What a lovely flower! I do like white and light pink in the shade, they show off so much better than in the sun.
Japanese and Chinese Plants for the Shade
I just got a bulb of this one and and planted it about a month ago...when can I expect it to look like yours?? I can only see a tiny little green thing coming up now.
Nancy, I planted this in early May and it looked like a tiny red thing for the longest time. The flower comes before the foliage in this one. Then as soon as it heated up, it took off like a shot and finished blooming in the matter of three days If you have what appears to be a leaf shoot, the plant might be too immature to bloom. If it is definitely a spathe shoot, I guess you'll just have to wait until it makes up its mind, because once it started really coming up, it didn't waste any time in blooming.
-Greg
Well I planted mine about the same time...Hmmm. I am now wondering if it is the real thing.
Hey, how about the good 'old' Asiatics? I LOVE my pieris and my kerria. Unfortunately, for some reason, local nurseries seem to only be selling the double kerria. I have one and do not care for it. Does anyone know how to propagate the original, single kerria? The two I have are huge.
I have had the double Kerria..single and the variegated..and I have lost all of them for some reason. They all did beuatifully for years and then got some kind of fungus or something. I think since they are suckering shrubs you could just cut part off with a root attached and plant elswhere. As far as taking cuttings I guess just wait til the new growth hardens in late summer and put rootone on it and stick in the soil. But someone else may know better about that (actually WILL know better).
Gregr18 - I bumped that toadlily thread from last fall. Thanks for mentioning that - very good thread.
I'm a fan of Tricyrtis. I had to laugh at my Brooklyn Botanical Garden-trained sis-in-law who announced that toadlilies didn't have enough "flower power" for her. Oh well, her loss.
I'm sending this thread over to a friend who I think has every single plant mentioned in this thread. Very cool garden - actually quite literally. She turned me on to Pinellias - had never even heard of them. Not sure they are Asian but they are very interesting with those mouse-tail flowers. She also uses some variegated Saxifrages to nice advantage in the shade.
Another nice Chinese plant not mentioned is Chinese Ginger - Asarum splendens. Beautiful patterned leaf groundcover - although the one I recently snagged off the clearance table for $1 at a dolt of a greenhouse has bigger darker leaves - did they know what they were dumping for a buck?
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/530885/
Thanks for a great thread, very interesting from a botanical point too.
Welcome to the thread, alyrics. I just planted an Asarum splendens today. Speaking of Chinese gingers, this is another Asian plant that is useful in the shade: Saruma henryi. Mine is immature and has finished blooming, but I will include a link to a picture of it in all its splendor.
http://www.mytho-fleurs.com/images/Delabroye-vivaces-3/Saruma%20henryi.JPG
I love that