Amber Queen Barrenwort - Planted in Back - September 2020

This post is about the 10th variety or cultivar of plants/trees that we bought at the Morton Arobretum Fall Plant Sale.  At the very bottom of this post, you can see a list of all ten of them - including one tree, two varieties of grasses and a some shade-tolerant plants.  That list now includes another shade-tolerant plant called Amber Queen Barrenwort.   This is an Epimedium - the first we have in our garden - that is described at Walter's Garden like this:

A dazzling unique Epimedium that will catch your eye-it certainly caught ours! Epimediums are uncommon in the market and in high demand. The airy, delicate-looking flowers have bright yellow spurs with orange-red centers, looking light orange from a distance. Flowers are produced along the length of the flower stems, which are up to 24" long. Bright green leaves have a blush red color close to the crown.

...Epimedium are one of the few plants capable of surviving in dry shade. Although slow to establish, mature plants will not be missed in the landscape, particularly when in flower. These plants are appreciated for their durability and critter resistance, but loved for the long sprays of jester hat-like flowers in spring.

Here, below, is the front of the tag:

Here, below, is the sign from the plant sale where they call the flowers "spurs".  At just $10, these seemed like a deal. 

Below, you can see a photo of the location of the three of these Barrenwort plants that I put in at the base of the large Catalpa tree on the northside of our property.  These are in between the transplanted Ostrich Ferns and the Sally's Shell Hellebore/Lenten Rose that I planted (per the plan) this Spring.  The plan calls for 10 Hellebores, so we're just getting started on our Lenten Rose journey.  

I watered them in and then mulched them in with some wood chips to try to lock in some of the moisture.  I'll baby these - as the description mentioned that they're "slow to establish" - so they need the attention. 

2020 Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale Posts:

• A pair of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses destined for outside our screened porch
• A unique, ruffled hosta named Waterslide
• An upright and narrow hosta - Praying Hands Hosta
• A Japanese grass that I've lusted after finally was added to our yard - the All Gold Grass.
• A lacy backdrop plant - the Chocoholic Black Snakeroot - that was new to me. 
• Companion plants to the All Gold forest grasses - these dark red Coral Bells (DOLCE Cherry Truffles) are very heavy on the ruffles.  
• A trio of Japanese Sedges (Evercolor) that I planted adjacent to our Japanese flowering Cherry tree.  
• The only tree I bought - a Red Fox Katsura tree that is columanar and Japanese. 
  
• A trio of blue-flowering shade flowers - Twinkle Toes Lungwort - for our backyard.
• Three Epimedium Amber Queen Barrenwort that are yellow-flowering shade plants.