Description
( syn. Homeria collina var. ochroleuca, Homeria ochroleuca)
This can be variable in a range of colour encompassing near-white, cream, yellows and a mixture of those colours. Our stock is a fairly uniform one with gorgeous mid-yellow blooms which are marked with a deeper, egg-yolk yellow in the throat and which bear a strong scent which not everyone finds pleasant. The petals are large and flare open so that their Iris-affinity is not immediately obvious, but that is their family. Several flowers are borne, in sequence, on stems of around 20-30cm tall, but they can, with vigour (and maybe if shaded too much) reach 60cm.
This grows on a Mediterranean cycle, of summer dryness and autumn/winter/spring rains, vegetating in Autumn but flowering in spring. Growth as per some of the Mediterranean Crocus suits this very well. It is borderline hardy but will usually survive in a suitable site, outside in a very well-drained, sunny spot though we think that it is best under frost-free glass in view of its small corm size (easily mislaid or lost in the open border) and its dislike of too much winter wet (in compensation it is tolerant of a little water during its otherwise-dry summer rest).
A victim of name changes, current botanical thinking suggests that several species that were regarded as Homeria should now be called Moraea.
