The Ixia
Ixia crateroides.
IXIAS and sparaxis differ by small tokens, but both require the same kind of cultivation. They are natives of South Africa, and require more sunshine than we can order for them, even if we devote the best of our time to tapping the barometer. It has been the custom to speak of these flowers in a hushed sort of manner or in whispers, but there is nothing gained in that. It is as easy to insure a fine bloom of them as of hyacinths or tulips, but generally speaking, they do not succeed as hardy bulbs in any part of Great Britain, but are hardy and prosperous in the Channel Islands, and more particularly in Guernsey. It follows, therefore, that they are better adapted for pot culture than for the open ground; and the surest way to enjoy them is to buy a new stock of bulbs, or, more properly speaking, "corms," every year, as by such means you insure a brilliant display at small cost of either money or labour. In Guernsey the sun-heat is sufficient to ripen the growth perfectly, and the bulb merchants obtain their annual supplies from thence, or from the south of France or Italy. It is the comparative coldness of the English summer that renders it difficult to flower the roots a second time; but this difficulty may be surmounted, and it is our business to show the way. For a pretty display of ixias and sparaxis we provide, in the month of September, a nice mixture of sweet leaf-mould one part, fibrous peat three parts, and silver sand two parts. A good sandy peat, containing a reasonable amount of fibre, will suffice without any admixture, but it is not everywhere to be had ready-made from Mother Earth. For all general purposes, five-inch pots, three to five roots in a pot, will be the best rule as to sizes and numbers. But large pans, if somewhat shallow, are equally suitable. In any case, it is folly to spread the roots over a great space, and five in a five-inch pot will be none too many for a good head of bloom. Crock the pots with care, fill nearly full with the soil, and then place the bulbs, and cover them just enough to put them out of sight. The soil should be a little moist in the first instance, in which case there will be no necessity for giving water. But if the soil is dry, give them one dose of water, and pack them all away in a cold frame; draw the light over, and leave them to manage their own affairs for a little while.
If kept safe from frost, with no more moisture than just suffices to encourage root-action, they will in due time put up their green spears, and show that they will endeavour to do their duty. Now it is of very great importance not to give them much water, but at the same time they must not be quite dry. When there are visible signs of growth, remove the plants to a warm greenhouse, and increase the supplies of water as the growth advances, taking care always to avoid excess, and at the same time keeping them near the glass, and giving them as much air as is usually allowed in winter to plants that are known to be nearly hardy. As spring arrives the flowers will be showing; they will require more liberal supplies of water, more air, and perhaps a little staking and tying to keep them in order nicely. Your reward is at hand, and the beauty of the bloom will justify your endeavours. When the bloom is past, put the plants out of doors in a sunny situation on a bed of coal-ashes, and take care that you do not now neglect them.
The leaves will die down soon after the flowers are past, and then there must be an end of watering. If it be a very hot summer, the ixias may be left alone to go quite dry, and to roast into perfect ripeness, as in the hot sandy soil of their native fields is the proper course of events. But in a cool summer it will be good practice to take all the pots to a sunny greenhouse, and lay them on their sides, on any stage or shelf that can be spared, full in the sun. Being thus properly cooked, they will flower again, and you have but to shake them out about the middle or end of September, and re-pot them in fresh pots and fresh soil, to insure another bloom; and so on from year to year, so long as you have patience to do justice to ixias.
Now for another system in which pots are not required. Make up a bed of sandy peat under a south or west wall, and preferably next the wall of a hothouse. The bed must be in a frame with lights; it must be well drained, and it must have a sunny exposure. Plant the roots in rows across, three inches apart in the rows, and the rows six inches asunder. This must be done in September or early in October. Give the least amount of water possible to be safe, but moisture the roots must have. Make use of the lights judiciously, giving air as often and as long as possible, and above all things taking care not to push the growth. You will in due time have a splendid bloom. And to speak the plain truth, to secure a good bloom is easy enough; the grand thing for the cultivator is to bloom the same roots a second time, a third time, a fourth time, and so on, and with each year's growth to obtain a supply of offsets. To do this you must encourage your plants to flower freely and to complete their leaf-growth, and then you must let them go quite dry, and put on the lights to help on the roasting process.