G is for Grape Hyacinths & Chionodoxa?

Trying to decide on “G” was a bit of a head scratcher. But then there are always grape hyacinths.

These are considered ‘minor bulbs’ as opposed to the daffodils and tulips. But if you can get graph hyacinths started they will come back every year (tulips tend to peter out after a few years) and they will spread. So with great characteristics like that why wouldn’t you plant an area with grape hyacinths.

The standard color is a bluish-purple therefore the ‘grape’ part. But it is also possible to get white, pink and deep purple. I put in some of the pinkish ones a few years ago and they still surprise me with their color. They shouldn’t, I planted them, but my memory must be getting weak because when they show up it is…”Oh pink grape hyacinths, cool.”

Their spreading habit reminds me of the ‘glory of the snow’ Chionodoxa forbesii. My parents moved into a 1918 farmhouse and discovered the first spring that under the massive lilacs that separated yards in the back where what we called scillas. It is hard to describe what a wonderful wash of blue flowers they made each spring.

So two “G’s” for today.