Sparaxis tricolor (Schneev.) Ker-Gawl.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘We do not remember ever to have been so forcibly struck with the beautiful appearance of a flower, as with that of the present Ixia, nor do we recollect any one that can boast colours at once so various, so brilliant, and so pleasing; placed by the side of the Amaryllis formosissima, sarniensis, vittata, the Cistus formosus, Pelargonium tricolor, or a hundred other plants of the more beautiful sorts, the eye would be fixed by this alone. […] Though new to this country, this plant has been known some years to the Dutch, we find it in their catalogues under the name of Ixia stellata tricolor; no doubt they received it from the Cape.  This species is propagated with the same ease that most of the Ixias are, and requires the same management, - to be planted in a pot of bog-earth and secured from frost.  It has ripened seeds with me at Brompton; one capsule contained ten.’  [BM t.381/1797].  BM t.1482/1812.

‘Introduced in 1789.  Its flowers are most splendid in their vividly contrasted colours, and it is a great ornament of the greenhouse when in perfection; or it may be kept very well in a border close to the front of the stove.’  [LBC no.1903/1833]. FC p.73/1833.

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues [B.415/1843].  Naturalised in a range of colours on the grassy slope known as Blarney Bank in the Camden Park garden.

Notes