[Fermi]

Do people living in true mediterranean areas grow ixias?
They have a tendency towards weediness in parts of Australia and need to be watched carefully when you garden near "bush" in case of escapees!
I really love them especially at this time of the year after the daffs and tulips have finished some of the late flowering varieties can really be a colourful feature in the garden.
One of my favourites is Ixia viridiflora but I'm yet to re-acquire it after losing it a number of gardens ago when I didn't realise how susceptible it was to summer wet
However, one of the hybrids raised from it survives and thrives in our garden - especially in the raised beds/rock gardens. It is known by various names including "Teal", "Teal Blue" and "Amethystina" (unfortunatley also passed off as Ixia viridiflora) and after a number of years the clump has grown and self-sown seedlings are flowering - but with considerable variation in colour, possibly through further hybridising with other ixias in the garden.
Here's the original clump surrounded by its progeny and some close-ups of them,
cheers
fermi

[David Dickinson]

I grew Ixia viridiflora in pots for two years but got a bit too self assured and didn't heed warnings that it can be short lived. The third summer (this summer) I had nothing, the corms having died the previous summer during their dormant period and not resprouting when I started watering again in Oct 2012. They had not rotted as I had not watered at all during the time the leaves had died down (May) until October and they had baked in a bone-dry pot for 4 months.

I have acquired some new corms and 6 out of 6 are sending new growth now so I should have flowers April next year. I have also set seed so that I will have a new generation if and when these new corms decide they have had enough of this life.

I think my old stock was the minor form (about 30 - 40 cm long. I don't know how tall my new stock will be. Perhaps the old stock were shorter because they were in a pot ?

[Fermi]

Hi David,
I didn't realise that they were that short lived!
I got some seed of forma minor a few years ago but the ones in the ground got dug up by the local echidna and the ones I kept in the pot rotted off last summer
cheers
fermi

[Fermi]

Some more ixias in the garden:
Ixia trifolia x 2
Ixia scillaris
Ixia viridiflora hybrid seedling - pale blue no central eye
Mixed Ixias seedlings x 2
Ixia maculata
Ixia maculata seedling
cheers
fermi

[Trevor Australis]

I've rescued a few from derelict farm-house gardens, churchyards, cemeteries, road verges etc - hot pink, washy pinky-mauvy, orange, yellow, yellow with a reddish-brown back and various unsatisfactory bluey-greeny-turquoise-ish things that are NOT Teal Blue. It seems they hybridise quite freely which indicates that separate colour forms isolated in the 19th C, and given cv names, could soon revert to muddier colours once the places where they were grown became derelict with farmers etc moving when waves of drought, or wild bushfires, made relocation necessary.

[Fermi]

This year there have been a few new colours in the hybrid swarm of 'Teal' seedlings!
Bluish-mauve;
Deep pink;
Aqua with dark centre (close to Ixia viridiflora in appearance)
cheers
fermi

[Alisdair]

Incredible colours, Fermi!

[Fermi]

It's ixia season again!
The main sand-bed with the early season ixias;
A different looking hybrid with long-petalled yellow flowers
Pale yellow ixia
orange yellow ixia
yellow ixia with red reverse
Ixia trifolia
The Teal hybrids and others are in bud so should be open over the next few weeks,
cheers
fermi

[Charithea]

Hi Fermi, what a feast for the eyes.  Do they wait for the rain to arrive and then present themselves to be admired?

[Fermi]

Hi Charithea,
sorry for not answering sooner.
The ixias flower after the winter which is when we should get most of our rain.
This year it was so dry that we actually had to water areas where some of these bulbs are growing.
Here are some of the seedlings of "Teal" which is derived from Ixia viridiflora,
cheers
fermi

[Alisdair]

These are tremendous colours, Fermi: congratulations!

[Charithea]

Hi Fermi, thanks for the reply. We had put down some bulbs a few years ago. We don't usually do well in them. Last year we had rain which was sufficent to make the bulbs come up. We had an Ixia , and lots of freesias come up. Nothing spectacular like yours though. You really grow such lovely  coloured bulbs, and amazing colours in irises. I find it hard to decide which one to admire most. I have managed to grow Ipomoeas the last two years.  They are beautiful at this time of the year because they don't get scorched by the sun. They stay open until very late in the day. Some of their seeds are growing already after the heavy downpour on the 22nd of Oct.. I decided to sew some more and keep a diary.

[Fermi]

This is a new one we got from Greg Boldiston at Longinomus Plants in Romsey, Central Victoria:
Ixia polystachya which is supposed to be variable but this one doesn't match any of those on the Pacific Bulb Society site, so is it "true"?
cheers
fermi

[Fermi]

Ixia rouxii is one we've had for a number of years and is dwarf enough to grow in the rock garden
cheers
fermi

[Fermi]

A new season of ixias starting with Ixia rapunculoides, "The Blue Ixia"
cheers
fermi