciate the flowers (some being bicolored
and truly exquisite up close), which are not going to make more than
a haze of color at a distance - even the largest of them are still
quite small compared to many plants.  

Some of them produce flowers sparingly and some in large numbers,
making more of a "show"...but all of them produce good foliage; I was
admiring one of mine the other day - which I can't tell you; one of
the new ones - because the foliage stands out in my battered garden,
being a dark, shiny green amongst the tattered remains of plants that
suffered hail damage earlier in the season.  The Epimediums came
through that and our many subsequent storms unscathed.

They are very undemanding plants, really - all you have to do is
remember to remove the old foliage before the new flowers come on and
if you forget to do this, the plant does not care (in fact, I think
for some, it encourages them to bulk up), you just can't see the
flowers as well.

I was given E. x 'Kaguyahime' by a good friend and am enchanted by
the foliage - one with an elongated, angular leaf with serrated edges
that exhibits purple spotting early in the season and I am seeing
reddish color as the temperatures cool - plus the flower is very
lovely.  This is, so far, not a huge form, but a really nice one.

It seems to me that you can hardly go wrong with any of them, so just
get more.  You really need them - you really, really do:-)  I lust
for every one on Darrel's list.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
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----------
> From: OXFORDWALT@aol.com
> I just started looking a bit closer at epimediums.  Always had two
or three 
> popular ones. Maybe four or five.  Nice grouncover, woodland plant.
 But now, 
> I'm looking closer.  Acquired three or four this year.....not a
good thing.  
> Find myself looking at Plant Delights, Darrel Probst and other
catalogues.  
> Looking with some interest at Garden Centers.....this is not a good
sign.  Now my 
> problem is to name (correctly) those that I've had for a few years,
the more 
> common ones I'm sure.  Love plant detective work.
> Any interest and words of wisdom on Epimediums? Barrenworts? 
Bishop's Caps ? 
>  Fairy wings?  A lot of names for a plant that, I imagine, is not
well known 
> or understood.
> Walter in Bucks County, Pa  

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