Ixia is the flower that makes visitors stop and ask what it is. A corn lily from the Cape of South Africa, it looks far too exotic for a British border, yet in the right corner it is no trouble whatever. All through July the thin wiry wands carry dozens of starry blooms, and every one of them flings itself open the instant the sun arrives. Heat and grit made it, and heat and grit are what it wants from us. Some catalogues call it wand flower, which suits it; most call it the African corn lily.
When Does It Flower
In July, when the spring bulbs are a memory. Each corm sends up a wand of wire, thirty centimetres or so, strung with starry flowers that open in their dozens along the top half of the stem, and the display runs for weeks. The flowers are sun clocks. They throw themselves wide in full sunshine, close again in shade and by evening, and sulk shut through a dull day, so the whole planting switches on and off with the weather. The leaves are narrow swords at the base, and the stems, thin as they are, need no support and cut wonderfully for the vase.
Where Should You Grow It
In the hottest, driest corner the garden owns. Ixia never forgets the Cape: it wants sun from morning to evening, a light soil with real grit through it, and the shelter of a south facing wall if there is one to spare. Winter wet is the killer, far more than cold. In the mild south and west it will stand outside year round in a raised, free draining bed; in colder counties treat it as a pot plant for a cold greenhouse or a bright porch, stood outside to bake through the summer. Front of the border, always, where the sun and the eye both reach it.
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How Do You Plant It
Plant the corms about eight centimetres deep in October or November, a few centimetres apart and a dozen or more to the group, working a handful of sharp grit under them on anything heavier than sand. Then be mean with the water. They root through the winter, flower in July, and like to spend the weeks after that as dry as the Cape would have left them, so no summer soakings. A dry mulch over the crowns is cheap insurance the first winter or two. In pots, use a loam compost with a third of grit and follow the same rule: sun, shelter, and a stingy watering can.
Which Ixia Should You Grow
The named varieties sort themselves by colour. Yellow Emperor is the boldest, sprays of golden yellow stars, with Spotlight a softer yellow beside it. Venus is a rich deep pink and Mabel a warmer one, while Marquette and Giant carry the whites, plain and ivory in turn. If choosing is the trouble, Ixia Mixed simply throws the lot together, and a generous planting of it reads like a sweetshop counter in July. Whichever you fancy, set each colour in a block of ten or more rather than a sprinkle of everything, and the wands will make a proper show.
Plant These With Your Ixia
Ixia belongs with the other sun worshippers, the bulbs that want light soil, an open sky and a dry summer bake. The three below run the relay just ahead of it, from late spring into July, and enjoy exactly the ground Ixia asks for. Plant them together and the same hot corner performs for months.
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