Enjoying listening to the Red Winged Blackbirds in the nearby marsh. The sound takes me back to my childhood. Summer afternoons at our "Land" ; harvesting fresh watercress from the ice cold spring fed stream, picnic lunches, catching grasshoppers, exploring the sandstone caves that overlooked the old farmhouse and riding our sweet gentle paint pony, Nugget, through the long grass.
And always the background music of Red Winged Blackbirds....
Yet another super early blooming minor bulb for bringing early season interest to the garden. Pushkinia (Striped Squill) bears spikes of white flowers, each marked with delicate sky blue midribs. Get down on your knees or bring a tiny bouquet into the house in order to savor the sweet fragrance of these tiny beauties.
Like Scilla siberica, Chionodoxa blooms very early in the spring and thereby offers a whole new season of interest before other herbaceous plants break dormancy. It differs from Scilla in that it does not seed about nearly so prolifically and tends to form more compact clumps of bloom rather than carpeting the ground. While both bear blue flowers I find the Chionodoxa more showy as it holds its face upward (versus the downward facing Scilla) and its blue color is accented by a central white star. A favorite!
While some argue that Scilla siberica (Siberian Squill) is too aggressive, I love it in the right place. Because of its prolific self-seeding I prefer to only plant it in naturalized areas where its promiscuous proliferation will not interfere with other plants. Used in this way it can create an entire additional season of interest in the naturalized garden or woodland.