Does well in shade, woodland gardens and short grass as well as full sun; can eventually form vast colonies. From the Greek chion ‘snow’ and doxa ‘glory’; pronounced kee-on-oh-doks-uh. Formerly Chionodoxa luciliae, C. gigantea. In 2020, Chionodoxa was subsumed into Scilla. Native to woods and mountains of Crete, Cyprus and western Turkey.
5–6" tall. Early Spring blooms, Z3-8, 5cm/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.
See also: bulb planting information and bulb planting charts.