On 1 Feb 2009, at 19:26, Robin Hansen wrote: > I have all three colors of ipheion - pink, white and blue/purple. Ipheion is somewhat more varied than that. The original cultivated form of Ipheion uniflora is a rather washy blue, something like dilute milk. From that presumably arose 'Wisley Blue' which is bluer, but I wouldn't call it a "clear sky blue." In the other direction, various white-flowered forms have arisen, including 'Alberto Castillo' and the widely available 'White Star'. A house very near to me has a white-flowered ipheion that has spread modestly throughout its garden and probably predates the two other white cultivars I have named, given that they've been there, well-established for at least the twenty years I've lived here. Beyond the white to pale blue group, there is the wine purple 'Froyle Mill', which comes fairly true from seed, and the pink 'Charlotte Bishop'. And then there is Ipheion 'Rolf Fiedler', with its beautiful clear wedgewood blue flowers. Let's not get started on the proper generic assignment of these plants, btw. I googled ipheion "alberto castillo" and ended up at the PBS mailing list archive, with lots of interesting (and amusing) remarks by all and sundry on Ipheion, Tristagma, Nothoscordum, etc. As one of the contributors to that discussion remarked, the taxonomy of these plants gives every evidence of being a mess. Let us hope that the Argentine and Chilean economies some day thrive to the point of being able to support some serious study of the plants native to the southerly portions of South America. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…