| Where the garden meets the wild | ||||
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SISYRINCHIUM & OLSYNIUM BLUE-EYED GRASS, GRASS WIDOWS, SATINFLOWER Iridaceae (Iris family) |
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Sisyrinchium idahoense in our rock garden. Photograph © Pat Woodward |
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These small, clump-forming Iris cousins have several showy, 6-tepalled flowers held in a pair of bracts near the top of the stem. These "eyes" seem to wink as their grassy leaves shift in the breeze. Plant them in drifts in sun to part shade. They are easy to grow. Each flower opens only for a day, but there are several per stem; bloom may last for weeks. These plants delight us in our rock garden (shown above), by a pond, along gravel paths and in pots. The taxonomy here is vexed. At the moment, very broadly, plants are Sisyrinchium if they have winged stems and flowers with pointed tepals that face sideways or up, like stars. They belong to the closely related Olsynium if they have rounder stems and flowers that hang like bells. All the plants we offer descend from seeds wild-collected in British Columbia. |
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Photographs © Alan Smith |
Olsynium douglasii
(A. Dietrich) E.P. Bicknell. Satinflower. Also
called Sisyrinchium
douglasii. Spectacular and early. A treasure. The down-facing
flowers, about 2.5 cm (1") across, are hot pink to red-purple to
(rarely) violet or white, with a
satiny sheen. They bloom in February-March-April. Adapted to spring-wet,
summer-dry bluffs and meadows from BC to
California. Our photographs of a wild population of Olsynium were
taken by our friend Alan Smith at the edge of his extraordinary garden in
Victoria, BC. Height 30 cm (12"). Zone 7-8, officially, but thrives
with us in Zone 6. Pot (10 cm / 4") or clump. $5.00 |
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Photograph by Brother Alfred Brousseau © St. Mary's College of California |
Sisyrinchium californicum (Ker Gawler) Dryander. Yellow-eyed grass, Golden-eyed grass. The 2-5 outward-facing yellow flowers bloom in June-July, usually in the morning. They have narrow brown pinstripes (click on the photograph to see them). Adapted to bogs, lakeshores and other moist sites near the coast from BC to California. Our plants are from Vancouver Island seed. Height to 25 cm (10"). Zone 8 (Zone 6 as a self-sowing annual). Pot (10 cm / 4") or clump. $4.00 |
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Photograph by Brother Alfred Brousseau © St. Mary's College of California |
Sisyrinchium idahoense E.P. Bicknell. Blue-eyed grass. Blue, outward-facing flowers with a heart of gold bloom in May-July. The filaments (stalks of the anthers) are joined almost to the top. The tepals are scalloped with a needle point. Formerly lumped with Sisyrinchium bellum and S. angustifolium. Adapted to moist meadows from Alaska to California. Most of our plants descend from Vancouver Island seed. We have a few from seed collected in the Cariboo. If the difference in origin matters to you, tell us and we will try to accommodate you. Height to 28 cm (10"). Zone 5. Pot (10 cm / 4") or clump. $4.00 |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Sisyrinchium montanum Greene. Similar to S. idahoense, but
taller and the flower is larger. Our plants are from seeds collected in a
seep near Dog Creek in British Columbia's dry Caribou region.
Pot (10 cm / 4") or clump. $6.00 |
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| This page was updated March 23, 2008. | ||||
