Ipheion
totototo@telus.net (Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:57:44 PDT)

The common Ipheions we have here in Victoria, BC include...

1. something we might call the type (as far as color is concerned), a
pale, washy blue, something like milk in water. I don't grow this
form, but it's naturalized in some gardens, forming vast sheets of
blue-tinged white. It seems to prefer sites that offer good winter
drainage and go bone dry in summer; thin soil on rock is one example.

2. 'Wisley Blue' with its pronounced blue tinge, but it's not a clear
blue. It does very well in a fairly damp semi-shaded position in my
own garden.

3. In some gardens there is an unnamed white form that has obviously
persisted for years. There's one such garden down the street from me;
I figure the site will be redeveloped sooner or later, so I've
several times stolen a few tubers from by the sidewalk, but they've
never established in my garden. This form seems to be more demanding
of sun and drainage than 'Wisley Blue'.

I have found 'White Star' and 'Rolf Fiedler' in local garden centers
as packaged bulbs sold for fall planting. I also received 'Rolf
Fiedler' fifteen years or so ago from Don Elick. I've guarded the
Elick gift in a pot ever since, but the commercial ones bought in
fall 2005 went straight into the ground. It's too early to assess
their in-ground performance, but such flowers as they produced last
year certainly looked like what I had from Don Elick: a good clear
blue significantly deeper and purer than 'Wisley Blue'. (The correct
name for 'Rolf Fiedler' seems to be Tristagma peregrinans. The
cultivar name remains valid.)

Seed exchanges have given me 'Froyle Mill' and 'Alberto Castillo'.

The 'Froyle Mill' seedlings were quite variable, ranging from the
dark wine purple that I beieve is characteristic of the real thing
through much paler shades. These seedlings did very well in my heavy
winter-wet soil. At the moment they're all in a flat so I can sort
them out and segregate the good purples.

My seedlings of 'Alberto Castillo' are only now reaching flowering
size so I can't say anything about them.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island