Epimedium (Bishop's Hats)

Better access to western China for Japanese, European and American collectors in the 80s and 90s has led to a flood of exciting new species in cultivation. As a rule, these spring flowering species need the classic moist-but-well-drained (i.e. humus rich) soil in at least partial shade. All are irresistible; we grow far more than are listed here and never tire of them. We will send out well rooted plants, almost all in 1 litre pots this autumn. Not a bad idea to keep them in pots in a frame or cool glasshouse until spring.
Epimedium acuminatum L575 £4
Large mauve and white flowers, dark green evergreen leaves, bulks up well. This is by division from Roy Lancaster's original introduction, from Washfield back in the 80's.
Epimedium acuminatum 'Galaxy' £4.50
And this is Roy's other collection of the species, L1962  - he tells us he collected a single pod, of which one seed germinated. Wonderfully, it turned out to have creamy white flowers.
Epimedium 'Amanagowa' £4.50
More or less evergreen hybrid (acuminatum x dolichostemon), lots of large flowers with white bracts and amber petals. Red mottling on young leaves. Seems a good do-er.
Epimedium 'Beni-kujaku' £4
A typical deciduous grandiflorum type in growth, but the flowers are unusual in having slender petals, rather on the scale of the spurs, giving a bunchy look. Petals and sepals are purplish red.
Epimedium brachyrrhizum £5
Big, soft violet flowers; new foliage bronzed. Close to leptorrhizum, and shares its matt green leaves.
Epimedium 'Buckland Spider' £4
Big, dusky pink, spidery flowers. Deciduous.
Epimedium chlorandrum £5
Splendid mottling on the new foliage. Large, spidery, palest greenish yellow flowers.
Epimedium chlorandrum hybrid £4.50
The young foliage is much more heavily marked, more mark than not, and the stems are dark reddish. Flowers a pallid creamy yellow, streaked with maroon. Uniquely sinister. Our own, but a chance find, we suspect wushanense is the other parent.
Epimedium davidii £4
Butter yellow flowers, quite finely divided evergreen foliage, vigorous and floriferous.
Epimedium diphyllum £4
Rather like a spurless white grandiflorum. Delicate looking but easy in acidic soil. Deciduous.
Epimedium ecalcaratum  £4.50
Another of the spurless ones, with bright yellow flowers. Evergreen.
Epimedium 'Enchantress' £4.50
One of the first garden hybrids between Chinese species, with a good track-record as a garden plant. Substantial lilac sepals are the most obvious feature of the flower; tiny, short-spurred dark purple petals and down-thrusting stamens reveal dolichostemon as a parent, along with leptorhizum. Evergreen. Thanks to Elizabeth Strangman.
Epimedium 'Phoenix' £4.50
Wendy Perry's chance hybrid of acuminatum (with grandiflorum?) has plentiful large flowers: sepals lilac-purple, petals deep rich purple fading out almost to white at the tips of the spurs; young leaved very well blotched red. An extremely good and distinctive evergreen.
Epimedium epsteinii £4
Broad perianth segments, outer pale, inner purplish, give the flower a really substantial, chunky look (Sarah goes as far as saying they look 'square'). Recently introduced.
Epimedium fargesii £4.50
Lots of delicate, backswept white and purple flowers with a protruding spike of stamens; evergreen.
Epimedium fargesii 'Pink Constellation' £5
A pretty lilac-pink counterpart. Strangely the pollen colour is different, a fact of botanical if not horticultural significance.
Epimedium flavum £4
Evergreen, with pale yellow flowers over a very long season, sometimes into the autumn. Leaves tinged purple in winter. Horticulturally, a pale counterpart to davidii.
Epimedium 'Golden Eagle' £4
Good sized light yellow long spurred petals, paler bracts. Spidery and long-flowering. Evergreen. Looks like a form of membranaceum to me.
Epimedium grandiflorum varieties: This is the classic deciduous species from the Far East, preferring acidic soil.
E.g. 'Akebono' £4 Pale lilac-pink, low-growing.
E.g.'Beni-kujaku' £4 Red with some lilac.
E.g. 'Crimson Queen' £4.50 Deep pink flowers, wondefully fragrant on a warm sunny day, and bronzed young foliage. Maybe the same as 'Crimson Beauty' and 'Rose Queen', but I'm still not certain of this.
E.g. 'Freya' £5 Small, deep purple with pale spur. A Washfield special, also known as 'Nanum Freya'. Rarely seen
E.g. 'Nanum' AGM £4 A very dwarf form of the species, to no more than 15cm. Pure white flowers over dainty foliage, with red-brown margins when young.
E.g. 'Purple Prince' £4.50 Rich red-purple sepals and petals. Impressive, scarce.
E.g. 'Saturn' £4  Similar to 'Nanum' but looser growing.
E.g. 'Queen Esta' £4.50 Very striking recent selection, big flowers in two-tone pink.
E.g. 'Yellow Princess' £4 Short, with soft yellow flowers. I think that's enough grandiflorums to be getting along with.
Epimedium ilicifolium £4.50
Lovely prickly, rather holly-like leaflets. Good sized pale yellow flowers much like those of flavum. Late flowering. Rare and slow to propagate, but not hard to grow.
Epimedium 'Jean O'Neill' £4
An interesting new plant, a gift from Peter Chappell of Spinners Garden in the New Forest. He and Kevin Hughes raised a batch of hybrid seedlings from davidii, from which this was selected after a few years in the open garden. It grows and flowers well, with glossy, rather prickly evergreen leaves and profuse flowers which look creamy lilac from a distance, although on close examination are flushed with both pale yellow and violet. Intermediate in flower and leaf between davidii and acuminatum.
Epimedium - Spinners £5 - New Special !
From the same stable, a plant which was enormously tall (1m+ in flower) and bulky in the garden. Like the previous, rather indeterminately creamy coloured flowers, but well sized, and lots of them. Definitely a leafy evergreen presence in the woodland garden. No name at present, but I'll ask again, it may well have one soon !
Epimedium latisepalum £5
Huge flowers of glistening white and cream. Evergreen. Highly desirable.
Epimedium leptorrhizum £4
Large pink-purple flowers, attractive toothed, acuminate leaves.
Epimedium leptorrhizum 'Mariko' £5
Long light magenta sepals contrast with white petals and yellow pollen. Very choice.
Epimedium lishihchenii £4
A rarity. Light yellow spurred flowers. Evergreen.
Epimedium myrianthum £4.50
I stoutly defend the subtle beauty of this minute-flowered species from Hunan. The flowers are so small that I won't give a precise description - what you see is the yellow of the protruding stamens and the white of the inner sepals. They are very numerous - up to 200 per inflorescence. The leaves are heavily and coarsely red blotched when young, a very striking feature. You need to show it to your visitors but they will thank you. Good reports as a garden plant but remains rare in cultivation.
Epimedium ogisui £4
A beautiful plant, with good sized white flowers on horizontal stems, and a spreading habit. Native to limestone rocks near waterfalls, but seems perfectly amenable and very vigorous when treated like the other Chinese species.
Epimedium x omeiense 'Akame' (= 'Emei Shan') £4.50
Eyecatching flowers in a sweetshoppy reddish-pink-and-yellow colour scheme.
Epimedium x omeiense 'Stormcloud' £4.50
Another form of this variable Chinese natural hybrid (fangii x acuminatum), this time with flowers of a sinister metallic hue. Someone with the right sort of imagination could use this pair in a Ying/Yang or Jekyll/Hyde planting.
Epimedium x perralchicum 'Lichtenberg' £4
German clone of the superb tough and easy bright yellow flowered old-timer. On close inspection, you see the small red-spurred petals against the big rounded yellow sepals.
Epimedium pinnatum ssp. colchicum L321 AGM £4 One of the former's parents, in Roy Lancaster's distinctive collection. Pure yellow, and tough.
Epimedium x rubrum AGM £4
Another tough but beautiful primary hybrid. Carmine sepals, white petals. Old leaves often red in winter.
Epimedium sempervirens 'Okuda's White' £4
This species is the evergreen counterpart to grandiflorum, coming from the snowier western side of southern Honshu. It's an acid lover and still loses its leaves in some winters with us. Some forms are a nightmare to grow, but this white variety is a doer, and can be stunning. From Japanese cultivation via Heronswood.
Epimedium stellulatum 'Wudang Star' £5
A vigorous evergreen, taking on red tints in winter. Arching flower stems carry many starry white flowers, giving a lovely hazy effect.
Epimedium 'Tama-no-genpei' £5
A very pretty deciduous hybrid, of the grandiflorum persuasion. Bright pink inner sepals contrast with pale lilac-pink petals fading into long white spurs. Reflowers in autumn more frequently than any other we grow. Extremely pretty. From Japan, by way of Seattle.
Epimedium 'William Stearn' £5
Good sized spurred flowers of a sombre dark red, matching the dark marked young foliage. Evergreen. A Robin White hybrid, named for the late authority on the genus.
Epimedium wushanense 'Caramel' £4.50
Elegant evergreen leaves, sometimes mottled red, with very large spidery flowers on tall stems to 1m. The name describes the flower colour. Amazing.
Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum' £4
Very hardy,, with soft yellow flowers over the bronze stained new leaves.
Epimedium x versicolor 'Neosulphureum' £4
Looks almost identical to the previous. Big deal. But for us it flowers about a fortnight later. Now that could be useful.
Epimedium x versicolor 'Versicolor' £4
Just as tough but less often seen. Sepals from coppery red to rose pink contrast with soft yellow petals. Winter foliage shiny dark red, young foliage nicely bronzed. Utterly lovely. I'm starting to think that nobody knows the difference between 'Versicolor' and 'Cupreum', and that they may well be the same plant.
Epimedium x warleyense £4
Classic tough hybrid with unique burnt orange flowers.
Epimedium x youngianum 'Tamabotan' £4
Various varieties of youngianum are well proven as easy garden plants. This newish hybrid has striking broad pink sepals to the flowers, giving them an unusually chunky look. Deciduous.
Epimedium sp. nov. from Yunnan £4.50
Broad white bracts contrast with pale yellow spurred petals. Late flowering. Pale green leaves, evergreen. Very impressive in a pale way.