Nine beautiful epimediums to grow

In this short video guide, the experts at Hedgehog Plants & Gardens share their top tips for growing epimediums, including how to protect them from vine weevil.

More on gardening in shade:

• Ground cover plants for shade
• Six plants for dappled shade
• 10 vegetable crops for shade

Here are nine beautiful epimedium varieties to try.

Epimedium x rubrum

The pretty leaves of Epimedium x rubrum are bronze when young, darkening to red-brown in autumn. In late spring tiny, crimson and pale yellow flowers appear on wiry stems. It doesn't need deadheading.

Height x spread: 30cm x 30cm

Epimedium 'Amber Queen'

Epimedium 'Amber Queen' produces a mass of dainty amber-yellow coloured flowers from April to June. The leaves are serrated around the edges. A delicate yet tough plant.

H x S: 45 x 60cm.

Epimedium x perralchicum 'Fröhnleiten'

This ground-covering evergreen variety has copper or pink foliage and deep yellow flowers. A good pick for dry shade.

H x S: 40cm x 50cm.

Epimedium 'Pink Champagne'

Epimedium 'Pink Champagne' is a hybrid cultivar, with attractive bronze-red, mottled foliage and a profusion of pink-red hanging flowers in spring.

H x S: 40 x 65cm

Epimedium stellulatum 'Wudang Star'

Epimedium 'Wudang Star' was collected from the wild in China by renowned plantsman Roy Lancaster in the 1980s. It produces low-growing clumps of leathery, spiny foliage. In mid- to late spring, white, star-shaped flowers are held 20-30cm above the foliage.

H x S: 35 x 35cm

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Lilac Seedling'

Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Lilac Seedling’ has attractive, arrow-shaped bronze-green leaves in spring and sprays of pretty lilac flowers on upright stems in April. A vigorous grower.

H x S: 25 x 30cm

Epimedium lishichenii

Epimedium lishihchenii is a large plant, bearing large, bright yellow flowers and large, evergreen leaves, which take on an orange hue in spring.

H x S: 45cm x 30cm.

Epimedium 'Fire Dragon'

The spring foliage of 'Fire Dragon' is tinted with amber and silver, a lovely background for its pink and yellow flowers.

H x S: 30cm x 30cm.

Epimedium pubigerum

This evergreen species bears sprays of white, sometimes icy pink flowers, held above bronze-green foliage.

H x S: 45cm x 60cm.

Epimedium growing tips

• Best in fertile, humus-rich but free-draining soil in partial or dappled shade. Some will take more sun and drier conditions
• Mulch with well-rotted organic matter in early spring before the new flowering stems emerge
• Cut back evergreen varieties just as the new flower stems start to appear in spring
• Trim off the old foliage of deciduous varieties in late autumn
• Water new plants during dry spells in their first season to help them settle in