Allotments 4 All
Produce => Non Edible Plants => Topic started by: gray1720 on August 22, 2020, 19:57:02
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I think it's a Cardamine, I'm sure it's a crucifer, and Photoshop has rendered it a little less pink than it should be - flowers in Oxfordshire at the same time as the snowdrops. I want some, but the only Cardamine I can find is cuckoo flower, which is later.
Thanks!
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Not easy to see, but there are a few possibilities. C. bulbifera is one and C. raphanifolia is another.
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Cardamine pratensis flore pleno?
It's lovely, whatever it is.
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It is lovely - and also very early, think February. Although it's obviously a Cardamine from the photos people have suggested, all the suggestions so far have been much later flowering.
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Flowering times depend on location. We have had Cardamine pratensis in flower as early as February before now.
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Yes, I agree that it looks to me like Cardamine pratensis and that although one of its common names is cuckoo flower it often flowers much earlier here than the first cuckoo calls - if you’re ever lucky enough to hear one these days.
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At risk of seeming an arse, there's no way that foliage matches C.pratensis:
https://www.alamy.com/cardamine-pratensis-cuckoo-flower-pinnate-leaves-and-purple-flowers-image216226608.html
If it's growing up through something else, its doing it through the same stuff in two different gardens - not impossible but unlikely.
The leaves are more like C.bulbifera (I think rapanifolia has five-petalled flowers?), maybe an earlier flowering strain?
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So check out C. quinquefolia.
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I do believe you've nailed it, thank you!
https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/plants-for-shade-conditions/cardamine-quinquefolia.htm - note the photo, with the trees bare.
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Sorry it took so long. I just could not remember this name. We used to have it as well which makes it worse in some ways.
Best image I found was on the Great Dixter website. Might try and buy it for this garden.
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I know that "used to have it" feeling all too well!
If you find it anywhere, either as a plant or seed, please let me know. Anything that is in bloom at that time of year is worth having, especially as I have a couple of spots where I really don't mind it spreading (apparently it's good at that - but, like celandine, it flowers early and dies away to nothing).
Adrian
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Great Dixter claim to sell it as do Ballyrobert Gardens. I am seriuolsy thinking of putting in an order in Spring from the latter as they have good reviews everywhere.
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You can buy seed from here for £1-95 + p&p
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item_272F_cardamine_pratensis
I started buying from this company again this year and I am quite happy with the results so far!
Have a look at their “Bargain Basement” 10 packets( of their choosing) for under a fiver.
I bought a packet to justify the p& p and there were a few things in my batch that will brighten up my garden next year, e.g. mixed Clematis,Passiflora, Rudbeckia hirta and a few other things some of which. I have never heard of so looking forward to seeing the results.
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Yes, great discovery that I've been growing C. quinquefolia all this time and not C. pratensis. Thanks from me too, Palustris!
I have a good healthy patch and would be very happy to dig some up and share it next spring. But I think if I try now I won't be able to find it reliably. It's in a very crowded bed.
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I suspect that's why no-one's selling it at the moment either - no way of telling whether it's died down for the summer, or just plain died, and people sulk when they find their purchase has carked it!
I'm already planning next years garden with this year's Chiltern Seeds catalogue...