Wonderful woodlanders with spring flowers and good foliage at almost any time of year. Some incredibly tough plants that look incredibly dainty and a few that do need cossetting.
Many view Epimedium as dull, Victorian, shade plants but following the many recent introductions from Asia in recent years and the inevitable raft of hybrids that have occurred in cultivation since they are anything but dull now. Many of the new introductions have brought a range of interesting foliage shapes as well as some amazing flower types including long spurred and clouds of tiny flowers.
Most forms of Epimedium are easy to grow in a shady border requiring little more than a decent, humusy soil that doesn't dry out too much in summer. The older deciduous and semi-deciduous types do benefit from having the previous year's foliage sheared off in late winter to display the spring flowers but do not be tempted to cut back the evergreen foliage of the new Asian types in the same way, they have a habit of dropping dead if you do!
A new hybrid from Spinners. The long spurred, spidery, flowers are an undescribable pale greenish buff-pink! Evergreen here so don't cut it back, the flowers and new foliage will appear just above the old in spring. Good leafy soil in shade. 30cm.
This is a stunner! Arching stems of dusky pink, starry flowers over long narrow leaves of pale green with purplish-brown markings. Elegant and unusual. 30cm. Good soil in shade. Epimedium acuminatum x Epimedium dolichostemon.
An excellent hybrid from Julian Sutton with long spurred two-tone pale pink and warm pink flowers. Well patterned long evergreen leaves. 40cm. Good soil in shade.
Found in Hunan, China in 1994 this lovely, rare species has short stems bearing sprays of largish (up to 3cm) flowers, this sepals white and the petals a rich purple-brown. Slowly creeping clumps to perhaps 15cm high. Good woodland soil in shade.
