Description
This is a highly restricted and vulnerable species, threatened in all of its few locations by grazing, degradation, road widening and bulldozing.
The plant was found as long ago as 1910 but not named until 1966 and remains both rare and elusive. The true species is white. Pink populations are known but may be hybrid, containing genes of other, pink, species. We only grow the white form of the species, which is true.
Stems up to 30 cm tall with very narrow leaves, are held below a spike of glittering, white blooms, thinly edged with pale pink. The petals are broad, undulate and strongly reflexed. Umbels bear up to 9 flowers each.
A native of stream banks, in heavy, wet, black, acid soil. In the wild the bulbs are dormant over the cold winter period but in cultivation it is virtually evergreen. From summer until late autumn it likes heavy watering. Then it can be kept almost dry through winter. It likes an acid, well-drained, compost – equal parts (by volume) of coarse river sand and peaty compost, with the top of the neck at soil level. Leave undisturbed for 4-5 years for best flowering. The bulbs do not increase rapidly.