Star flower, Ipheion – care from A to Z

The star flower is a small, at first glance not very exciting onion plant from South America, which is finding more and more enthusiastic followers here. Because the inconspicuous little flower has a lot to offer:

• Despite its southern origin, Ipheion is completely frost hardy with us
• Because the little flower grows in its homeland high up in the Andes, a real “stargazer”
• And a grateful spring bloomer that shows its star blossoms from the end of March until well into May
• If he can keep them, because the leaves have a pleasant, mild chive and garlic aroma
• The beautiful flower stars too – finally a really unusual, edible salad garnish.
• If the conditions are met, the star flower grows wild to form permanent carpets of flowers
• But it can also be kept in check in a pot or bucket
• Or decorate the living room as a long-lasting, small cut flower in the vase
• The leek-related contains essential oils that z. B. expel harmful nematodes

As small as the star flower is with a maximum of 20 cm, it should live as long as it is once firmly established in a garden. Perhaps this is due to their “calm rhythm of life”: The bulb flowers are geophytes, i.e. plants whose organs of survival (in this case bulbs) survive underground and also retreat into the ground in stressful times. Means: Sprout and bloom in spring, move in in good time before the summer heat and rest until a few leaves prepare the next round of flowers in autumn.

The right location

The optimal garden soil for a star flower looks like this:

• loose and permeable
• humic, quite rich in nutrients and minerals
• like sandy-loamy
• not too dry in summer, not too humid the rest of the year

Any normal garden soil that comes reasonably close to this soil (i.e. is neither totally overfertilized nor totally compacted) will also cause few problems for a star flower – anyone who is at home in barren mountain soil in the Andes is really not particularly spoiled. Which does not mean that these soils are poor in nutrients – on the contrary, nature is in balance there, and mountain soils are usually well supplied with minerals in particular.

The optimal location:

• should be illuminated by the sun for part of the day
• but lie as protected as possible from the glaring midday sun
• preferably in an elevated rock garden that is warm from below
• like under or on the edge of ornamental shrubs
• Underplanting of trees is possible if the crowns are light and high

Here, too, it applies that the barren surroundings, which are used to mountain flowers, are rather undemanding, so locations with a little less sun and above all locations with a little more sun are usually accepted without any problems (flowers growing on a mountain slope that only rise above the surface of the earth in spring and autumn grow, but are seldom “grilled” from above at noon). The star flowers, which do not grow very high, can also be distributed in the lawn, but this is by no means as easy and problem-free as some sales descriptions suggest (see below).

Buy and plant star flowers

As already mentioned, star flowers bloom in spring, then move in and only sprout again in autumn. They belong to the so-called autumn flower bulbs, as well as hyacinths, imperial crowns, crocuses, daffodils, and tulips.

Fall bulbs are usually sold in the fall because they are usually planted in the fall as well. Nowadays it is better to say “were” – since everything must always be best to buy immediately when it has caught the customer’s eye, star flower bulbs and other autumn flower bulbs are sold throughout the season. From spring you get young plants that can be planted out immediately, later the bulbs, sometimes as a plant that has been pulled in in a pot (which means you order and receive a pot with soil and apparently without a plant, regularly causes confusion among customers).

Whenever you get the bulbous plant with or without greenery in the upper area: It can be planted as long as the ground is not frozen, in the usual way for flower bulbs:

• Drive a planting hole in the ground with the wood
• At the desired depth, with star flowers, the onion should be 12-15 cm deep after planting (8 cm for some varieties)
• In the bed, the star flowers are placed close together in groups with a distance of 6 cm
• If carpets of flowers are to be formed, the distances are chosen to be larger
• If a wild flower meadow is to be formed, the bulbs should be distributed in such a way that it appears random
• This works best if a handful of onions are loosely tossed onto the appropriate area
• Put some sand in the planting hole so that there is no cavity under the flower bulb after it has been planted
• Insert star flower onion
• Fill in the soil around it and press it down
• Water the star flower

If you do not plant in autumn, you must expect that you will mess up the plant metabolism a little in terms of time. Young plants planted with foliage and flowers in spring often move in soon – and are then no longer visible for the rest of the year, instead of forming some leaves in autumn. They do not sprout again until spring and hopefully find their way into their rhythm. It is better to plant in autumn, even for rather impatient gardeners.

Caring for the star flower

When the starflowers are in the earth, dealing with them does not become more difficult:

• Young plants need to be well hydrated until the bulb is properly rooted
• If the onions were planted in the fall, there is nothing more to do than wait for the spring
• When the flower has finished blooming towards the end of May, the foliage on the plant should turn yellow
• When it is completely dry, the scissors can be used to tidy up the bed
• In the summer after moving in, the soil with the star flower should be kept rather dry
• If the star flower pushes its foliage upwards in the fall “according to the regulations”, it can be protected by spruce branches over the winter
• Bulb flowers are not fertilized separately, they live on what their environment gets in the way of food

It is sometimes recommended that the onions be dug up after a few years because they move a little deeper into the earth every year. Gardeners with a healthy connection to nature forego this, rely on automatic reproduction and let the mother onions wander in the earth until they eventually rot.

From the star flower to the carpet of flowers

If the star flowers are to grow from a single flower star into a beautiful, romantic carpet of flowers, they will do so with pleasure and usually also spread out willingly. The prerequisite, however, is that they are placed in a place where they can grow undisturbed for years. What the hobby gardener calls a “carpet of flowers”, the gardening expert calls “naturalization”, and this naturalization is an art in itself, which only succeeds if some special requirements are met:

• Naturalization means offering the plants such good living conditions that they can maintain themselves in the same location for many years on their own
• Soil and light have to be really good at meeting the needs of the plant
• The plant must supply the nutrients in the soil so well that it can produce daughter bulbs
• At the start, the bulb flowers are placed in loosely scattered groups
• And they have to be left alone, i.e. neither stepped on nor mowed all the time

If a flower is to turn the lawn into a carpet of flowers, it will only work if a few special requirements are met:

• The location and soil under the lawn meet the requirements of the flower
• As already explained above, it is rather uncritical for star flower
• The species / variety has the power to break through the sward in spring
• Doubtful for the rather delicate star flower
• However, many lawns in our gardens are not given the opportunity to form a dense sward
• In a lawn made up of nothing but individual plants, even delicate star flowers have no problem making their way to the surface.
• While the carpet of flowers is being created, the lawn becomes a flower meadow, so it is not mowed regularly
• Or rather, not mowed at all, from the opening of the star flower in the spring to moving in
• Even if the star flowers slowly lose their color and wither shortly before the start of summer, the lawn must not be mowed yet
• Bulb flowers take a lot of strength if the dead plants are simply mowed
• Areas with flower bulbs may only be mowed when the bulb foliage has wilted
• Five to six weeks after flowering is about the right time
• If the plants are not given this time to gather energy for the next season, the carpet of flowers will never be full

That is why the star flower is not a good idea in normal lawns, at least as a classic, self-caring and developing carpet of flowers. For the lawn in front of the home, which should continue to be mowed regularly, is usually more a group planting that takes up the idea of ​​a flower meadow: The bulb flowers are placed in different places in smaller groups in the sward, where they grow into small flower islands be left out when mowing by the lawn mower.

Species and varieties

The Ipheion are a genus from the order of the asparagus, amaryllis family, subfamily leek family (hence the garlic smell, star flower are closely related to garlic, chives, leeks and onions).

Star flowers have been cultivated since 1832 at the latest and are now available in some cultivars. The species of the genus Ipheion and other closely related amaryllis are currently being genetically rearranged, which is why the genus Ipheion, according to the latest botanical knowledge, only consists of the species I. sessile and I. uniflorum and some star flowers suddenly have different botanical names. Some dealers stick to the old names, others only list them – if you want to have a very specific star flower in your garden, you should, as an exception, currently orientate yourself primarily to the name of the cultivar:

• Ipheion ‘Album’ blooms in pure white, often from February and into May
• Ipheion ‘Alberto Castillo’ develops brilliant white and large flower stars
• Ipheion ‘Charlotte Bishop’ flowers in a delicate pink with darker central ribs
• Ipheion ‘Froyle Mill’ flowers bright purple-blue
• Ipheion ‘Jessie’ was bred from the Rolf Fiedler variety and shows an even more intense blue
• Ipheion ‘Queen Fabiola’, violet-blue flowers with up to 20 individual flowers in a loose umbel
• Ipheion ‘Lilacinum’ flowers in light purple
• Ipheion ‘Rudolf (Rolf) Fiedler’ flowers bright gentian blue with 15 cm large flowers for 2 months
• Ipheion ‘Whisley Blue’ flowers wonderfully sky blue

The natural species of the star flower is classified in winter hardiness zone 5 – 9, which goes well with Germany with winter hardiness zones 6 – 8. The cultivars are usually not that hardy, so ask for each one; In residential areas with the unfriendly winter hardiness zone 6, star flowers that are designated for winter hardiness zone 7 – 9 freeze.

The natural species of the original star flower, Ipheion uniflorum, is still only sold as Ipheion uniflorum, star flower (single-flowered spring star, Andean knofi). It is the star flower that is sold by specialized herb nurseries, here you can be sure that you are getting chemically unaffected star flower. Cultivars of star flowers sold for ornamental purposes are basically all supposed to be edible, but on the way to the trade they may have “enjoyed” all kinds of chemical compounds; Please only garnish the salad with such star flowers after a season in uncontaminated soil.

Conclusion
Star flowers do not come from here, but grow in suitable locations as easily as native bulb flowers. There are several cultivars with which flower carpets in white, pink, blue and purple can be created, which renew themselves for a long time.