| Where the garden meets the wild | |
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EPIMEDIUM FAIRY WINGS, BARRENWORT, HORNY-GOAT WEED, BRAIN TONIC OF THE IMMORTALS Berberidaceae 淫羊藿属 Yin yang huo; 仙灵脾 Xian ling piイカリソウ Ikarisou (Japanese). |
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Epimedium grandiflorum 'Purple Prince' in our garden. Photograph © Paige Woodward |
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| Experienced
shade gardeners dote on epimediums. A single plant makes a choice
specimen; massed, they are the most elegant of
groundcovers.
These treasures are hardy to at least Zone 5, easy to grow and produce wands of ethereal flowers in spring and sometimes again (and even again) before snowfall. They like moist, acid forest duff in dappled light but tolerate many conditions. Watered well till they are established, they thrive in dry shade. Some epimediums are deciduous, dropping their leaves in autumn. Others are evergreen, holding their old, thrashed leaves till the new ones rise in spring. Snip off old leaves by February; any later and you risk accidentally cutting fresh flower stems. Epimediums are native to the Mediterranean region and E Asia. We have dozens of species in our display garden now, and expect to share more of them with you as time goes on. Epimediums are not self-fertile but they cross pretty freely, especially in gardens. All the plants we sell are divisions, therefore, not seedlings. Our current plants are from stock authenticated by Darrell Probst, the American Epimedium specialist; in the wings are plants from other respected sources as well. Epimediums have been grown for their beauty for a couple of centuries at most. Their use in traditional medicine goes back for millennia. In European folk medicine, extracts of the leaves were used in treating infertility and menopause. In Chinese traditional medicine, extracts have long been considered to enhance libido and sexual performance, to clarify the mind, improve circulation and bolster the immune system. The original "horny-goat weed" of Chinese medicine is E. sagittatum, but all Epimedium species are prescribed nowadays and the wild-collection of entire plants, instead of just their leaves, threatens many species with extinction. We do not endorse medicinal claims for these plants; we caution further that overdoses can be toxic. If you like Epimedium, you might also like its cousin from W North America, Vancouveria. Epimedium resources. W.T. Stearn's The Genus Epimedium is the standard reference in English, but the taxonomy of this genus remains vexed. New books are said to be in the works. |
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| EPIMEDIUM DIPHYLLUM (Morren & Decaisne) Loddiges. バイカイカリソウBaika-ikarisou (Japanese). This is a small deciduous species with spurless flowers that are usually white. Its leaves have no terminal leaflet and the side leaflets are usually in twos ("diphyllum"). Native to Kyushu, Shikoku and SE Honshu in Japan, it is one parent of Epimedium ×youngianum. It was the first Japanese species seen in Europe. Nowadays it is seldom offered for sale. | |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
diphyllum 'Roseum' This one's flowers are pink
instead of white. Several authors suggest that it is a
hybrid. Height 12-14 cm (5-6").
Pot 10 cm / 4". $12.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
diphyllum 'Variegatum'
. This cultivar is from Japan, where mottled plants are cherished.
The dainty flowers are white and spurless, typical of the species. The
variegation of the leaves becomes more pronounced with exposure to
light. The leaf in our middle photograph is
new. The leaf in the lowest one is older and at the bright edge of a bed. Height
to 20 cm (8").
Pot 10 cm / 4". $20.00 |
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| EPIMEDIUM GRANDIFLORUM Morr. イカリソウ Ikarisou. In Japanese, all epimediums have botanical names built on the name of this species, which is made from ikari (four-claw anchor) and sou (plant). The flower, with its four long spurs, is compared to the anchor used by fishing boats. E. grandiflorum grows wild in most of Japan. It is quite variable: a boon to seekers of unique cultivars. The flower may be almost any color, but is always relatively large; the deciduous, toothed leaves vary in number of leaflets but they are usually pink to maroon when they emerge. | |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum 'Dark Beauty'. The late Harold
Epstein (1903-1997), plant hunter, plant sharer, happy victim of what
he called "Garden Madness" and a great connoisseur of epimediums,
selected this cultivar as a seedling at La Rocaille, his garden in
Larchmont, New York, for its dark new foliage.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $17.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum 'Nanum'. This is a charming
miniature with long-spurred white flowers held above small leaflets that
sometimes have a dark edge. Height in bloom 7.5-15 cm (3-6"); later
20 cm (8").
Pot 10 cm / 4". $12.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum 'Purple Prince'. ヤチマタイカリソウ（ヒゴイカリソウ).
One of the first grandiflorum cultivars
to bloom, this beautiful plant flowers in April here. Its new leaves
retain an alluring rose-green cast for a long time and its flowers, also
long-lasting, are as rich as dark cherries, without a muddy atom in their
glow.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $20.00
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum 'Queen Esta'. Harold
Epstein named this choice selection for the love of his very long life: his wife,
Esta. He thought it was probably a cross between two grandiflorum
cultivars in his collection, 'Yubae' and 'Silver Queen'. The
sepals are purple, the petals paler, the spurs exceptionally long and
gracefully poised; the new leaves are maroon.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $15.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum 'Red Queen'. This beauty often starts to bloom
before its leaves unfurl. The leaves are large and eventually stand high
above the flowers.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $17.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum 'Saxton's Purple'. ヤチマタイカリソウ（ヒゴイカリソウ）
Pot 10 cm / 4". $15.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum 'Tama No Genpei'.
ヤチマタイカリソウ（ヒゴイカリソウ）'タマノゲンペイ'
Tamanogenpei-ikarisou. This is a Japanese classic. You can see why.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $15.00 |
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| Epimedium
grandiflorum var. coelestre (Nakai)
T. クモイイカリソウ
Kumoi-ikarisou
(Japanese)
Pot 10 cm / 4". $17.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum
var. higoense T. Shimizu. ヒゴイカリソウ
Higo-ikarisou (Japanese). Small-leaved, compact,
lush, fast-growing and exceptionally beautiful. The flowers are white. The
new leaves are often rimmed with rose or violet. Higo is the name of a
former province on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $12.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
grandiflorum var. higoense T. Shimizu 'Bandit'. This is like
plain var. higoense (above) except that the new leaves are rimmed in purple-black. This
riveting plant was bought in Japan by We-Du Nursery and later named by
Darrell Probst. Above, you see the new leaves just unfurled. This
plant is worth every penny. Imagine a slope of it, layer upon layer of ringed leaves.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $20.00 |
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| EPIMEDIUM ×YOUNGIANUM Fisch. & C.A. Mey. ヒメイカリソウ Hime-ikarisou (Japanese). This is the name given to garden hybrids of E. diphyllum and E. grandiflorum. The cross also happens in the wild in Japan, where both species are native. Stable populations of the wild cross are sometimes called E. trifoliolatobinatum. | |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
×youngianum 'Capella'. The flowers of this beauty are
deep rose-pink bells. If you know for sure why it is named 'Capella,'
please let us know. We suspect a cat's cradle of translingual word play. The
flowers are like small thimbles, or caps; "ella," is a Latin
diminutive. Felicitously, "capella" means "female
goat" in Mediaeval Latin; this echoes "Horny goatweed," one
of Epimedium's common names.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $15.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Epimedium
×youngianum 'Kozakura'. ヒメイカリソウ
'コザクラ'
(Japanese, "Little Cherry Tree"). The delicate small flowers
are white blushed pink, reminiscent of cherry blossoms, the Japanese icon of
spring and fleeting perfection. As they open, their
inner sepals fall and scatter on the ground, again like cherry blossoms,
leaving behind exquisite, nodding, spurless bells.
Pot 10 cm / 4". $15.00 |
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| This page was updated April 5, 2008. | |
