It is bulbous, quickly forming large clumps of strap-shaped leaves in spring and reaching 20 to 40 centimetres in length. The Spanish species, originally native to North Africa, Spain and Portugal, is a rather robust perennial that can overtake a border or whole garden. Over the years, especially in older home gardens, Spanish bluebells ( Hyacinthoides hispanica) have been mistakenly called English bluebells. Before they were reclassified, these bluebells were known as Scilla non-scripta and Scilla hispanica, but both are now classified as Hyacinthoides. However, I think bulbs of this one are difficult to find - always challenging words to a gardener.Īlthough they bloom a little later in the year (April) than Scilla and Chionodoxa, English and Spanish bluebells both deserve a mention in this piece as notable spring blues. From its picture it looks to be extremely floriferous. While looking through some books on Scilla and Chionodoxa I discovered that there has been a successful cross of the two, resulting in x Chionoscilla allenii, which apparently occurred as a natural hybrid. One last tip: plant the drifts of early bulbs in an area of the lawn or garden that can be viewed through a window from a favourite chair in your house, and their early smiling flowers will lift your spirits. And by leaving the bulbs to set seed amongst the longer grass, they will multiply over the years, rewarding you with carpets of blue early every spring for years to come. However, if the lawn is mown fairly low on the last cut of fall, this should not present a problem. Some gardeners resist the idea of planting bulbs in a lawn simply because the grass has to be left unmown for the first six weeks or so of spring, to allow time for the leaves to die back naturally. I once saw a carpet of squills under a large Magnolia x soulangeana in a garden in upstate Ohio. Both of these bulbs look wonderful naturalized in grassy areas, especially under or around early spring-blooming shrubs. These beauties are native to higher elevations of Turkey and Greece, and I have been lucky enough to see them growing under the shade of scrubby bushes at the edge of melting snowbanks in the mountains of Crete. The stems bear racemes of four or five bright-blue star-shaped flowers with white centres, each measuring about one to two centimetres across. It sends up several erect to spreading strap-like leaves up to 20 centimetres long and three or more flowering stems up to 15 centimetres in length. Chionodoxa forbesii, often confused with C. I have seen them growing happily in Winnipeg, so they are perfect candidates for northern British Columbia gardens. siberica is a definite plus in our province. Each stem has four or five pendent, bell-shaped, bright-blue flowers each measuring 1.5 centimetres across and offering an extremely showy display. The stems lengthen with age over the four-week flowering period. This bulbous perennial sends up four to five broadly linear basal leaves (up to 10 to 15 centimetres in length), plus two or three flower stems, each ranging from 10 to 20 centimetres in height. As its name suggests, it is native to Siberia and throughout the eastern sections of the former Soviet Union. Scilla siberica is one of the hardiest bulbs around.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |