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