You may see it as a May (apple) December sort of thing. It started as an infatuation when I first saw Podophyllum delavayi growing in a pot at Heronswood years ago. I had known. grown, and loved P. pleianthum but this new cousin was pretty sweet! P. 'Kaleidoscope' and P. 'Spotty Dotty' are also quite wonderful. Collecting all of these has led to a full - fledged love affair with these gorgeous plants. Unfortunately, slugs seem to love these darlings nearly as much as I. Here are a couple pictures of some of my P. delavayi in early fall.
Later in the fall with visible fruit. Oops, I was going to try collecting seed last year. At least I'll be on top of repotting this one this year. Hopefully!
Now that spring has arrived, these adorable relatives of our native Mayapples send up their new leaves looking much like umbrellas that gently open and rise from the soil.
P. pleianthum has these beautiful shiny leaves that, like all the podophyllums like light shade. Notice that the flower buds are expanding under the leaves even as they emerge from the ground.
P. delavayi looks downright weird but fascinating as it awakens for the season.
There are several gorgeous patches of podophyllums at Far Reaches Farm which I hope to visit again soon. Maybe it's time to add a few more of these.
We are smitten with Podophyllums too! Such gorgeous foliage plants that looks so exotic!
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike! That accounts fo Mark an Gaz. Then there's my feeble mind. The exception proves the rule they say.
DeleteI love Podophyllums too, but have nowhere near as many as you. I planted a couple of different ones from Far Reaches in a partly shady area last fall, but so far the only one coming back is pleianthum. I love the mottled ones!
ReplyDeleteA couple more can never hurt right? The plant sales are right around the corner!
DeleteI think as soon as they are all up (so I can tell where they are) I'm going to dig mine and plant them in a container. That way I'll better be able to spotlight them. So do you grow them in both the ground and a container? Any words of advice?
ReplyDeleteYes, both the ground and containers. Peltatum is happy where ever. However, delavayi and Kaleidoscope have done strange things for me. When I first got the plants they were small so I decided to grow them on in pots where I cold keep them safe from surrounding plants and baby them a bit before setting them free in the open garden. They flourished and grew into handsome specimens. Shortly after these gorgeous large potted ones were carefully transplanted ito the ground, they started to decline and just petered out. I've now got one in the ground that got set out directly from the pot. It poutedand went dormant faily early in the fall and didn't return at all the next year. Year after, it threw up a leaf and has been increasing ever since. My largest delavayi is a pot and needs to be potted up but I'm a little scared. The ones in pots seem to increase in size at a faster rate than those in the ground. It's a mystery to me. I know that slugs enjoy them very much and that could account for maybe no growth appearing one year. Good luck and let me know what happens!
DeleteI have a couple of Podphyllum that I grew from seed a couple of years back and they make me smile every year when they appear
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that they bring you joy! Starting some from seeds made by the plants will definitely be on my list of things to try this year!
DeleteShould we call people who love plants of this genus the Pod People? Or how about the Pod Squad?
ReplyDeletePodophiles?
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