I am always tempted when I receive seed lists to try
the seeds of plants that I have seen growing in the
wild, although perhaps being over optimistic in
expecting plants that grow at over 3000 metres in
Sichuan to adapt to Northern Ireland!
There are over 300 varieties of Pedicularis growing
in China alone, many of them very attractive, but I
had always believed ‘louseworts’ very difficult to
cultivate being described as hemiparasitic, the host
plant not always obvious. [see
‘Plant of the Month’ June 2006 by Heather Smith]
However a few years ago at the SRCG weekend I bought
a small plant simply labelled Pedicularis sp. which I
planted in a raised bed and it has reappeared late
every spring since producing rather
straggly pink flowers in summer but no seedlings so
far.
So when I saw Pedicularis
rhinanthoides listed on Votjech Holubec’s2015/16 seed list I promptly ordered some seed.
The seed, collected from TienBaoShan, Yunnan, China
at 3500 metres,2014, was sown in the usual seed compost at
the beginning of January 2016 and I noted that it had
germinated but unfortunately not the date or number. This
resulted in one plant transferred outside to a raised bed
in the summer.
It survived our mild winter making a compact leafy
mound, approx.. 15 -20 cmsacrossand
stayed in leaf unlike the ‘Scottish’ variety.
Much to my surprise I found it in flower as shown in the photograph on the 25th April this year, with 6 to 7 pink and white flowers several cm high and there are more small pink buds hidden in the foliage. This plant is more compact than I remember it in the wild.
Whether
it will survive or increase over the coming seasons in N.
Ireland remains to be seen- I do hope so as it reminds me of a wonderful
botanical holiday spent in Yunnan and Sichuan under the
expert guidance of Chris Gardiner.
