Ipheion uniflorum 'Wisley Blue'
10th April 2011
Well, I suppose I should admit to growing it. It almost feels like owning up to a rather poor performance in an exam.
This is a vigorous and pretty spring flowering bulb and every gardener should be delighted to grow it.
It may be a little invasive but it is tiny, and it is gone before the summer starts, so who cares?
The problem is the name 'Wisley Blue'. Blue flowering spring bulbs have to be rather special to keep up in the company of Chionodoxa and Scilla
(and Muscari and all the rest) and this just isn't blue enough. Call it 'Wisley Form' and we would all be
happy. A good plant, slightly larger and cleaner in colour than the typical. Unfortunately 'Wisley Blue'
makes a promise that it barely keeps, even with the eye of faith. Fortunately it is vigorous, because it has been an
annual disappointment to me since I first bought bulbs in 1984. A good name for a plant is a wonderful thing, and a bad name
lasts forever.
(I think I would be sorry to see it go, but that is unlikely to be tested).
18th March 2012