[Cali]

Inspired by a photo in Olivier Filippi's new book I've planted 200 Ipheion pelegrinans ‘Rolf Fiedler’ bulbs in a planted-wild area (partly mulched with gravel) that is (late winter early spring) home to the buttercups recently identified for me as Ficaria verna by Oron. I'm hoping that their bloom will coincide and that the bulbs will naturalise. As far as I know I have never met an Ipheion "in the flesh". Does anyone have experience growing it?

[David Bracey]

Hello Cali , I bought several Ipheions from Bulb `Argence on the Camargue and planted them in under some very mature Q ilex since partial shade is recommended.  The soil is alkaline and not particularly good.  I was looking for some spring colour.  I remember the first year I was quite disappointed since they seemed to take a long time to flower which was then over in a flash.  I think they need to be interplanted to obtain the best results.

[jo]

Hi Cali, outside here in Devon Ipheon is best grown in full sun to get it to flower, it also gets savaged by slugs.  'Rolph Fiedler'  tends to break down to tiny rice grain bulblets after flowering . I haven't worked out a solution yet.

They self sow freely in the sand bed in my alpine house, and all the named forms cross fertilise.  They are happy in full sun under glass.

[Cali]

Thank you both. David, when you say they took a long time to flower do you mean April, or May? I was sort of shooting for March....

[oron peri]

I consider Ipheion as one of the best bulbous plant for the Med. climate.
By the way the actual name for Ipheion is Tristagma.
They all naturalize fast to become an excellent displey in spring and are most suitible for pot culture, it can fill a mediue sized pot just over two seosons.
It does not need any irrigation accept rain
.
Cali, i'm not sure regarding mixing the Ficaria with Ipheion as they need different water regime.
Ficaria needs permanently humid soil while Ipheion needs good drainage.

I think the esiest to grow is Tristagma uniflorum [Ipheion uniflorum] and all its cultivars:
'Wisley blue' [nice vivid blue]
'Silver Star'
'Charlotte Bishop' [Pink]
'Froyle Mill' and offcourse 'Alberto Castillo' , a large white flower named after one of this forum members, hiding somewhere...[/color]

[Alisdair]

I find the Tristagma uniflorus cultivars much easier to grow, given hot-summer mediterranean treatment under glass here in the UK, than T. peregrinans Rolf Fiedler. The T. uniflorus cultivars, especially Alberto Castillo and random crosses with Alberto Castillo, multiply to flowering size very quickly and profusely. By contrast Rolf Fiedler for me is slow to increase (perhaps because of all those rice grains), though I think its vivid true blue outclasses all the others.
(I have retitled this thread to keep it in line with our genus (rather than species) topic-naming policy, and with current nomenclature. Thanks very much for starting it, Cali!)

[Cali]

Thank you for the name, Oron. "Watering regime"does not enter into the question. The ficaria grows wild during the damp months of the Corfu winter and early spring in an area that never gets watered in the summer. It is there that I've planted the new Tristagma bulbs hoping they'll do their thing at the right time and naturalise. I'll keep you posted.
Alisdair, thank you. If this works I'll try the  uniflorum next year.

[David Bracey]

All my Tristagma flower early in March.  No water is required and it can get very dry under evergreen oaks.

[John]

Jo, just a thought without knowing if it will work or not. Many bulbs are supposed to be less prone to splitting and offsetting if they are planted deeper!

[Paul T.]

In a friend's garden here in Canberra, Australia, Rolf Fiedler is heavily stoloniferous and has spread to a mat close to 1.5m wide in a few years.  Mine, planted in an area where there is some scope for expansion but I hope not as large as that , have been slow to establish and shy to flower.  My friend's gets much better watering than mine though I think.  There are roses in the area, so there is definitely artificial watering in the summer there and they are fine with that.

[Cali]

I'm reporting on the combination of the Tristagma (Ipheion 'Rolf Fiedler') bulbs with nearby Ficaria, now that they are both in bloom. Well,  they don't work as a "combination" because you don't really see them juxtaposed. The bulbs I planted along the sides of a gravel path, and the Ficaria is self sown on raised perennial beds on either side of the path. You don't really see them together because the Tristagma are very short (about 2 cm) and blends in with the gravel and the Ficaria flowers end up about a foot above them (the bed is about 6'' off the ground) against their bright green leaves. So my conlusion as to my original query is that I planted the Tristagma in the wrong place since if they do naturalise and spread they will be stepped on.... Oh well!

[Alisdair]

I think they look really pretty there, Cali!
The few Tristagma uniflorum cultivars I have in a greenhouse here in UK seed themselves about so much that I'm forever pulling up the errant bulbs, and roughly heeling them in outside - in full sun, if you can call what we get in Sussex "full sun". Out of doors they are much better behaved, spreading into big clumps that flower in late summer and autumn and again in spring - so flowering busily at the moment.
Most commonly, the seedlings are white-flowered even when the parent cultivars are not. This may be the powerful influence of Alberto Castillo!

[Cali]

Thank you, Alisdair. I'm afraid I missed the Alberto Castillo reference and Google brought up a baseball player and and a tango singer....

[Alisdair]

Alberto Castillo is the name of perhaps the best Tristagma cultivar, extraordinarily hearty and an excellent pure white with large flowers. It is named for Alberto Castillo who originally collected it, and who is also our distinguished forum member from Argentina, posting under the name "ezeiza" - the name of his botanic garden, Jardín Botánico de Ezeiza, near Buenos Aires.

[Alisdair]

Pamela has posted a note here about Tristagma 'Rolf Fiedler' looking good in her Costa Blanca garden - as she went on toi give such a vivid account of how other plants were doing in her garden at the moment, I have moved her post to the section on Our Gardens. To read it, click here.