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As far as Scillas go, Scilla scilloides is
one of my favorites.
A native of the lowlands of Japan and China and blooming
late August through
September, these 8" - 10" tall pink pom poms
are perfect at the
front of the perennial border. I've grown her in full
shade to full sun
and performance is virtually identical. The 8" - 10"
long, supple,
shiny strapping foliage holds up well all the growing
season. Setting copious
amounts of small, black seeds, a colony will
soon naturalize
itself, These seedlings will take one to three years
to reach maturity and
flower. Division is also a natural option as many new
bulbs are produced
each year and the largest percentage of these gifts will
flower the following
year. Division can be done almost anytime of growing
season as long as the
replantings are kept moist until they're
established.
Subscribers have
asked me to include hardiness information, which can
be nebulous and
misleading at best. I can issue this standard
disclaimer: If it
grows on top of this godforsaken mountain, where it
can get down to -27
Farenheit, it should be fine almost
anywhere. We do get
a pretty reliable snow cover, and we don't pamper
anything.
UH-OH-May need a little help here.
After I wrote the above
blurb about Scilla scilloides, I started to do
a little deeper
research. I'd been growing this plant for many
years, and since the
original seeds came from a reliable friend and
knowledgeable plantsman in
Japan, had never questioned its identity. Now
after looking at a few
different pictures on the web, I have some slight
doubts. Thought
the plant seems very variable, as the pictures seem
to go,
ours is somewhat different, not only in color,
but in stature
also.
Soooo, if ANYONE can contribute any additional
information here, I'
love to hear from you.
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