Summer Snowflakes in May

This bulb featured in the blog today wont be blooming for another month or so but will emerge quickly over the coming weeks.  The summer snowflake (Leucojum aestivum) is a fall planted bulb in the Amaryllidaceae family.  Native to Western Asia and portions of Europe, this bulb tolerates clay soils, is deer resistant and also can be grown under black walnuts.  Preferring adequate moisture during the bloom period, this bulb had foliage emerge early and blooms at about 18″ in height in early May.  The pendant flowers have a splash of green on each of the petal tips.  Fall planted bulbs can be installed 3-4″ deep and 4-6″ apart.  We have a couple hundred of these out in the gardens that always look nice in bloom.

Today was damp and chilly.  We had a small crew at the gardens today.  Staff included Cindy, Bobby K., Big John and me.  John has projects out in the gardens and was joined by Urban who was pruning.  Cindy and I had indoor projects as did Bobby K.  We also saw Peg, Firefighter Cathy, Zorro and Bill O. today.  It was a quietly productive day!