Wood hyacinths

Day 99
The Daily DuBrule

Last year in early May I decided that my garden was lacking blue flowers. I had tons of Doronicum pardalianches in flower, yellow daisies everywhere. I had lots of pink due to the Silene dioica which has self sown all over the place. The giant bleeding heart added to the show. I craved blue.

Meanwhile, back at Natureworks, our shady borders will filled with wood hyacinths. Bingo. That's what I needed! I made a note of it and miraculously, despite the disruption of the hurricane and October snowstorm, I found the note, grabbed the bulbs, and eventually got them in the ground. They are starting to bud up now. 

Wood hyacinths used to be called Spanish squill and there scientific name was Scilla hispanica. Simple to remember. Then the botanists changed the name to Hyacinthoides hispanica. Okay, I can handle that. The good thing about them is they appear when most of the other early bulbs are finished. They spread easily in sun or shade and make great cut flowers. I have seen entire woodland gardens naturalized with these beauties. In England, they grow 

Call them whatever you want, I just think it's pretty amazing that they are now growing in my gardens, adding a much needed blue color in the land of pink and yellow. The lesson here is to take notes NOW about the bulbs you are missing. You will certainly forget these omissions by late fall. Place a little post it on your September calendar: "Buy wood hyacinths!" You will consider yourself a genius when you flip the calendar page and there it is.