Anyone else have early Ipheions?

These 'Wisley Blues' have been under this oak tree for 15 years. I have seen them pop up and even bloom in early January; but never this early in November (now I would really begin to wonder if they start blooming soon too). Now they aren't blooming yet but I've got some 'Albert Castillo' and 'Froyle Mill' beginning to pop up in the back yard too (not nearly such old clumps though).

What gives? Anyone else seen this happening yet? I know we've had alot of rain this summer, but still. I saw them as I was driving up into the driveway and at first thought it was nut grass coming up in definitely the wrong place.

Got 17 sisters narcissus also popping up....

Don't they always leaf in fall? Mine were up a few weeks ago.

Not for me--but this has been a year where we finally got normal rainfall.

I'm interested to know about this, too. I planted Ipheon (blues) in the fall of 2005. They came up last spring and bloomed some, not spectacular but it was their first year. I had other annuals planted where the Ipheon bulbs are and, when I took out the annuals, I discovered the bulbs were up. No blooms, just a lot of foliage -- much more than last spring. Should I mulch them? Leave them alone? They are near our house in a protected area but they still will hit freezing temperatures sometime over the winter. Advice is appreciated. I didn't expect to see them until next spring.

I'm not worried about them not being hardy enough to make it through the winter--they are pretty hardy. I'm just wondering did they pop up early because we have recently had a lot of rain where usually Oct and Nov are pretty dry months.

After a few years, you'll get used to their habits and patterns.
Usually newly planted ones don't leaf that fall. Otherwise, it is the norm to ahve autumn leaves, especially for the small bulbs within a growing colony. They like full to part sun, and the leaves are usually quite undamaged, even by zone 6 (I suspect zone five too) , winters without mulch. If in the event they are damaged by blowing freezing wind, the plants are not out much and replace them fast in spring. They are quite hardy when established, so don't go out of your way to give them special treatment. They do like more than dry soil, however, and may not leaf out if it is too dry. Usually, there is winter moisture that the plants do, in fact, use to support their leaves in december and january, like any evergreen. So any mulching woiuld be more to keep them from dryout out if you have dry winters.

Cheers, hope this clarifies things.
K. James

James; I've had these bulbs for 15 years and 4 other varieties for at least 5 years. They have never leafed out this early.

Thanks, JamesCO. That sounds like information I was looking for. I can always add a bit of mulch if the winter gets dry. So far it's a lot of rain. Our winters can be quite variable so I guess I'll just see what happens. I was very surprised to see so much foliage. I was not aware of this habit. Learned something new :-))

Dmj, They either do something different in a mild climate I'm not aware of (They are from high-altitude South America, if I recall right.) or the normal dry conditions have kept them from doing so like you said. Great little plants in general. Did anyone spring for that new cultivar, 'Jessie,' I think?

Since it only exists in the minds of B & B; I can assume (as a serious bulb collector) that its merely a hybrid seed strain of 'Wisley Blue' and/or Ipheion uniflorum and/or 'Froyle Mill".

B & B are bulb brokers not true propagators--and have been caught many times selling something other than what they claim. They do imported tulips and daff's just fine; but specialty bulbs, forget it.Then there are other problems with them--such as the x amarcrinum or crinadonna are so small that they take 3 years to bloom. Freesia laxa 6/$33--let's get real. Freesia laxa bulbs are smaller than most ipheion bulbs and not that hard to find and are one of the easiest bulbs on the planet to propagate in the south. In my opinion, there are alot of better American bulb propagators (who are not bulb brokers)--just cruise through the IBS or PBS website pages.

I understand that one of 'Jessie's parents is 'Rolf Fiedler.'

I'm not going to make any assumptions until I see it in life. When all I had grown was 'Wisley Blue,' 'Rolf Fiedler' was a delightful shock to me. That is why I'm asking fellow bulb lovers if anyone has purchased it. B&B has their place, Dmj, and can be credited with introducing specialties to the average tulip/daff fan, and as they are reaching out of their specialty as you noted, the price is higher. I don't fault them for offering some things more expensively than they may be had elsewhere, since folks are buying them. I agree, that if they want something more, there are indeed other places to go.

But, in the interests of not discouraging anyone from trying somethign new- 'Jessie' exists in a lot of places outside the heads of B&B, I must contend, especially its breeder at Kew and the various rockery fans who have it:

Pottertons UK says it is darker.
B&B says "the darkest blue," but bearing in mind that they both are out to sell,

From the PBS pages, Dmj:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/pbs/2006-April/024810.html
Quote "...nearly true blue..."

And someone else via PBS said that the one he got was horrible, "Buyer beware," but noted it could have been a misnomer on the part of the vendor.

A picture here:
http://www.palantir.co.uk/newgarpic/280406b.JPEG

So, let us see what this next spring yeilds after it has been on the open market and the world can measure it.

K. James

Well guess who that vender was on PBS? I am a member of PBS and IBS and B & B is a joke.

I've posted elsewhere about my siberian iris popping up - I planted them 6 weeks ago. It seems to be happening to alot of people's bulbs this year.