"The Epis Are Survivors, The Epis Are Survivors!! 2007"

Epis are not glamourous in any way, except for their flowers. Not a pretty plant in the off-season, but the flowers always make up for the lack of interest the rest of the year.

They may be ugly, but they are certainly keepers, if only for their ability to survive just about anything. During our 3 week deep freeze in January our temps dropped into the low to mid 20's for many nights. The damage to my collection of 1-2 year old cuttings, which had no overhead protection, was severe. At this point I'm am counting about 4 that will not make it. Having said that I am not going to toss them yet, as they may just come back from below the soil line.

So here are some images of a few of my ugly ducklings, that plan on being swans in the next couple of months. Note the severe loss of color and the typical orange-yellow-red of cold damaged epis. The color of the leaves is not the typical colors that Epis will exhibit from too much sun, as these were all green and plump prior to the cold weather in January. Despite the damage and the unsightly blemishes, they WILL bloom and I see a lot more buds coming on.

I'm glad to see all those buds on yours, Candy! Rock on, girl! Mine are covered too. I'm glad so many of yours survived. I was hoping to see you start a blooming thread, and now it looks like you will. I had my first open the other day. This one bud was more developed than the others. It is 'Saigon.' The others should be opening in another few weeks.

It looks positively neon in this picture.

No buds on mine, but a least a few of them made it. I feel more hopeful now that I've seen yours, Candy. Thanks for posting the pics.

Clare, that flower is amazing! You are right, it does look neon. Sure makes me smile.

Also, some good things might have come from the cold - some of our native plants have shown more bloom and growth than ever.

Thanks, Kaperc. I bet yours will have buds soon.

Well, mine are beginning to bloom--oops bud. I have been lax in the watering and feeding dept. but they are coming along. The ones I got from Pats Epis are growing like mad. Two of them had roots and away they went. I am rooting the other two and they look good. My two old faithfuls are up and running. Cork.

Well, Duh I posted the pics on the Epis are coming thread. Bad hair day here haha. Corky

Clare your Saigon is always such a beauty and a tried and true performer!

Here is an update on buds and blooms, graphically showing the damage from our winter deep freeze. Despite that they are budding heavily and blooming earlier than normal. The white buds are showing much more color than their normal pale yellow/green/cream. My guess is that it is also a reflection of the abnormally cold weather we experienced in January.

White buds:

And these are the big bright fuschia buds:

And some blooms from a no name pink:

And another no name pink blooming on a severely damaged leaf:

And some very large buds on 'Impossible Dream'

What troopers these plants are, Candy, to bloom so well even when damaged. Fantastic pics. I just posted some of my buds over on the other thread, but here's a wide shot:

I think a couple may bloom this week. I think you are right that blooms are earlier than usual this year.

Here's a new one today. It is the one that I call "Apricot," and it has a soft sweet fragrance.

WOW....promise you'll post a group pic when that lot are in full bloom?

I sure will;-) Here's a shot from last year.

Here are two more blooming today. This one is 'Paradise.'

This is 'Padre.'

wow...nice flowers, and I can't get over all the buds to come!!!

Thanks! It looks like a few are aborting. I'm not sure why that happens. You can tell that they are aborting because they stop growing and get a yellowish color to them at the base and then eventually fall off.

Candy, do you get buds that abort?

Another 'Paradise' opened today, and 'Apricot' and 'Saigon' opened yesterday. This one is 'Apricot.'

Here is 'Saigon.'

And this one is 'Paradise.'

Cold and cloudy here today, due for another rain which in this very dry year is a GOOD thing.

Clare, lovely blooms! WOW factor for sure. I do get a certain number of buds that abort each year. I think it's a natural process of survival of the fittest.

Poor orphans in a storm or rather just too many things to do as we try to get the garden going from bare ground. These pots are still sitting right where I dropped them off the truck. Despite my being a bad Epi Mom this year they are still blooming. Ugly ducklings performing like swans!

Once the blooms are finished, I'll be totally revamping all the pots, breaking them up into more managable groups in smaller pots. My son-in-law brought me 5 wonderful full French oak wine barrels that I think I'll be using as a staging area for the Epis. We'll see how that works out, but first there are beds to prepare, the greenhouse to assemble.....too many projects and only so many hours in a day. :-)

Hey, Candy! Thanks for posting! I know how busy you are, and I can relate to that. I just have a few buds blooming, but I'll take another picture when more are in bloom at once. Your epies look great! Those French Oak wine barrels sound neat. I can't wait to see how they decorate the garden when you are done.

I think the wording about the wine barrels might have been misleading. :-)

They are full size (meaning not cut in half)......not FULL of wine! LOL
Although that would have been a very nice gift also.

My idea is to stage the repotted Epis on the tops of these barrels(to be moved to a different location soon). I will be repotting them into smaller containers of varying heights. Because the barrels are so tall the fronds won't be forever dragging on the ground as they grow.

And a closeup of one of the bunches of no name fuschia/bright pink Epis:

LOL, Candy. That is exactly what I pictured: Epi's on top of the barrels in various areas of the garden for decorative purposes. I still think that the urn look is cool and would probably still work sitting on top of the barrels. You've still got the "Wow Factor" too, Candy, even though your epi's had a tough year.

Edited to add: is that your house in the background? What an amazing color and unique look -- very Mediterranean. I love it.

This message was edited Apr 19, 2007 6:23 PM

Love the barrel idea. I could use some of those around here. I agree with Clare, that little peek of your house is intriguing.

Morning All!

Missed taking a picture of 'Impossible Dream' when it opened, but there is another one coming tomorrow I think.

Gonna be a quick run to some local nurseries today.....just muddy enough from last night's rain to not be able to plant anything. Makes sense to me, wouldn't want to run out of things to plant. :-)

Yes, that is a corner of the garage in the picture with the wine barrels. There are a number of pictures of the house/emerging garden from last fall on some other threads. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/673728/ and prior to that http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/628707/ There are a couple of additional threads that are linked within those threads that go back 2 1/2 years to when we purchased the land. Enjoy!!

And some pictures of my Rose garden on this thread:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/677753/

Lots of rough edges still and big projects still not started.

Here's a shot from yesterday of the Rose garden. The rock trim around the reflecting pool still needs to be sealed which will make it darker blue/green. The reflecting pool took about a month to build, we were right down to the interior finishing when we broke the main sprinkler line and flooded the entire area....what a mess! Took days to dry out again. We've just started laying the gravel on the paths. Way too much bare dirt around the beds for my taste, but I keep reminding myself that we are only 5 months into this whole process of starting over. (Yes, I do miss my old garden......but my daughter now calls it The War Zone because of the devastation created from digging about 90% of the plant material. The fish are still at the old pond/house and once we can get them moved the tractor will go in and level the garden into a "normal" suburban grass/shrubs landscape.)

Your whole place is just magnificent, Candy. You got some neat armoires in the house, and I love some of those old-fashion touches like the sinks and bathtub. That house is just the perfect color too, I think. It's very soothing and will look great as a background for all your colorful flowers.

Really beautiful, Candy. Don't you just love your view?

Stunning fowers ladies! I hope a few more of mine make it to bloom...

French Gold (before my watering mishap which casued about half these buds to drop - ouch!)

Don't know how it happened really, but the two largest plants in my collectin are both French Gold;) Hopefully they will provide double the beauty..

heres the other (again before the watering mishap - at least between the two I have the same amount of buds I started with on one!)

Abbie, what happened with watering to cause the buds to drop? I'm having a fair amount of bud drop too, but there are still plenty of buds left. I'll post some more current pictures tomorrow.

Clare, I wish so much that I knew - I am really just assuming this was what caused them to fall because it was the only change to their standard lives that I am aware of - those that went unwatered in a different area of the yard lost no buds at all..maybe their roots just really like to be dry while making the flowers, though I would think they would need the extra water to help them grow their largest - I guess at least I did think this...;(

Yay my 'French Gold' has finally began to bloom!

Oddly it opened 5x quicker than any of the buds on 'Spanish Gold' and was about in full bloom within 2 hours - also has a wonderful smell, a lot like the oxypetalum!

Wow! Beautiful, Abbie! You might be right about the water. Mine got a lot too, and I am having a lot of bud drop, but Candy said that she gets it too, and it is just normal. Here is my red that opened yesterday.

This white opened today: