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April 18, 2023

In disassembling my nursery with visions of retirement in my headlights, I am left with a smattering of saleable pots of many different species and varieties of Epimediums, many of which I do not normally bring to plant sales. I will be offering these odds and ends as well as customer favorites at four off-site plant sales this year. The first is the Alpine Plant Sale at Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring, NY on Sat. Apr. 29. I’ll be arriving a day early to give a talk at 5:30pm on Epimediums — Jewels of the Shade and will have a few plants available for sale to attendees. Next I will travel to the Sakonnet Plant Fair in Little Compton, RI on Sat. May 6. I didn’t attend this sale’s debut in 2022, but heard it was a great success, despite less than ideal weather. There will be even more vendors this year. If you plan to attend, including a visit to the nearby garden fantasy known as Sakonnet Gardens is a must (reservations required). Later in May, The Garden Conservancy is sponsoring an open day on May 21 at a charming, rural private garden, local to me– Swift River Farm in Petersham, MA where I will be selling epimediums alongside Primrose Hill Woodlanders. Then on Sat. Sept. 9, I will return for one last time to the Mid Atlantic Hardy Plant Society Fall Gardeners Market in Collegeville, PA. Click here for a list and details of all my upcoming sales and talks. I hope to see you at one or more of them. Please bring cash or check as I no longer can take credit cards.

As for the future of this website I intend to keep it available for the information it provides. My very talented webmaster Stefan Matei, is working on a new look. For now, I have listed descriptions of all of the plants– both Epimediums and companion perennials, that have been featured in the past. I also have an updated list of other mail order sources of Epimediums.

Learn about growing epimediums and their characteristics by scrolling through some of the blogs I have written in the past under the headings: About Epimediums (to learn about general characteristics) and Epimediums Up Close (where I talk about what I have learned growing them for the past 25 years). You can locate these tabs by scrolling down the home page. I will also continue to present an introduction to Epimediums powerpoint program called Epimediums– Jewels of the Shade, geared toward garden clubs and plant societies, both in-person and in Zoom format. Send me an email for more information about speaking to your group. Thanks to the many people who have supported this endeavor over the years and happy gardening.

Karen Perkins

Garden Vision Epimediums

August 26, 2022

Hot and dry has been the theme for the last couple of months, so I am so very glad that have seen the end of the Dog Days of Summer (July 3-Aug 11, according to the Farmer’s Almanac). My neck of the woods in north central Massachusetts is officially in a critical drought stage. You know that it is dry when you see plants showing the backs of their leaves. In looking over my Epimedium beds, I’ve noticed that the plants sited in several hours of sun with no irrigation have yellow, bleached-out foliage. Other than providing them with a well-drained, humus-rich soil, and a mulch of shredded maple leaves, I tend not to fuss over my epimediums during the growing season, other than to keep the beds weeded. I have held out on watering so far, but am now putting a sprinkler through its paces. I water one area a day for 3 hours, so as not to deplete my well and to make sure that the water penetrates deeply into the soil.

I also noticed that a few plants had several necrotic leaves. At first I attributed that to drought stress, but upon further investigation, I discovered that a vole has been making a meal of their underground woody stems.

Luckily, unlike with hostas, where the feasting voles usually leave only the stray dead leaves and their petioles behind, voles tend to tunnel below the epimedium and eat just the undersides of the woody underground rhizomes (stems).

I cut back the damaged foliage and re-set the clump in close contact with the soil, to re-establish the plant. Rehabilitation will take time, but by next spring I expect it to behave like a newly established plant.

Voles only occasionally munch the epimediums in my garden. If I re-set the rhizomes in contact with the soil, to date, I have never lost an entire plant to their feasting. Hostas and small species Iris seem to be their favorites in my garden.

For those of you who haven’t tired of adding plants you your garden yet, I am still taking orders for Quick Pick-Up at my Massachusetts nursery. Choose any day in September that fits your schedule to make your pick-up, and I will have your plants packed and ready to go, along with care instructions. Just visit the Home Page and go to the Catalogue pull down menu and select 2022 Web Catalog to see a listing of plants available for sale.

I have also added a few plant sales and epimedium talks to my fall schedule. On Sat. Sept. 10 I will be selling plants at the Massachusetts Master Gardener’s Fall Symposium in Waltham, MA. On Sunday, Oct. 2, I will be speaking to the Great Lakes Region Chapter of NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society) where I will also have epimediums for sale. Lastly on Sat. Nov. 12 (date still tentative), you will find me back in Ithaca, NY talking epimediums and selling plants to the Adirondack Chapter of NARGS.

I am also scheduled to speak to several groups in 2023 and will have plants for sale if the season allows. By then, technically, I will be retired, but will continue to promote and sell epimediums (cash/check only) through my talks. Click on the Plant Sales & Lectures tab for my up to date schedule. As always, if you are interested specific plants, contact me at least a week ahead of the event and I will make sure to bring them with me. I look forward to seeing many of you this fall!

Karen Perkins

Garden Vision Epimediums

June 2022

The last of my Open Nursery Days were a great success this year with a steady stream of customers for the entire 19 day stretch. I met people who traveled from both near and far– from St. Louis, MD, Pittsburgh, northern VA, NJ, ME and Canada, to people from just down the road. A few customers returned multiple times. I was touched at how many people expressed their gratitude to me for introducing them to epimediums. I can’t tell you how good that makes me feel– to know that I have made a difference as I head on off into retirement from retail sales at the end of this year.

Even more incredibly, we had a visit from a moose who ambled up the road beside the nursery one Saturday morning. I just happened to notice him/her as I was putting cold frame supplies away in-between customers. I was lucky to get a few photos before an oncoming car frightened him/her into the woods.

As I write this in mid-June the last few epimediums blossoms are still hanging on. My colorful, sunny, open nursery has transformed into a cool, green shady grotto with the plants putting their energies into producing seed and a second growth flush.

During a long cool spring, we can get up to six weeks of colorful epimedium flowers and new spring growth in the garden before the plants green up for the summer. Each year the intensity of foliage color  differs, depending on the weather. Cooler temperatures encourage robust, deeper colors in both the initial flush of spring foliage color and the second growth flush. This year the spring colors are fair to middlin’, as my dad would say, because of recent bouts of temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s.

I recently returned from the North American Rock Garden Society‘s Annual Meeting in Ithaca, NY where I sold plants, met old friends/customers and made new ones. At that meeting, Darrell Probst, who originally started Garden Vision Epimediums, was honored with the Marcel Le Piniec Award which “is given to a nursery person, propagator, hybridizer or plant explorer who is currently actively engaged in extending and enriching the plant material available to rock gardeners.” He is one of the few people who truly ticks all of those boxes.

I welcome the newly arrived shade as I prepare for an upcoming plant sale next weekend. On Sat. & Sun., June 25-26; 10am-5pm I will be selling epimediums at O’Brien Nursery, in Granby, CT while the hostas are still at their peak. John O’Brien also offers a wide selection of woody plants and herbaceous perennials, for both shade and sun, in a beautiful woodland setting. HIS selection of epimediums is not too shabby either.

On Sat. Sept. 10, I will participate as a plant vendor as part of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Fall Symposium, at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. I will be both speaking at, and bringing a selection of epimediums for sale to the NARGS Great Lakes Chapter meeting at the Matthaei Nichols Botanical Gardens, Ann Arbor, MI, on Sun. Oct. 2.

If you are attending any of these events and are interested in specific varieties of epimediums, send me an email ahead of time with your plant request.

Once again I am offering a quick pick-up option throughout the entire month of September for anyone who wants to place an order and pick up their plants at the nursery in Phillipston, MA.  Directions/details will be sent upon receipt of your paid order.

If you can’t make it to any of these plant sale events, I have compiled a list of other Mail Order Nurseries that offer a good selection of epimediums. If you know of any other nurseries that have an interesting assortment of epimediums for sale, please let me know and I can add them to the list. Happy growing!

Karen Perkins

Garden Vision Epimediums

February 2021

A great big thanks to all of my customers who, despite the trials and tribulations of living through the last year in a pandemic, have helped this small business to survive. I am so grateful for your support. 2020 brought with it many changes. It was my first year without a print catalog, my Epimedium talks turned into a virtual Zoom format, and all in-person plant sales were cancelled, so that all sales were done via mail order or quick pick up at the nursery. As it turned out, it was a good year to discontinue printing a catalog, as many gardeners unfamiliar with Epimediums found themselves with more time on their hands, discovered my website and became new customers. This influx of orders from new customers alone nearly made up for the loss of in-person sales. Last spring’s Epimedium display was also marred by damaging late spring frosts, so those of you who planned to visit during my Open Nursery Days didn’t miss a whole heck of a lot.

Looking forward to this spring I have added a few new plants to my offerings and FOUR themed collections this year, including one of companion perennials that bloom concurrently with Epimediums. In addition, with all of my Epimedium talks for plant groups being in Zoom format now, you have the opportunity to participate, no matter your location. Just email me your interest (karen@epimediums.com) and I will send you the link to join the program. I also have made some decisions regarding the nursery over the last year, and have a couple of announcements to make.

In light of the current virus situation, and the fact that most of my customers, like myself, are older, I feel compelled to do my part to keep everyone as safe as possible. With that in mind, I am cancelling my annual Open Nursery Days for 2021. All sales of plants will be done through mail order or a quick pick up at the nursery, which worked very well last year. To date, I am still awaiting word regarding my usual off-site in-person plant sales. I will post any new information as soon as it becomes available.

It is with some sadness, but also great excitement that I announce my plans to begin ramping down the nursery, with its ultimate closure at the end of next year (2022). This will be my last year to offer Epimediums via mail order. Next year, I will sell in-person only, at my Open Nursery Days during May and at my regular off-site sales, coronavirus permitting. I have come to this decision for many reasons, not the least important of which is that I have decided that it is time for a new adventure. In semi-retirement I hope to have the time to enjoy the little things in life– like having the time to visit OTHER people’s gardens in the spring! I appreciate all of the kindness and support that you have offered me over these last 20+ years. I love working with the plants, but it has been the people that have made my work really special.

I hope that the timing of this announcement allows you to plan a strategy for obtaining all of the Epimediums on your wish list, or even a visit to the nursery in 2022. Stay warm, stay healthy, stay safe. Thank you all again for your kind support over the years, through your personal notes, phone conversations, or meeting up with you at sales and symposiums. Spring will be here soon… I can hear it in the songs of the birds.

Karen Perkins

Garden Vision Epimediums

April 28, 2020

Coronavirus Casualties

When I added the Wild & Crazy Foliage Collection to this year’s offerings, who knew that I would be describing the year itself! We all just have to do the best we can to keep ourselves and each other sane and safe. Some things are under our control, while others are not. My spring sales and events almost all been cancelled. Go to the Plant Sales and Lectures tab on this website for the current status of events. I also have made the difficult decision to cancel my Open Nursery Days during bloom season this year, in compliance with Massachusetts guidelines. I hope to appease my would-be visitors by offering the chance to place orders for Quick pick–up during the month of May.

In the meanwhile, try to get your hands on the June #193 issue of Fine Gardening Magazine. My friend and former co-worker Joann Vieira authored an article extolling the virtues of epimediums, using some of my photos, and also photos of my garden.

And speaking of photos, I am posting current photos of bloom in the nursery on my Epimediumgal Instagram feed at the bottom of this website page, so you can follow it through the season. It will be the next best thing to being there. And who knows, you may just discover a new favorite that you might have missed on your visit.

Having no print catalog this year means that I need to tweak my customers in other ways to remind them that Epimedium season is nigh. I can’t think of a better diversion in these strange times. So here goes….

Wild and Crazy Collection

If you can’t tell from some of my past posts, I think that one of the best things about epimediums is their wonderful spring foliage colors and patterns. That is the inspiration for this year’s Wild & Crazy Epimedium Collection— six different Epimedium varieties with remarkable flower and spring foliage coloration, offered at a discount.

When people ask me what my favorite Epimedium is, it is hard to pick just one, but E. x versicolor ‘Cupreum’ is definitely in my top ten (see photo in bloom above). Emerging among the earliest epimediums, ‘Cupreum’ is a riot of color between blossom and leaf. The medium-sized blooms are a mix of raspberry/salmon and yellow, and sit just above the leaflets, which are veined in scarlet over fresh spring green. Just beautiful. It is what I call a “semi-spreader”, meaning that it travels about 2-4″ a year here in Massachusetts, so it won’t take over your garden any time soon. It is the only spreading variety in this collection.

For a totally different look, try E. x youngianum ‘Starlet’.  This cultivar  encircles each medium-sized spring leaflet with a sponge-painted deep purple band. The lavender flowers fade to white at their edges against the patterned foliage. This eye-catching mix of color patterns was created by Diana Reeck of the former Collector’s Nursery. Another early blooming and very floriferous selection, it starts at 6″ in bloom, and tops out at 11 inches.

If you are looking for an Epimedium that takes up more real estate, E. grandiflorum ‘Bicolor Giant’, may be your best bet. It doesn’t spread, but its mature size tops out at about 20″ tall and 3′ across in my Massachusetts garden. It has some of the largest, heart-shaped leaves of any Epimedium, with a reddish tinge appearing just as the plant goes out of bloom. So, like those new-fangled, programmable Christmas lights, the leaves start out green, then flush to red, then fade back to green again, ending with a bit of a burnished-red “last hurrah” as fall begins. The flowers are large, two-toned pink, and are borne in profusion on trusses thrust out from under the newly emerging leaflets. Their bright, neon color alone draws your eye from quite a distance.

E. sempervirens ‘Candy Hearts’ is a short (to about 9″ tall), but bold-textured Epimedium with medium-sized, heart-shaped leaves. Its numerous, soft lavender-pink flowers have an opalescent sheen that catches the light, much as a mass of pink pearls would. The new spring foliage has a reddish-maroon tinge that gradually recedes to the edge of the leaf and then fades to green at maturity. They also have a distinct shine to them. An early bloomer, it has the added benefit of being a good drought-tolerant clumping Epimedium— not a common combination of traits.

E. ‘Sunshowers’ is an early and particularly long bloomer. It is one of the first epimediums to flower, and one of the last to finish. Loads of soft, butter-yellow flowers scatter like floral canaries over the numerous, small spring leaflets, speckled and splotched with artistic brown markings. Short in bloom at only 5-6″ tall, it finishes with a second growth flush to about 12″. During a cool spring it is not unusual to have a month of bloom from this variety, a hybrid created by Kelly Dodson, who owns Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend, WA with his partner Sue Milliken. Far Reaches Farm is an awesome mail order or destination nursery for plant nerds if it is not already on your radar.

Another specked variety is the dainty cultivar, E. x youngianum ‘Jenny Wren’ for those who prefer lavender pink blooms and a quieter demeanor. Plantsman John Marchacos of Connecticut is the creator of this diminutive beauty. The small leaflets are have a soft purple wash, and are occasionally flecked with irregular burgundy splatters. It is also an early bloomer, 5″ tall in first bloom, eventually reaching 12″. These last two cultivars make great additions to fairy gardens.

But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself by ordering your own collection.

Looking on the bright side of the times we are living in, I’ve been inspired to contact friends I haven’t talked to in some time, there is more time to garden and to cook, and to enjoy spring at a slower pace. Some of my customers who normally see me at on-site sales have also been incentivized to place a mail order. They are finding out how much that opens up their choices, as there are only so many different kinds of plants that I can stuff into a Kia Soul. I guess things are not all bad if you are healthy. Stay safe, stay sane, and do what you can to help others less able, and enjoy this beautiful season outdoors.

 

Karen Perkins