Actually this plant is not true iris,
although they certainly share many of the same characteristics. Starfish iris is
a remarkable plant that is from South Africa and it has an exotic, although
familiar, appearance. Best grown in United States Department of Agriculture
zones 9 to 11, and the corms can be planted indoors in northern locations. If
you are a gardener and you are looking for something interesting and amazing to
add to your landscape, growing this plant will provide you with those
attributes and a whole lot more.
Furthermore, this plant blooms in
late winter to early summer and then they enter dormancy in summer. A single
corm will really develop numerous corms over time, giving a brightly colored
floral display after several seasons. In spite of this plant’s exotic
appearance, care for the plant is minimal and the corms are easy to grow in a
sunny location. Nevertheless, this is a frost tender plant and it cannot
withstand freezes. This plant has thick, fleshy sword-like leaves that rise
from the corms in fall. The 1 ½ inch (3.8 cm.) blooms are the stars of the
show. They have 6 creamy white petals with ruffled edges and purple to mauve
spots dotted across the surface. Many forms of Ferraria also have a delicious
vanilla-like scent while others have a strong disagreeable odor that attracts
insects. Each of the corms produces just a few flowering stems and the flowers
are short lasting, often for only a day. Starfish iris plants do, in fact,
resemble a frilly spotted starfish.
How to Grow Starfish Iris plant
Growing this plant is very easy in a
frost free zone, in full sun where soil drains freely. You can even grow the starfish
iris plants in containers with a loose slightly sandy soil. The corms really produce
best in temperatures of 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (4 to 24 Celsius). Happiest
plants should experience cool nights 65 Fahrenheit (18 Celsius). To grow the starfish
iris plants in containers, you can plant the corms 1 inch deep and two inches
apart (2.5 and 5.1 cm). Outdoors, install plants three to five inches deep (7.6
to 10.2 cm) and space them six to eight inches (15.2 to 20.3 cm). Make sure you
keep the soil moderately moist. When the flowers begin to die off you can allow
the foliage to persist for a while to gather solar energy to fuel the next
season’s growth. After that let the soil dry out for a couple of weeks and then
dig up the corms to store them over winter in a dry paper bag.
How to care for
Starfish Iris plants
One of the biggest things to remember
with these plants is to divide them every three to five years. The developing
corms will tend to pile up on each other, minimizing the number of blooms
produced. You can dig around the area at least twelve inches (30 cm.) under the
corms and gently lift them. You can separate any that has grown together and
only plant a few at a time in each location. Container plants will really benefit from feeding just as the corms begin to produce foliage. Is only few pests and
disease that impact on these pretty plants although as with anything having
foliage, snails and slugs can be a nuisance. There are lots of cultivars to
choose from. Starfish Iris plants can be quite addictive so avail yourself of
the many other colors and hybrids available.
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