Choosing epimediums

Hi everyone, happy new year!

Could I get some thoughts on garden design?

I have a north facing bed (picture below) in my front garden with one large-ish ceanothus and one eleagnus quicksilver. I've got some snowdrops growing underneath and some hellebores, but not much else, though the erigeron has started creeping in. It's really shady and quite dry. I absolutely love the foliage of epimediums and am tempted to buy some for ground cover for the rest of the bed (I'm happy to rearrange whatever is under there to make space - just want it to look nice).




My Claire Austin basket is currently packed with loads of epimediums and I can't choose! I'm wondering whether it'd look nice to plant a variety of different ones, or whether it would look better to settle on just one. Does anyone have any advice?

In case it's helpful, this is what I've currently got in my basket - clearly far to many for the space!

• x youngianum 'niveum' (love the foliage on this one)
• x warleyense 'Orangekonigin'
  
• x versicolor 'Sulphureum' (keen on this one for the back of the bed, given how tough it's supposed to be)
• x versicolor 'Cupreum'
  
• Pink elf
• x perralchicum 'Fröhnleiten' (so pretty!)

(sorry these were hyperlinks but I had to remove them bc my account is too young)

Thank you!

 

Morning!

My experience of epimediums is this. They can cope with dry conditions, spread out to cover ground, and need very little maintenance. But … the flowering period is pretty short and, while the newly emerging leaves are extremely pretty, they soon age into a leathery dark green and then sit there doing nothing for the rest of the yr. Also, they can take a few yrs before they start flowering.

I would probably choose one variety rather than mix up several as that might look bitty. Plus, the most vigorous one would attempt to crowd out others.

 

I would agree re the flowering period of time, and also about avoiding too many different varieties. They tend to be used more for their foliage than their flowers, so it might be better to pick other flowering plants to work along with them if you want more of a floral display. Early spring bulbs followed by good old hardy geraniums would help with that, and would work in shade.
If you're finding the erigeron is spreading, that will help with cover, and you could maybe experiment with other plants which, in theory like more sun, but will also be quite adaptable to the semi shade, especially if they're on the fringes of the shadier parts.
I don't really have dry shade here, but I'm sure others will have some ideas that will suit. Aquilegias would likely adapt well once established though, and would give some height.

 

I have Sulphurum and Amber Queen. Sulphurum is very tough and flowers well, it doesn’t flower for months but I think I get a good few weeks of flowers and lots of them. It also, for me, is good at holding the flowers up above the foliage (I don’t routinely cut back the foliage, only if it is really tatty).

Amber Queen is pretty but the flowers are quite shy and not very obvious. It’s easy t9 get seduced by the close ups they show in catalogues and then find out you have to get that close in real life to appreciate the flowers.

I would go for maybe two varieties max and go for foliage you like as much as flower.

Other good ground covers for dry shade are Liriope muscari and the Geranium macrorrhizums, the latter is virtually evergreen if mild and protected.

 

Thanks everyone! I'm not overly excited about the epimedium flowers (with the exception of the Fröhnleiten ones) so their short flowering time is a shame but not too problematic for me - I mostly love the leaves. But the fact that they get underwhelming later in the year is a shame. I did try to cover that area with geraniums but I picked the wrong kind (rozanne) and while it might still be alive (I'll find out in spring) it was too shady and/or dry and didn't do very well. I didn't realise that the macrorrhizums can do dry shade! I love them in white and will definitely get that :D Perhaps geranium macrorrhizum album at the partial shade bits and epimedium sulphureum where it's particularly inhospitable?

 

That sounds like a good combination