Dierama

Angel's Fishing Rod. As the specific epithet infers, this does have grand flowers! Widely flared big medium pink flowers dangle in mad abandon on 4'-5 stems. If actually used by angels for fishing, then it is the rod Hemingway would use in his Marlin quest. This assumes he got his wings which seems unlikely.

Seedlings from a floriferous red-flowered selection from Russell Graham. Russell had one of the most beloved specialty nurseries in the Northwest and to say he knows a good plant is stating the obvious. The parent plant is a short, dense clumper with small red flowers that rule by their majority. This has pride of place in our garden, widely separated from our other Dierama, so hope is for similarity on these children.

So notoriously promiscuous as to make a rabbit blush, these evergreen bulbous Iris family members are all about the summer of love. Embracing any bee that taps on its window bringing pollen from any nearby floozy flower, this exhibits a Bacchanalian moral turpitude that is either damned or extolled. These are young seed-grown plants from one of our darkest Dierama so at worst, this will still be pretty good.

Infrequently encountered species of Fairy Wand Flower, these are from wild collected seed from South Africa. Wide flares of bell-shaped flowers in rosy pink to lilac. I personally am hoping for lilac as we have the pink well represented. Either color is quite showy. Mulch if real cold.

Fairy Wand Flower.  Angel's Fishing Rod.  By whatever name, you can rest assured that this is one damn fine evergreen bulbous member of the Iridaceae.  Tough South African with 2'-3' basal clump of leaves and wiry tall stems with many pendant bell flowers of a particularly rich hot pink to magenta in this seed strain of ours.

An impressive Fairy Wand Flower or Angel's Fishing Rod. This is a good species with a narrow presentation and nice flowers of good rich pink held 4'-5' tall on wiry stems. This is not a big robust clumper but tends towards a narrower verticality quite in keeping with modern design trends. I think we have only seen one Dierama so far that has not floated our boat so some might say we are so biased that our opinions are worthless but we prefer to think that the genus is just chock-full of good garden plants with this being one of them. Evergreen except in cold winters. Mulch is good and Dierama do appreciate decent soil that doesn't dry although they tolerate some periods of dry.

Oh ill-fated queen of legend, doomed by prophecy, but glorious and radiant in life. In this Guinevere is rightly given to a bearer of such lovely white flowers. Detractors of the art will complain of browning, and beauty befuffled by rain but don't all things fade in the end. These are seedlings off the rare British cultivar and could theoretically sport a different color but we have had pretty flawless luck thus far in continuing the blushed pallor of a medieval English queen. 

Grown from wild collected seed sent by a friend in South Africa, this species has lavender to light pink slightly flared bell-shaped flowers of good size. These are held on wiry stems to 3 or 4 feet tall and pair well with many of the ornamental grasses being rather grass-like in foliage itself. Evergreen.

A less-common Fairy Wandflower we grew from seed from the late Rod and Rachel Saunders of South Africa. This is a smaller species to 3' and later flowering than most species with its small pink-purple flowers occurring in July and early August. It is useful as weaning species for the hummingbirds so they don't have to go cold turkey when the others are finished.

Chunky seed-grown plants from the fair and white-flowered 'Guinevere'. We presume that some at least will resemble the desirable parent (Guinevere 2.0?) while the rest will explore floral realms yet unknown. A 1 in 36 roll of the Fairy Wandflower dice that could come up boxcars, or at worst, a solid garden performer.

This is a compact Angel's Fishing Rod but it is a lunker in flower power. This makes a dense evergreen grassy clump which has lots of flower stems bearing pendulous fared pink bells in mid summer. We have this out in our sunny border and it has been great. Very floriferous and gently self-sowing plus it is deer resistant.

Choice species making narrow thin clumps of evergreen grassy foliage and long wiry stems with many small pendant dark pink-purple bell-shaped flowers. A plant of open grassland in South Africa, this likes a sunny position in a soil that drains but retains moisture.

One of the hardier members of the genus, this is a good Zone 7 and sneaking into favorable conditions in upper Zone 6. A smaller species to just a couple feet tall, this Harebell has the typical wiry stems and 4-5 narrow lavender-pink bells which dance in the breeze. Letting this self-sow to create a small, wild meadowlet wouldn't be the worst thing you have done in your garden. Sun and even moisture is about all this easy perennial requires. And pretty much deer resistant too!