My bulbs arrived from White Flower Farm yesterday, so it’s time to plant. Every year’s ritual, the planting of the snowdrops — they’ll multiply very slowly around here, not fast enough for my desire, so I add some more every fall. I’m just doing the classic galanthus nivalis, though there are some gorgeous doubles and other varieties out there, tempting one to become a snowdrop connoisseur. They’re not tasty to the critters (unlike crocuses, which squirrels love), and the white blooms look lovely both against bare dirt and/or leaf mulch, or in a slowly greening grassy patch.
This year, I’m planning to add snowdrops around the hellebores, to act as a foil for the first perennial blooms. I’ll also plant some mixed in with ‘tommies’ (crocus tommasinus, a small early-blooming squirrel-resistant crocus) under the parkway tree — early ephemeral bulbs are great under trees because the trees haven’t leafed out yet, so they get plenty of sunshine.
I’m going to try something new this year too — hardy cyclamen bulbs, to provide a dramatic low pink accent to all the green and white. And though I stick to a cool color scheme in the front, in the backyard, some yellows sneak in, so I’ll be trying some new yellow aconite there.
Photos googled for inspiration — looking forward to a floriferous March! (Or possibly even February; with climate change, it’s hard to predict.)
