How wet does Kirengeshoma prefer its soil? K. Palmata is a shade lover that grows to 4 feet tall, I read. It has large maple-like leaves and little tubular yellow flowers. I read "moist, humusy soil" for it, but that is so ubiquitous that it says very little. Does it want soil as wet as astible or rodgersia? Wetter? Is it a bog plant? Or does it handle drier garden soil where hostas and columbines thrive? If you have planted it, would you plant it again? Thanks. Chuck
Yes, Kirengishoma palmatum is a very beautiful plant, and I use it where there is mottled shade and plenty of room. It grows to almost 5' in soft shade and equally wide, though takes a few years to mature to that size. It looks best where it has enough room to see its form , rather than poking up between other plants. It has lovely palmate leaves that contrast quite well to most other shade plants such as ferns and hostas, so its a great addition to larger shade areas. The plant develops its green buds long before the flowers open, (adds textural interest), then perhaps for a month the buds show colour without fully opening. The flowers emerge as soft primrose yellow bells in late summer and early fall. I have used it only in lighter soil in mottled shade or bright shade. It does well with regular watering, and generous watering. I've not tried it as a marginal or in a dry environment either!
I happened to run across this while reading Henry Mitchell's One Man's Garden: What could be grown in such a space, dampish and half shady, between brick pavement and the concrete wall of the pool? Well, if I moved the wild irises (Iris versicolor from a local swamp) out and dug in a barrowful of leaf and some peat moss and let it all settle down nicely, I could grow Kirengeshoma palmata. This is a perennial posing as a small shrub, growing three feet or so, with leaves like a Norway maple's and hanging yellow bells or trumpet flowers in October. I have never seen a photograph of it that would make anybody desire it. And yet I have never heard of any gardener who, seeing it in the flesh, did not want it. It's not the leaves and it's not the flowers -- it's the way the plant is put together with such refinement and freshness."
Mitchell puts the plant's appeal nicely although I think it looks good in photos too. Both Kirengeshoma palmata and koreana are great plants, and I grow them both dry. Koreana is at the base of a very large mock orange, so the soil is sucked pretty dry by the shrub, and yet it hits 4 feet easily every year and blooms. I do water periodically, but I stick to my rain barrel and grey water, and so in July it doesn't get much to drink. For several years I grew Palmata in the root zone of a willow, so again it got pretty dry, and yet it did well. Both of these in at least three-quarter shade. Both of them do droop if they get really dry, but recover when watered. Last year I put a piece in a big pot in more sun, again something that doesn't get watered much, and it did not grow as tall but also bloomed well and survived.
KarinL, you have allayed my fears, though I suppose I was convinced enough to try it if the souce has the plant at the price in their catalog. Thank you, and Franny, too.
