Plant of the Week
Barrenwort
Latin: Epimedium grandiflorum
 Patience is a virtue. We all know the old refrain, but it always surprises me
how few people really believe it, let alone practice it. Even gardeners fall
into the impatience quagmire, often choosing fast growing and easy over slow,
steady performers. Perhaps this explains why plants such as the Barrenwort are
not more common in our gardens. They are plants to test the patience of
gardeners, but they always reward in the end.
Of the several dozen epimediums available from nurserymen, the most common
and one of the showiest is the white-flowered Epimedium grandiflorum. It
grows about a foot tall with the white, four-pointed blooms held in panicles
above the foliage in mid spring - about the time azaleas begin to bloom. It is
native to Japan and Manchuria in China.
The flowers look like they were designed by a committee of Chinese artists
intending to create something fantastic, yet still beautiful and delicate. The
four long, narrow spurs radiate outwards and are about an inch and a half
across. Below the petals are four petal-like sepals that are suffused with
shades of purple or rose. The center of the flower protrudes outward forming an
almost square opening through which pollinating insects reach the working of the
flower.
The foliage is likewise beautiful. When flowering is finished the plants
stand about eight inches tall with semi-evergreen leaves that take on a maroon
cast in winter. They are not killed until temperatures reach about 15°F. Leaves
are compounded with delicate, 2-inch long, asymmetrical leaflets produced in
three groups of three (triternate) on wiry stem arising from the base of the
plant. Epimediums belong to the barberry family, and like most members of that
group, spread by means of an underground rhizome.
Now for the bad news. The planting of epimediums I am currently admiring was
planted six years ago and each clump is only about a foot in diameter. To be
honest, the first three years the plants were so small they were insignificant
in my garden. But, since the third year the clump has steadily, all be it
slowly, increased in size and beauty.
Epimediums are undergoing a surge in popularity unknown to this understated
perennial. This increased popularity has all occurred since 1975 when plant
explorers were permitted back into the mountains of western China. Of the 44
species now recognized by botanists, 36 have been introduced since the reopening
of China to the West. Dan Hinkley, the proprietor of Heronswood Nursery in
Kingston, Wash., has made several expeditions into the region and lists a number
of his own introductions in his current catalog.
Epimediums are woodland plants that are often described as useful for
groundcover planting. While they make excellent groundcovers, this is rarely
ever seen because the plants are slow growing and expensive to procure. Most of
us limit our admiration to modest clumps in an informal woodland garden or
shaded rock garden.
A soil well amended with organic matter and moderately moist during the
summer will speed growth and establishment, but they will survive more difficult
conditions once established. One planting of E. grandiflorum I oversee is
beneath a sugar maple in a raised bed. No matter how often this bed is watered,
the soil is always bone dry, yet the plants continue to slowly expand. To fully
appreciate the beauty of the plants, cut them back to the ground in late winter
before new growth emerges in early spring. I have never noticed any insect
interest in this plant.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
April 4, 2003
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