{"id":11181,"date":"2018-11-28T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T17:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=11181"},"modified":"2018-11-25T19:35:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T00:35:53","slug":"spring-star-flowers-ipheion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2018\/11\/28\/spring-star-flowers-ipheion\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Star Flowers (Ipheion)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Starflower (Ipheion)<\/p><\/div>\n

Spring star flowers (Ipheion uniflorum),<\/em> native to Argentina and Uruguay, feature grass-like foliage and\u00a06-petaled star-shaped flowers on 3-6 inches tall stems in early spring (April). Each bulb produces multiple flowering stems. Flowers range in color from almost white to violet blue and emit a mild spicy fragrance. In addition the grassy foliage gives off\u00a0an oniony or garlic aroma when crushed. They are in the Liliaceae plant family and their scent repels deer and rabbits.<\/p>\n

Star flowers are one of the easiest bulbs to grow. These minor bulbs grow in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. They’re tolerant of a wide range of soils. In fall, sow\u00a0bulbs 2-4 inches deep and 2-4 inches apart. Bulbs naturalize rapidly by bulb offsets and\u00a0 also by self-seeding. Plants go dormant by late spring. Lightly feed\u00a0 the planting in early spring with 10-20-10 or equivalent fertilizer.<\/p>\n

Bulbs\u00a0may start out slowly the first year, but\u00a0star flowers\u00a0eventually naturalize. Once established, star flowers produce masses of quarter size blooms lasting 3-4 weeks\u00a0even if planted in the home\u00a0lawn.\u00a0 Star flowers\u00a0flourish in the Southeastern U.S. west to Texas (USDA hardiness zones 4-9).<\/p>\n

Star flowers are\u00a0great planted in a rock garden, containers, front borders or\u00a0mixed among peonies, heucheras, hostas, et al.\u00a0 Sow masses of\u00a0bulbs under recently\u00a0planted shade trees. Branches should be limbed up high enough to permit the early spring sunlight to filter down to the bulb foliage.<\/p>\n

I have found the largest variety selection listed\u00a0in Brent and Becky’s fall catalog @Brent and Becky\u2019s Bulb, Inc. in Gloucester, VA.\u00a0 A few favorites include: \u2018Jessie\u2019 (described as the darkest blue); \u2018Rolf Fiedler\u2019 (bright deep blue), \u2018Tessa\u2019 (light pale blue), \u2018White Star\u2019 White stars), and \u2018Wisley Blue\u2019 (variable shades of blue).<\/p>\n

Decorate\u00a0your spring kitchen table with a small vase of these beauties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring star flowers (Ipheion uniflorum), native to Argentina and Uruguay, feature grass-like foliage and\u00a06-petaled star-shaped flowers on 3-6 inches tall stems in early spring (April). Each bulb produces multiple flowering stems. Flowers range in color from almost white to violet blue and emit a mild spicy fragrance. In addition the grassy foliage gives off\u00a0an oniony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,398,1319,1226,778,806,665,1324,853,551,625,843,812,1059,729,777,630,705,785,1499,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11181"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11187,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11181\/revisions\/11187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}