I discovered corydalis lutea last year and love the delicate foliage and bright yellow bloom. Beautiful combination, tiffy.
Blue corydalis has been on my wish list for awhile but I have not seen one, may have to order it.

here,corydalis lutea is THE non-stop blooming machine, along w/ geranium rozanne(but earlier than roz.). tiff- do you know the name of your blue cultivar? have you had it awhile? i haven't tried it in many many yrs but if you can grow it up there in the arctic circle, maybe we can...
best,
mindy

Corydalis lutea is a wild seeder where I live. Generally grows straight out of stone walls. This one is growing out of someone's cellar steps on my way to work. The blue flower is Campanula portenschlagiana which likes the same conditions. (See bottom picture also.)

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Another Corydalis which I like is C. solida which flowers very early along with the snowdrops.

Yep, lutea is a flower machine for sure. All mine are still blooming strong despite the fact it's almost the end of October which is pretty unheard of for Minnesota. I also love the fact the seedling grow and bloom so quickly. Ones that germinated this past spring were blooming by July.

Must find the white variety mentioned above.

Kevin

Tiffy,

This was not on my wish list but it is now! I love the combination of the flowers. Wish I could get my Astilbe to look like yours.

FloraUK, Oh My! That is a lovely picture with the campanulas. I wonder how I could get them to grow like that. Thanks for posting it.

Wow! Have I got a spot for that campanula to spread itself far & wide! That's gorgeous - thanks for sharing. Anybody know where I can get my hands on some seeds?

I keep hearing about this, and now your picture has me thinking I really need it! I would love the white one. The yellow and blue are very, very pretty together. :)

Now this is a plant I would never have heard of if I didn't come to this forum.

I don't have any pictures that really feature the white corydalis up close but it's the white flowers (the ones lower down, not the Solomon's Seal flowers that you can also see) in this picture, which is from mid-May:

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It's still blooming out there now under a carpet of fallen ash leaves...

Mindy, Just went out to double check on the name. It's Corydalis Elata. I scared a doe half to death since I had to use the flashlight and she was crossing the gardens tip-toe style so as not to alert the Lab.

I planted it last year. The blue is definitely different in that it is taller - about twice as much and does not bloom for as long yet it still has a good length of blooming time.

Woodyoak, I'll definitely be on the lookout for the white. Really nice!! I have another garden that I need 'underplantings' for and the white would fit perfectly.

Flora, That Campanula is spectacular!! I will have to look for seeds/plants of that one and hope it's not just a UK thing!! Gorgeous! Looks like a candidate to replace some creeping Phlox that are just not cutting it here.

tiffy, where is your garden again?

cool, tiffy is in the very specific area called canada.
Just like woody is in the very specific area of z.5.
Every time one of us wants to relate to the info they are sharing, we have to ask them where they are.(and woody even expects us to remember!!)
Rib, rib, rib....
best,
mindy

Oh, Mindy... You love to jab sometimes. :O) There must be something wrong with work computer mouse because clicking the "My Page" feature isn't that difficult. LOL!

I am in Nova Scotia, Canada. Around the 44 -63 latitude/longtitude, 20 minutes from Halifax on the Prospect Peninsula (Shad Bay side), 2 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean, one neighbour away from Shad Bay, on a dead end road called Brennan's, DOB...

Just wanted to mention that for seeds, I'd try Jung Seed Co. and for plants (albeit small) I'd try Bluestone Perennials. NOw I'm hooked too.

Yep, I am a huge fan of Corydalis. So far (not counting the two annual types and the seed I am trying to start of C. ochroleuca) I have eight kinds. Two are started from seed last winter and have yet to bloom, though the foliage was outstanding all summer. "Berry Exciting" has to be my favorite of this year. Got it in spring and it has not stopped blooming, though whether that will happen its second year I don't know. The golden foliage alone is stunning, and didn't green out in the least!

Sigh...I would sell my soul (worthless though it may be) for a Corydalis, LOL! Next spring I plan to order a few more beauties for my "collection". ;-)
CMK

I have C. lutea (yellow), ochroleuca (white), and solida (pink-red). Lutea and solida seed everywhere, sun or shade. They don't care. So far I have only one clump of ochroleuca. It doesn't seem to like my garden as well, and several times the clumps I have purchased and planted have died off. If anyone wants a very early pinky-purple-red flower that requires no care, then try corydalis solida. The only negative thing is that it will seed around just like lutea, so don't put it where you don't want several dozen plants. The leaves die off in mid to late spring, a true ephemeral, leaving no sign of this plant. Never fear, it will return and bloom early next spring. That's probably its best asset, the fact that it blooms so early, in April here. The little bulbs/tubers can be purchased relatively cheaply from a bulb supplier in the fall and planted then. Named or special varities of c. solida are more expensive.

I haven't tried the yellow but I've killed a dozen of the blue ones; Blue Panda, Blackberry Wine, etc.....I just planted elata a few weeks ago. Hadn't tried that one yet. Love that it is taller and fragrant. Hope it lives....

ooh, cristin, you are DANGERous. How i remember all the monies lost on Blue Panda etc when they first appeared at heronswood 20 yrs ago.....You PNWers have a good thing going with those corydalis out there.(but what about old buyor's loss; what gives with that? portland's ice storms?) All meaning that i will carefully check if that yellow foliage one has succeeded here in new eng. z.5- before purchasing, though i'm most appreciative of your mentioning it and particly, it's yellow retention.
best,
mindy

I jumped to Lazy S's website. They, unfortunately, carry a few new ones.
Marie

-Mindy, Lol. Probably a painful memory too considering how $$ Corydalis can be ;-) PNW summers can often be (depending on where you are) quite dry and hot. Over here in Spokane we are considered semi-arid.

Not sure exactly why buyorsell888's died. If it died out over winter it may have been due to ice, or even excessive winter wet. I think hot summers/lack of supplimental water kill more corydalis than wet winters though. Haven't tried any of the blue corydalis except elata, which has been growing here for the past five years or so. I water nearly every day when it gets hot out, which may explain why it does tolerably well for me.

According to one online site, regions that have a fair amount of summer rain will have good luck with species hailing from Europe, East Asia, and North America. Those in dry locations/with rocky soil may do better with Corydalis native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia.

I am certainly looking forward to seeing what that 'Berry Exciting' does next year! Such a valuable addition to the shade garden...
CMK- who would kill for Corydalis ;-D

I like all these colors. Will they tolerate dry shade? I have plenty of shade, but have trees that suck away all the water, no matter how much watering I do.

Linnea,

I'm curious about that too so I planted two of my yellow divisions in a dry shade garden. It's been a couple of weeks and they are doing well so far but you have to consider that we have had quite a bit of rain in the last while. If they can establish good roots with this cool wet weather, maybe they will have chance. Next summer will be the test.

My white ones have seeded themselves in under the overhang of the roof on the NW side of the house. It's very dry there. The lamium that had grown there for years died out this past, dry winter when we had little snow cover. It was so dry there this summer that nothing was spreading back into that space - until the corydalis started seeding in. It appears to be thriving and has almost completely filled in about half the space. I find that corydalis doesn't transplant well other than as fairly small seedlings. It seems to grow best from seed.

I certainly think it's worth trying in a dry area but I'd be inclined to plant the 'mother' plants close but in a moister area and then let it seed into the dryer area and/or transplant young seedlings there.

linnea, I don't have all experience with all corydalis, but I don't find any of the blues ( elata, flexuosa ) fully drought tolerant and I'm in a cool summer climate. Without adequate supplemental water, they will go late summer dormant in my garden. The blue that seems to do best for keeping it's foliage good with less attention here is Corydalis curviflora var. rosthornii 'Blue Heron' - kind of a mouthful :) I like that one well enough I added more this year - Digging Dog Nursery was the best price, but they call it hardy to Z6.

I have never had any luck with any blue ones I've tried and I'm not keen on yellow so have not tried those. The white ones are just right for me - very vigorous and hardy; almost evergreen here (bloom to snowfall and are already green when the snow melts). They spread quickly but are easy to remove if they go where you don't want them. They blend well with just about everything so you tend to want them in a lot of places....

Thanks!

woody, my regular old corydalis lutea is tough as nails; in transplanting, it doesn't fuss whether big or small.plenty dry shade tolerant as well as heat tolerant.
best,
mindy

About dry shade--I have sandy soil, and I've had my problems with blue corydalis (elata, some of the fancy cultivars). I try not to keep my shade too dry, by my soil is never the rich, perfect, moist stuff I think they must love. I don't know for sure that I'm right about this, but I think they get horribly weakened by even a lick of drought, and then, they die over winter. Of the ones I've tried, the ophiocarpa seems to tolerate dryness best, followed by lutea. I love them both. Sempervivens did well for me too, for a while, reseeding around, but it's gone now, and it's hard to find fresh seed. It's short-lived but beautiful.

I've lost the blue ones in pots using quality potting soil and in the ground in several areas of the yard. My beds are clay that have been amended and top dressed with compost for years. Some of them have tree roots and some don't. I planted them near dicentras, ferns, hostas so they got similar water but none lived. Though the dicentras and ferns thrive. I have had hosta whither away to nothing over the years.

I was at an open garden at Dan Heim's house this spring (owner of Terra Nova). He had the blue, yellow and white all over the place, all thriving. His lot is very shaded by trees. I made a joke about spending a fortune on his blue cultivars and he joked back thanking me for sending his child to college....;) He said they need good winter drainage.

I bought Corydalis Elata last year. It did really well this summer. Just bought the seed for Corydalis Lutea off ebay. I was hoping to find the seed for a white Corydalis as well. Did read about the white one that it took a few years for it to bloom. Was wondering if that was true.

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