This is a genus of small bulbs that make a good splash of colour in spring, and multiply quite quickly. The flowers are wide-open, upward-facing, six-pointed stars, light blue in the commonest species, but shades of blue, white and pink in the named varieties, and bright yellow in one species. In each case there is a thin stripe of a darker shade along the central line of each petal.

Ipheion uniflorum 'Wisley Blue' has large, pale violet blue flowers, with the usual darker central stripe on each petal, produced over a very long period.