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| Ipheion - 2 May 2022 |
The flowering plant genus Ipheion (starflower, spring starflower) belongs to Allioideae, a subfamily of the family Amaryllidaceae. The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families no longer recognize the genus, regarding it as a synonym of Tristagma, although The Plant List accepts two species.
They are small bulbous perennials with narrow grass-like leaves and honey-scented star-shaped flowers in spring, usually in shades of white or pale blue. The genus occurs naturally in Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil, although Ipheion uniflorum has naturalized elsewhere.
Wikipedia
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| Ipheion & Hosta plantaginea - 2 May 2022 |
There were these little white flowers in our back lane bed that I could not identify. I knew they were bulbs. Then last night in the middle of the night their name came suddenly into my memory. They are Rosemary’s Ipheions. She had them around our circular rose bed in Kerrisdale and she adored them. The flower is about half an inch wide.
How was I to know that besides Rosemary’s favourite Argentine plant Verbena bonariensis there was this one that she liked to cultivate for this Argentine green horn?
What I did not know of the ephion is that the flowers are light sensitive. The sun finally came out so my original scan shows the flowers not completely open. I returned a few hours later and they were now fully open.
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| Ipheion & Hosta 'Autumn Frost' 2 May 2022 |
The ipheion immediately reminds me how Rosemary was into small things in the garden besides the big trees we planted through the years.
If there is any word that describes Rosemary to perfection is that she was a dainty woman. And ipheion is a dainty plant.
"If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves." - Emily Dickinson
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| Verbena bonariensis - 24 October 2016 |
