Ixia frederickii

The longer we all garden the longer grows our respective personal list of either things flowered or things needed to order; so we in turn can add them to our flowered list.

Before we begin looking at Ixia frederickii specifically, it might be time to recap the Ixia issue.

Ixia s are Geophytes, with small to medium sized deciduous corms as their root stocks. The genus is under constant revision and division. The division of the genus (Lewis 1962:59) into two subgenera, with the larger subgenus Ixia further divided into three sections, is upheld by Miriam P. De Vos. in the published work, Flora of South Africa: Volume 7, Iridaceae.

A few species are intermediate, connecting certain of the subdivisions. Numerous species firmly placed with Ixia are excluded. Goldblatt and Manning as I type are working further on the intragenic taxonomy of Ixia.

Anyway, Ixia is an endemic genus of 50 species mainly from the western, southwestern and southern winter rainfall areas of the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape Provinces, ( for the casual reader stumbling across this; South Africa.) extending from Namaqualand to the Cape and eastwards to East London, and inland into the Little Karoo and western part of Great Karoo.

Here, their flowering period is from August to November; rarely to January, though this is know.

In our gardens, Ixia will flower at different times depending on our climates. Here in Tasmania, because of our good volcanic soils and reliable winter rainfalls, Ixias planted in gardens have escaped making the rich vista of mid winter to early summer an even richer tapestry than Nature first intended for this Blessed Realm safely tucked away at the end of the Globe,

We have in the past relied heavily on the advice of American books, all of which tells the reader that Ixia should be planted about 8cm. deep in well drained soils which occupy a good sunny aspect of your garden. The corms when dormant should be allowed to go completely dry and kept totally frost free.

And this is good advice for those in cold gardens, but as we have discovered over the years, many readers report more deaths from following written advice.

This is why I tremble with fear of the next reader making a misunderstanding about the written word.

Advice given is always from the authors growing experience, and this is the inhibiting factor on ALL written works. We are dealing with changing climates and altered growing conditions. So now, perhaps more than even a decade ago, we need to look at how a particular plant evolved and how it grows in its native habitat.

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