False yellow crocus
Nothoscordum sellowianum
I’ve grown many bulbs in my gardening life, but rarely has any plant enchanted me like the miniature Nothoscordum sellowianum. My love affair started in 1995 as I perused one of the obscure botanical journals, which qualify as plant porn to those who lust horticulturally in our hearts. There she was…page 10 of the UK’s The New Plantsman…in all her splendor, Ipheion sellowianum. I had long enjoyed the pastel-flowered plant genus ipheion, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine a golden-flowered form.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Ipheions, they are South American onion relatives, hailing from the region near Buenos Aires, where Argentina meets Uruguay and Southern Brazil. The best known family member is Ipheion uniflorum…commonly called spring starflower…a bulb which provides a veritable spring carpet of white or blue flowers in area lawns. My search for the rarely-available Ipheion sellowianum was further complicated by a group of people known as plant taxonomists, whose passion for plant genealogy often drives horticulturist to the brink of madness. Some of these taxonomists determined that Ipheion sellowianum was actually separated from its true relatives in the genus Nothoscordum. Fast forward to today, when other taxonomists demanded it be move to the genus Tristagma. Geez, folks!
I scanned hundreds of nursery mail order plant catalogs, along with a newly developed tool called the Internet, until two years later, I finally found my horticultural holy grail at a small bulb nursery in the UK. Upon arrival in the US, I carefully planted the tiny pea-sized bulb in our woodland garden.
After a solitary flower the following spring, the plant went summer dormant as expected. Whether it didn’t like the shade or was gobbled up by a Caddyshack-like vole, it never re-emerged. Since I first began my original search, other plants of Nothoscordum sellowianum had found their way into the US, so in 2001, I was able to acquire a second plant from a small bulb nursery in California. For my second attempt, my new acquisition went into our full sun raised rock garden, where it truly prospered and still thrives 13 years later. Subsequent divisions and trial plantings in sunny moist composted soil grew even better, multiplying far faster than my drier rock garden plantings.
In the garden, Nothoscordum sellowianum makes an easy-to-grow small clump of tiny, narrow green leaves, to 1″ tall x 10″ wide. For us, it begins flowering in late January with a steady progression of brilliant yellow, sweetly-fragrant, goblet-shaped yellow flowers until April. Being a Southern hemisphere native, this timing is the exact reverse of its June-September flowering in the wild.
Unlike many Nothoscordums, Nothoscordum sellowianum is completely sterile, so no garden seedlings like many of its promiscuous cousins. For us, in dry soils, Nothoscordum sellowianum makes a tight clump to 6” wide in 5-10 years. In moist soils, it easily makes a patch to 1”” wide in the same time. The clumps often have dozens of flowers open at the same time…just not on a cloudy day. I truly love this winter-flowering gem…a perfect ray of sunshine to remind you that spring is right around the corner.
– Tony Avent