Puschkinia Ania scilloides, or libanotica, and is said to be delicate and only 
and Scilla to prosper in a warm sunny position with good drainage. With 
sibirica us it has stood for years, without any care, in a border of the 
kitchen garden, under a wall facing due east, and there flowers 
well and increases. Opening a little later than the Chionodoxas, 
it lasts till the white Fritillaries, neighbours by a happy accident, 
overhang them with their tenderly chequered bells. Between 
Puschkinia and Chionodoxa, in order of time, opens Scilla 
sibirica, which is quite hardy, and is the bluest of all these 
spring bulbs. Borders of it may be seen in some gardens, making 
a long line of blue at the edge of a grass path, but its effect is 
always prettier if white Crocuses or Hyacinths or some of the 
early ivory Daffodils are growing near by. 
There are many shrubs round which Chionodoxas may be 
grouped. At Kew they are planted largely under Forsythias, 
but though the blue and pale yellow look pretty together, 
the whole effect struck me as a little insipid, and as if some 
touch of a deeper tone were needed. 
They are used there also as a groundwork for shrubs 
which only flower much later, such as many of the Spirzas, 
and Prunus triloba, JI like particularly to grow them under 
white-flowering shrubs—but the choice of these is limited 
so early in the year. The Winter Honeysuckle, Lonicera 
fragrantissima, which blooms for weeks about this time 
would be suitable, and in a good spring is quite effective 
with its numbers of small, creamy, sweetly scented flowers. 
Very beautiful too at this season is Prunus divaricatus, like 
a glorified Blackthorn, but flowering a month earlier, with 
larger flowers and no thorns; the graceful white sprays are 
always lovely, drooping either over a green lawn, or over such 
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