Epimedium Plant Fair Displays Report.

In an earlier post, I mentioned our plans to display Epimediums at plant fairs put on by the Essex and Norfolk Groups of Plant Heritage (NCCPG).

The Essex Group’s plant fair at RHS Hyde Hall was held over the weekend of 18th and 19th April. We put on a similar display to last year, in our own little gazebo. For one reason or another, the interest was not as strong as last year.

We think the main reason was, we set up at the back of our allotted space and the two nurseries who were selling plants either side of us, had put plants out well beyond the front of our gazebo. People tended to see the next lot of plants for sale, and make straight for them, with hardly a glance into the comparative gloom inside our gazebo. It was a nice bright sunny weekend and many people had sunglasses or reactolite glasses, which put our display into even more shade. Those visitors who did venture in to examine our Epimediums were generally impressed.

The Norfolk group’s plant fair was only open to the public for three hours between 10.00am and 1.00pm on Sunday 3rd May.

This time we were in the Hethersett Village Hall as the featured plant of the fair. Next to us, at the stage end of the hall, was Keith and Ros Wiley of Wildside Nursery and Garden, Keith being the ‘gardening personality’ of the fair. Keith is a gardening book author and speaker, as well as creating Wildside Garden with Ros, which has been featured on television. They had a selection of plants for sale including a good number of Epimediums. The Norfolk group had a fine banner made up for us, which we were given afterwards, to use at any other indoor displays, we may exhibit in the future. According to our sat-nav, the journey from home to the hall was exactly a hundred miles and we had left home soon after 7.00 am to allow enough time for setting up. We were given a very warm welcome on our arrival with offers of cups of tea or coffee, and assistance was given to bringing our plants from the car into the hall. We were so lucky to be inside as there were twenty or so nurseries in a playing field outside, and the weather was horrible. It was raining and windy and the worst day for several weeks. Judging from the number of visitors coming into the hall carrying carrier bags full of plants, it wasn’t a total, unpleasant, waste of time for at least some of the nurserymen and women. We were busy with lots of interested people from before the10.00 o’clock opening, with members of the Norfolk group and some of the outside nursery people, right through to the end, with numbers just waning in the last half hour or so. Many people missed seeing our ‘DISPLAY ONLY’ sign and picked up our plant in the hope of buying them. This meant our display took a bit of a bashing, but no plants were significantly damaged. Over all we whipped up a good deal of enthusiasm for Epimediums, with our display. I thing Keith and Ross did quite well, as they almost sold all the Epimediums they had brought with them. Several of our plants were more popular than others, perhaps because they were more different from the rest. One, an old variety, E. x versicolor ‘Versicolor’ (syn ‘Discolor’) was an unexpected favourite, but the plant did look lovely with its pink and yellow flowers and pinky red suffused young leaves. E. grandiflorum ‘Lilac Seedling, again was not one we predicted, as one which would receive a lot of favourable comments, but it was a good plant we were showing, which was covered in flowers. The third one was E. ‘Red Maximum’ a very recent hybrid, bred by Belgian nursery man and Epimedium specialist Koen Van Poucke (www.koenvanpoucke.be). It has the darkest red flowers of any evergreen Epimedium we know of.

Visit to RHS Wisley and Esteemed Epimedium Visitors to The Magnolias.

Yesterday, by kind invitation of Colin Crosbie, the Curator of RHS Garden Wisley, Linda and I were taken around Wisley’s various areas, where the garden’s Epimedium collection are growing. As well as Colin, we were guided by Billy, a senior member of the garden staff. En route, we were given pieces of various varieties to add to our collection. One variety we have been aware of for a couple of years is a self sown seedling believed to be a cross between E. platypetalum and brevicornu. It was growing behind a label for an E. platypetalum, which it had appeared to have totally overwhelmed.

The plant grows to around 15 inches high and is covered in tiny yellow and white flowers, giving a charming effect. The picture is of the mangled remains of the plant taken back home, but will hopefully give you an idea of the unusual flowers. At around 5.00am this morning my brain turned on and came up with the name ‘Wisley Imp’. My reasoning was, imps are small as is the plant, and they are also a bit naughty. This one surely is naughty for eating its mother! Colin and Billy thought the name to be apt.

This morning Colin and Billy paid a return visit by coming to us.

They were both surprised by our ‘tardis’ like garden where the front is less than 40 foot square, but the back apears to go on and on. Much time was spent in discussing Epimediums as particularly Colin is also a keen collector. I was able to make his day by giving him a couple of varieties of considerable interest. The visit lasted for more than two hours, which flew past.

Another Pond Bites the Dust

Pressure for more Epimedium planting space and the fact that this pond also leaked, persuaded us to undertake another project requiring considerable human effort.

The job was very similar to the earlier pond conversion, but mercifully rather smaller than last autumn’s task.

It had been a rather shallower pond and therefore needed a lot less soil etc. to fill the void.

I will leave it to the pictures for you to get an idea of the transformation and the work involved.

 

Coincidentally our neighbours were having their bathroom modernised and allowed us to recycle the obsolete facilities. Their old tiles, wash basin pedestal, and even their toilet and cistern were broken up for drainage and filling the space.

 

This new bed has been planted with three Japanese maples, Epimediums and Roscoeas. This time the Epimediums are all Japanese, being E. grandiflirum, x youngianum and other non specific Japanese Hybrids. With a couple of exceptions they are all completely deciduous.

This is a bit of an experiment trying them out in a fairly sunny site.

After planting apparently empty looking pots they have grown well so far and many have flowered. The Roscoeas have been planted for late summer and autumn flowers. They seem more than able to push through a canopy of Epimedium foliage, to give a display of their orchid-like flowers, in purple, lavender and red shades plus yellow and white.. They come into growth very late so it is a very good idea to indicate where they are planted with short pices of bamboo cane etc,. to stop you trying to plant something else in the space.