The spring starflower earns its place in the garden the quiet way, by turning up every April without fail and spreading a little further each year. Its flowers are silvery blue stars, barely three centimetres across and honey scented in the sun, carried low over grassy leaves from March into May. All it wants is a sunny, sharply drained spot, and in return it naturalises into wider and wider drifts. Ipheion is the name to look for.
When Does It Flower
From March through to May, with the best of it in April and a good six or eight weeks of flower behind a mild spring. Each little bulb sends up a succession of single stars about three centimetres across, silvery blue with a deeper vein down every petal, sweetly honey scented in the warmth of the sun. The narrow grassy leaves come up through the winter ahead of the flowers and fade away quietly once flowering is done, so the plant takes its summer rest underground and asks nothing of you at all.
Where Should You Plant It
In full sun, and in a soil that never holds water. Ipheion comes off the open grasslands of Argentina and Uruguay and wants a warm, sheltered spot where the ground stays dry at the root, a gritty bed, a sunny edge, the foot of a wall or a pan of alpine compost. It is not particular about the kind of soil so long as the water runs freely away, and winter wet in a cold heavy clay is the one thing that will see it off. A south or west facing position gives the most flowers and opens them widest.
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How Do You Plant It
Plant the little bulbs in autumn, five to eight centimetres deep and much the same apart, in generous drifts rather than dotted thinly about. After that you can very nearly forget them. Ipheion clumps up steadily and seeds itself gently into a colony over a few years, and the only tool it ever needs is a fork to lift and divide a crowded clump once it has gone dormant. Mice and rabbits leave it well alone, put off by the faint onion scent the leaves give when bruised, which is the one clue to its family and never touches the flowers.
Which One Should You Grow
Alberto Castillo is the one to begin with, the largest and purest white of the group, carried over strong grey green foliage and the only one of our four to hold an Award of Garden Merit. Jessie is the deep one, a rich violet blue that tells against the paler forms, while Pink Lady brings the scarcest colour of the lot, soft pink stars veined a shade darker. The Mixed selection hands you silvery blue, white and pink flowering together for a naturalised tapestry, and every one of them will settle into the same sunny, gritty corner.
Plant These With Your Ipheion
Ipheion looks its best in company, threaded through other small bulbs that open in the same early weeks and enjoy the same sunny, free draining ground. Any of the three below will settle happily among the starflowers and carry the show on either side of them.
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