Mailorder Nurseries Online and Off, Part 4 -Naylor Creek Nursery


including an excellent list of Epimedium.

Most nurseries list a few, but Naylor Creek is one of the few with an extensive list; some that I've not found elsewhere. Pictured is E. davidii-EMR 4125. This is a rare and relatively new species in cultivation. The clone they offer was collected in Sichuan province, China by Martin Rix.



E. grandiflorum 'Rose Queen' isn't all that rare, but she's a lovely creature if you've got acid soil. E. brachyrrhizum is also tempting me - a small Chinese species with large rose-pink flowers nearly two inches (5.08 cm) across and leaves that can be mottled with rose-purple early in the season.

If you don't have at least one Epimedium in your shade garden, this is the year for you to make up the deficiency. These are great plants, many with leaves that open a soft coppery red, some are evergreen; some spread rapidly to form nice ground covers under shrubs and trees. Many are tolerant of dry soil once established. All of them have delicate flowers that should be inspected up close for full appreciation. The genus has been with gardeners for a long time, but only recently are some of our intrepid plantsmen (and plantswomen) starting to provide us with more species and cultivars. And, it's high time, too! Like Cyclamen and ferns, you can't have too many Epimediums.

A Few Grasses

I grow Hakenochloa macra albo-aurea ( or 'Alboaurea', depending on what source you're reading) and I adore it. Naylor Creek offers H. m. 'Aureola', which is quite similar. According to Roger Grounds' The Plantfinder's Guide to Ornamental Grasses, it is perhaps a little brighter than mine, but lacks the white splashes. He also notes that the two are pretty muddled up in the UK nursery trade...let's hope our nurseries have them sorted. In addition, Naylor Creek lists the pictured, and less familiar, H. macra 'Albo Striata'. This one is similar to the golden forms but more vigorous (couldn't hurt as the others are so very slow to increase). Grounds says that the striping isn't really white, starting the year a yellowish-cream and only turning white late in the season. I don't care, it's lovely and I want some. These grasses are happiest in light shade to half day sun; in soil that is fertile, moist and well-drained. They are rated hardy from USDA zones 7-9 in some sources

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