Easy and attractive, performs best when slightly crowded. Grass-like leaves emerge in fall, make good edging, and smell like garlic only if crushed. Excellent in rock garden or front of the border, good in pots or naturalized in moist but well-drained soil, full sun to partial shade. Native to Uruguay and Argentina. Formerly Tritelia uniflora.
4–6" tall. Mid to Late Spring blooms, Z5-10. 3cm/up bulbs.
The Royal General Bulbgrowers Association in Holland (Koninklijke Algemeene Vereeniging voor Bloembollencultuur, or KAVB) puts this large group of diverse flowers into a boring catch-all category: Miscellaneous Bulbs. The expensive catalogs call them specialty or accent bulbs; some call them minor or dwarf bulbs (even though some of the fritillaries are huge!); Louise Beebe Wilder covered most of them in her 1936 classic Adventures with Hardy Bulbs. Whatever you call them, most are uncommonly sweet, delicate, colorful, and completely welcome in spring.