I’m not much for common plant names, too many and too imprecise, but I do like the name “fairy wings” instead of the pedestrian “barrenwort” to refer to Epimedium. I first encountered the common name “fairy wings” applied to Epimedium in Plant Delights Nursery catalogue, a rebranding, which perfectly describes the delicate, ethereal flowers that resemble tiny butterflies or fairies about to take flight in the garden. As an Epimedium enthusiast, I have no problem rebranding myself a fairy wings freak.
![Vol. 02[1], t.150: Epimedium alpinum](https://mckeonsgarden.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/e-alpinum-18131.jpg)
Epimedium alpinum
In 1753 Linnaeus named and described one European Epimedium species, Epimedium alpinum. In the centuries since Linnaeus published Species Plantarum, 50 species of Epimedium have been described, including 15 Chinese species of fairy wings introduced as recently as 1989.
Epimedium alpinum blooming in my garden 1 May 2014
Epimedium alpinum
So, although Epimedium got off to a slow start in the 18th century ornamental market, by 1821 a few more Epimedium species had been described, including Epimedium pinnatum from Iran and Epimedium pubigerum from Turkey
Epimedium pinnatum
Epimedium pinnatum subsp. colchicum blooming in my garden 27 April 2014
Epimedium pubigerum blooming in my garden 1 May 2014
Epimedium pubigerum
But it was Dr. Von Siebold’s collections of the Japanese species: Epimedium grandiflorum and Epimedium diphyllum in 1830 that changed the marketing of Epimedium in the West. When the Japanese species bloomed in the University of Ghent Botanic Garden, botanists and illustrators took notice. The new Epimedium plants were introduced in 1835 and distributed to public gardens and commercial nurseries in Europe and Britain. Meanwhile, Belgian botanists at Ghent began hybridizing.
Epimediuim grandiflorum (E. macranthum) 1839
Epimediuim grandiflorum var. violaceum 1860
Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Lilafee’ blooming in my garden 8 May 2014
Today there are hundreds of cultivars of E. grandiflorum, including the excellent ‘Lilafee,’ which resembles the 1860 illustration Epimediuim grandiflorum var. violaceum, just as the white cultivars resemble the 1839 illustration of Siebold’s collection of E. grandiflorum. The Belgians also hybridized all available Epimedium species to produce the garden hybrids in cultivation.
Epimedium x versicolor ‘Sulphureum’ (E. grandiflorum x E. pinnatum) was hybridized at the Ghent Botanic Garden before 1850
Epimedium x versicolor ‘Sulphureum’ blooming in Janet’s garden 28 April 2014
Epimedium x versicolor ‘Neo-Sulphureum’ blooming in Laura’s garden 9 May 2014 (photo by Laura Flandreau)
Epimedium x versicolor ‘Neo-Sulphureum’ 9 May 2014 (photo by Laura Flandreau)
William Stearn, the English botanical scholar and naturalist, who wrote the first comprehensive monograph on The Genus Epimedium credits the great English plantsman Reginald Farrer’s 1919 encyclopedia The English Rock Garden for his introduction to the genus Epimedium. Stearn devoted himself to sorting through the tangle of Epimedium garden hybrids and did his best to keep up with the introduction of new species as they trickled into herbaria through the 20th century. He finally completed his comprehensive work on Epimedium in 2003.
Epimedium x rubrum and Epimedium x perralchicum ‘Frohnleiten’ blooming in Laura’s garden with shady companions: Saruma henryi and Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. pictum) 8 April 2012
Epimedium x rubrum (E. grandiflorum x E. alpinum) Laura’s garden 28 April 2014
Epimedium x perralchicum ‘Frohnleiten’ blooming in Laura’s garden 8 April 2012
What does the x mean? Epimedium x perralchicum is a hybrid between two species: (E. perralderianum x E. pinnatum subsp. colchicum). ‘Frohnleiten‘ is a German selection of Epimedium x perralchicum. The selection is known as a cultivar. ‘Frohnleiten‘ produces clear yellow flowers similar to E. pinnatum subsp. colchicum, but it is the evergreen foliage that puts on the show. Young leaves emerge bronzed in spring, turn lustrous green in summer, and bronze again in autumn.
Epimedium x warleyense (E. alpinum x E. pinnatum subsp. colchicum)
Epimedium x warleyense takes its name from Warley Place, the Edwardian home and garden of Miss Ellen Wilmott: blooming in my garden 1 May 2014
Japanese botanist Mikinori Ogisu introduced 15 new Epimedium species into cultivation in 1989, and more recent discoveries bring the total to 52 species of fairy wings, most native to China, as well as an increasing list of garden hybrids like E. x ‘Asiatic Hybrid’ (below). Stearn warned that the excessive introduction of garden hybrids, especially from Japan, is “much to be deplored if it leads to the neglect and loss of original species.”
E. x rubrum, E. x perralchicum ‘Frohnleiten’ and E. x ‘Asiatic Hybrid’ blooming in Laura’s garden 28 April 2014
Epimedium x ‘Asiatic Hybrid’ is one of many fairy wings hybrids introduced in the 1990s, probably the result of a cross between Epimedium acuminatum and an unidentified parent: blooming in Laura’s garden 28 April 2014
Epimedium acuminatum blooming in my garden 1 May 2014
My fairy wings collection includes 12 species and garden hybrids. I’m particularly smitten with Epimedium acuminatum, its purple flowers the largest of any of the fairy wings.
Epimedium acuminatum blooming in my garden 4 April 2012
Fairy wings make excellent ground covers for shady gardens and integrate well with shady companions, including Helleborus, Arisaema (Jacks), Brunnera (perennial forget-me-not), Asarum and Saruma (ornamental ginger), Podophyllum (May apple), Jeffersonia, and other wildflowers.
E. pubigerum and E. x warleyense blooming in my garden with shady companions: Podophyllum peltatum and Helleborus purpurascens 1 May 2014
fairy wings bloom in Laura’s garden amidst shady companions
Brunnera macrophylla, Helleborus purpurascens, Helleborus x hybridus, Asarum canadensis, Saruma henryi, Petasities japonicus, and Athyrium niponicum var. pictum (Japanese painted fern)
Sources
Garden Visions Epimediums list about 200 distinct specimens collected and hybridized by Epimedium expert Darrell Probst
Plant Delights, my favorite mail order perennial plant nursery is noted for its bizarre catalogue covers and memorable Hosta introductions—‘Elvis lives,’ ‘Dixie Chick,’ Green Jeans,’ ‘Red Neck Heaven,’ ‘Squash Casserole,’ ‘Swamp Thing,’ ‘Surfer Dude,’ and ‘White Wall Tire.’ Plantsman-owner Tony Avent offers more than three dozen fairy wings selections, including his 2013 introduction, Epimedium ‘Splish Splash,’ with mottled foliage and white flowers, which he describes as “quite a show with or without the flowers.”
Graham Rice “Great New Plants for Shade:” Evergreen Epimediums
Chicago Botanic Garden Plant Evaluation Notes: Epimedium
McKeon's Garden 
Whereas I see hellebores everywhere in neighboring gardens, I don’t think I’ve seen any epimediums other than in my garden. They’re not only charming when they bloom in the spring, their foliage is gorgeous. I can’t believe they haven’t caught on in popularity. Great article.
Loo,
What’s a woodland garden without the best woodland plants? We want masses of Hellebores, but we also want a counterpoint: leathery palmate leaves harmonize with drifts of delicate fairy foliage. Epimediums mingle with companions better than any other woodlanders, contrasting beautifully with huge leaves of Rodgersia aesculifolia, narrow silver fern fronds, and the tiny, arrow leaves of dwarf Aruncus aethusifolius and Astilbe chinensis pumila. Adjacent mounds of bold blue pleated Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’ (named for the good Von Dr. from Ghent) embrace a sea of heart-shaped Brunnera after its forget-me-not flowers fade. When the giant Petasites opens its umbrella leaves, we’re down the rabbit hole with Alice or the Jefferson Airplane; it’s the element of surprise that makes the garden. Nothing so dramatically highlights a woodland scene as the tall prehistoric scapes that unfurl like cobra lilies, and bloom like Jacks: Arisaema sikokianum rises above its shady companions in variegated splendor while Arisaema ringens simply shines. And what of the hardworking groundcovers that reliably carpet every inch of the garden? Wild gingers are at home in your shade garden or on the forest floors in the Smokeys, in the Black Forest, in the valleys of Sichuan: Asarum canadense, A. europeana, A, splendens, Saruma henryi, so too native Pachysandra procumbens and its Asian analog, P. terminalis. Is that all? Well, no; there’s the ephemeral woodlanders: bulbs and wildflowers like Podophyllum peltatum. What? May apple.
Loo, you have the best woodland garden around.
Gorgeous photos, glorious gardens!
Hey, Jan. How does your garden grow? Laura’s is lovely. I had a time trying to get clear shots of those fairy wings, though. I asked Laura to get a few of the pale yellow (E. x versicolor ‘Neo-Sulphureum’) and she did.
Just what I’m always aiming for: down the rabbit hole with Alice and The Jefferson Airplane, and all because you created my magical woodland garden, Jude. I’ll be forever in your debt. Uh-oh, wait. My Peticides must have eaten the Growth Mushroom. I’d better go out there and pluck a few giant umbrella leaves so the feathery things aren’t overwhelmed.
epies were abundant in leaf growth and the blooms hung in there. Snow covered this site for a long time. I wish they would bloom longer..or maybe I have been too busy studying to notice. The shade garden is in high gear. Asarum did not do so well. Kieria is popping. Everything else is looking established and well thanks to Miss Judy’s starter plants.
Hey, Shon
You must have finished your finals if you’re reading my blog. Still in the Berkshires. Excellent botanizing on Millay poetry trail in Steepletop woodland. Native jacks (Arisaema triphyllum) in bloom at ED Museum garden in Amherst. Berkshire Botanical Garden Sunday. Then home. More soon.
It’s so nice knowing that we woodland perennial gardeners have company out there. Far to the east of the South Missouri Ozarks where I tend an atypical acre. Surprised this excellent article doesn’t mention the Darrell Probst discoveries, most notably E. wushanense, the incomparable paragon of the genus. While now boasting several cultivars and many hybrids, none in my opinion match the straight species.
Speaking of Plant Delights idiosyncrasies: there are also “Love Potion No. 9,” a very fun if not refined companion, and “Chocolatte,” an enormous hybrid which performs spectacularly for me even if its brown inner sepals and brownish cast in the foliage might not suit everybody.