Dierama Species, Angel's Fishing Rod, Fairy Wand, Wandflower

A very beautiful plant from S. Africa's mediterranean climate, with mild moist winters and cool dry summers. In N. America, this is best ...Read Moreadapted to the climate of the Pacific NW. In the east, it's a challenge. I haven't succeeded with it.

This is a spectacular plant. I love the grass like foliage, obviously the flowers reaching many feet in the air, and the seed heads are a...Read Morelso attractive. It grows very well in my boss' garden in the Peak District National Park which is USDA zone 8a with occasionally zone 7b or lower winters. The plants are growing in a south-facing rockery in a free-draining soil and have self seeded all over the place. They are semi-evergreen here.

I have also dug up a couple of clumps and replanted them in my own garden (zone 8b). One clump sulked and withered away, the other clump sulked for its first summer and sent up 3 flower spikes in its second summer. It has been evergreen for me here in a south-facing, extremely well drained gravel garden, however it has so far only experienced two very mild winters (minimum -6c/21f). Obviously this plant doesn't like being dug up and replanted, but they are definitely worth the long wait for them to start flowering again.

Finally, I've also planted small 1litre pot grown plants in one of my customers gardens. These were planted in late summer and flowered the following summer. Again sited in a well-drained, south-facing spot.

We planted a few of these in our garden here in Dunedin, in the south islamd, New Zealand. A friend dug up some plants and gave them to u...Read Mores. They flowered the first year and subsequently self seeded. We now can't get rid of them, they grow out form the middle of other established plants and are almost impossible to pull out, breaking off just below ground level. They would be great down a long drive way but in our experience a clump in a mixed boarder won't stay a clump for long, unless you are meticulous in dead heading before they go to seed. I wish we hadn't planted them.

We have been growing this plant in our display gardens near Portland, Oregon for 20 years. (USDA Zone 8) We have tried twelve forms/selec...Read Moretions of Dierama pulcherrimum with varying degrees of success. For us they perform best in full sun, well drained soil and with some summer water. When they are happy they are fabulous. By inter-planting them with dome deciduous shrubs the plants have been hardy to the 15-20 degree Fahrenheit range but they are always deciduous for us.
Another species, Dierama dracomontanum (pumilum) has been evergreen to 15 degrees F. and the corms hardy to 7 degrees F. The flowers on this plant face upright and it is shorter (four feet) than pulcherrimum which tops out at about eight feet.