Dierama Guinevere

Dierama 'Guinevere', with its white flowers washed with mauve, is a particularly elegant variety that catches everyone's attention in the garden. This infinitely graceful perennial plant offers a light and luminous flowering like a flight of white butterflies, and evergreen foliage that shivers like grass. 'Guinevere' is a wonderful plant, but it is moderately hardy and requires delicate cultivation. Plant this beauty in the sun, in light, sandy soil that remains moist in summer and drier in winter. Protect it from severe frost. Its splendour deserves the effort of growing it in our gardens.

Dierama is a cormous perennial plant. It belongs to the Iridaceae family. It originates from the wet and marshy meadows of East Africa and South Africa. The variety 'Guinevere', recently obtained in Ireland, was selected for its floribundity and the extremely delicate and luminous colour of its flowers. The plant resembles a grass, with an upright clump composed of green leaves reaching 50cm (20in) in height and, after many years, 1m (3ft) in diameter at the base. From June to August, long thin and sturdy stems, which can reach 1 to 1.25m (3 to 4ft) in length, emerge from the foliage, gracefully bending under the weight of the flowering. They bear branched spikes of bell-shaped or tubular flowers, 6cm (2in) long, which bloom in small groups at the end of the stems. The flowers are white with a hint of mauve. Each flower's throat is lightly speckled with pink. The nectar-rich flowering attracts many pollinating insects. The fertilised flowers give way to small ovoid capsules containing numerous small, fairly hard brown seeds, which will germinate after the winter cold. Plants grown from seeds will flower after 5 to 7 years of cultivation.

Invite Diarama 'Guinevere' into your garden where it will make a sensation. This wonderful plant deserves a prominent place, planted in a large pot on a patio, planted alone, at the end of a path, or in a bed not far from a water source. 'Guinevere' is hardy to -12°C (10.4°F), so it is cultivable in many regions. Very well adapted to the seaside, it tolerates the wind carrying salty spray. It is superb in the company of grasses (Miscanthus, Eragrostis, Panicum), or along a path, especially when the light shines through its flowering vegetation. In the vicinity of a pond or even in a large bed of flowers that remains moist, it can be planted with daylilies, pink foxgloves, ribbons of shepherd's purse, a purple phormium, Gomphostigma virgatum or even meadow rues (Thalictrum delavayi, Thalictrum flavum subsp. glaucum).