Ixia viridiflora photo shooting

[Uli]

So difficult to capture the colors of this plant. The flowers only open in direct sun but for the pictures I had to bring the pot to a shady position. Then the slender shoots sway in the slightest of breeze. I tried different backgrounds to bring the colors as naturally as possible. It's fairly okay but the original still looks better. The plant is about 85cm tall, measured from the rim of the pot.
Here it is, one of the glorious South African spring bulbs. Surprisingly easy and fast from seed.

[Robert_Parks]

I find that several presumably closely related species in the blue range to be happier and more vigorous than the commerical hybrids in more conventional colors. Unfortunately, they started blooming just as this week's unseasonal rain started...I hope the flowers don't all melt.

Very vigorous...I got flowers in 15 months from seed. I'd worry about them becoming weedy, except the gophers eat them first, they don't even carry them to their caches. My only regret is that I don't have the space for a true mass planting...maybe my neighbor will allow me to install a band of gopher basket in his barren yard.

Robert
1.5" so far this month (3 X monthly normal average). Happily indoors lifting winter bulbs from pots.

[Uli]

Ixia seem to like moisture as long as they are growing. I have experimented to attach the pot of Ixia paniculata to automatic irrigation, it was never better. Next season I will do the same with Ixia viridiflora. Ixia paniculata is VERY floriferous and the flowers are so numerous that the whole effect is very long lasting. The inflorescence is oriented towards the sun. 
Once summer dormancy starts, the pots are kept totally dry.

[lpw]

Robert, I have been trying for years to get my ixia viridifolia bulbs to bloom. I have two pots to which I keep adding more bulbs, with little to no success. I live not far from you, in the Berkeley hills.  

The pots are outside in a mixed sun-shade area, winter and summer.  In winter, I hand water every two weeks or so when there is not rain. I move them to more sun as the stalks grow high. But they don't produce flowers. (This might be the time when I am not watering enough?)  I stop watering them completely as soon as the stalks get dry. Once the winter rains start again (or don't) I start hand watering again. I have not changed the perlite and coir mix in the pots for years. 

Other Ixia viridifolia failed to grow when I put the bulbs straight into my SA bed where plants receive only winter rain (and an occasional hand watering when it is very hot).

Could you please describe for me your watering schedule and any other conditions you credit with getting yours to bloom?

[Uli]

My adult Ixia viridiflora and other Ixia are repotted every year, I use the surplus to share.
For seed I use a large pot, 6 litre, which I normally do not do for seed. But with Ixia I have the best results when I use this big pot and leave the seedlings in the same pot without repotting for another season. They flower in their second season from seed and then they are treated like adult corms which they are.
I use a well draining and well aerated substrate based on composted bark but I think Ixia is not fussy about the substrate. 
Your mix of perlite and coir which has not been changed for years (and having even added corms to) seems to starve your plants. I fertilize at least three times with a balanced fertilizer rich in potassium and phosphate and low in nitrogen plus trace elements. Vigorous plants like the Ixia may get another dose of leftover fertilizer in between.
Depending on the weather water every two weeks may be far too little. Especially Ixia seems to need a lot of water during growth, I had aborted flowering stalks when they were not watered enough. I now attach them to continuous automatic irrigation with a system in which the plants get as much water as they use, which means that the substrate is constantly moist. I stop this once dormancy sets in which is much later than in non irrigated pots.
This way I have a very good display every year.

Uli 

[Robert_Parks]

Robert, I have been trying for years to get my ixia viridifolia bulbs to bloom. I have two pots to which I keep adding more bulbs, with little to no success. I live not far from you, in the Berkeley hills. 

The pots are outside in a mixed sun-shade area, winter and summer.  In winter, I hand water every two weeks or so when there is not rain. I move them to more sun as the stalks grow high. But they don't produce flowers. (This might be the time when I am not watering enough?)  I stop watering them completely as soon as the stalks get dry. Once the winter rains start again (or don't) I start hand watering again. I have not changed the perlite and coir mix in the pots for years.

Other Ixia viridifolia failed to grow when I put the bulbs straight into my SA bed where plants receive only winter rain (and an occasional hand watering when it is very hot).

Could you please describe for me your watering schedule and any other conditions you credit with getting yours to bloom?

Mine get lifted every year. Mix is a more or less standard potting mix (Annies, FWIW) amended with coarse sand, perlite, pumice, fine volcanic debris...under my conditions, all bulbs are in some sort of extreme draining like cactus mix. Slow release fertilizer is mixed in before planting. Usually a couple waterings during the season with fertilizer. With Ixia it seems, the better the foliage, the better the blooms.

Watering is either rain or irrigation when the soil surface gets dry. Overall probably medium to moist. Sun is as much as I can...so a bit more than 1/2 sun.

I did plant some Ixias in the median of my street...so nothing but natural rain...they grow and flower, but not vigorously.

tl;dr: full sun, moist in the winter with fertilization, dry summer (they do not require a warm dormancy).

[lpw]

Thank you very much for this info.
Linda