Giant snowdrop (Galanfhas EwesiV. a white and green 

 flower about three-quarters of an inch across 



An effect you can reproduce in your lawn for $5.00. 

 About 500 bulbs of Scilla Sibirica 



Effect of 100 giant snowdrops. March flowers should 

 be planted by the thousand in every lawn 



Flowers That Bloom Amid the Snow-By wilhelm Miller, 



A REPORT ON THE BEHAVIOR OF TWENTY THOUSAND HARDY MARCH-BLOOMING BULBS 

 THAT WERE SENT TO AMATEURS IN ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY LAST FALL FOR TRIAL 



New 

 York 



THROUGH the kindness of a gentleman 

 in Smyrna who collects hardy winter 

 flowers in the mountains of Asia Minor, 

 the publishers of Country Life in America 

 and The Garden Magazine sent twenty 

 thousand bulbs of twelve kinds to skilled 

 amateurs in all parts of the country for trial. 

 Owing to the extraordinarily cold, late spring, 

 none of these bulbs bloomed in March, ex- 

 cept in the South, but everybody had a 

 chance to see how they looked in the snow, 

 for the continental storm of April eleventh 

 caught most of them in full bloom and 

 covered many of them with a blanket several 

 inches thick, from which they emerged a day 

 or so later with little or no damage. 



This distribution of bulbs was no mere 

 sporadic effort of sensationalism, but part 

 of a seven-year crusade in which these two 

 periodicals are engaged against winter ugli- 

 ness in American home grounds. Contrary 

 to the usual assumption there is not the 

 slightest reason why Northern home yards 

 should be bleak and cheerless five-twelfths 

 of every year. Ten articles have already 

 been published showing what a wealth of 

 material we have in shrubs with brightly 

 colored bark, berries that hang on all winter, 

 light colored conifers, broad-leaved ever- 

 greens and bulbs that bloom outdoors in the 

 North from November to March inclusive 

 without any protection save the light covering 

 of litter which all hardy bulbs ought to have. 

 Of these last we now have a list of over 

 fifty kinds! 



These winter blooming bulbs are the most 

 exciting of all, but Country Life in America 

 and The Garden Magazine have a con- 



servative attitude toward them. We have 

 never mentioned them without pointing out 

 that they are costly, extremely uncertain as 

 to their time of bloom, often spoiled by 

 unknown causes, and that they are short- 

 lived compared with red-barked and berried 

 shrubs. Also that the man who runs out- 

 doors bareheaded in February to see a flower 

 in his yard is in danger of influenza or 

 pneumonia! Yet in spite of our warnings 

 the interest in hardy winter flowers is grow- 

 ing. And this is easily explained. For 

 nothing seems more wonderful or delightful 

 at the time than to find flowers amid the snow 

 in your own yard. It is not in human nature 

 to resist such an appeal. You dance ex- 

 citedly, clap your hands and straightway 

 set forth to tell all your friends. 



The bulbs that were sent out last fall were 

 by no means entirely new, and personally 

 I should not consider any of them winter 

 flowers since their normal time is March. 

 Although the calendar says that winter does 

 not end until the twenty-first of March I 

 have no desire to profit by a technicality. 

 The only winter friends I own are the bright 

 branches, berries and evergreens that have 

 stood by me from November to February. 

 These March flowers always seem to me 

 precocious heralds of spring. 



But all this is academic. The beauty of 

 these flowers quite takes one's breath away, 

 as you see them in the snow (for a snow- 

 fall usually catches them every year), and 

 even if they do bloom at the end of 

 winter, they comprise the most reliable and 

 the cheapest of the winter-blooming bulbs. 

 In the vicinity of New York the ground was 

 135 



covered with snow for six weeks, but after 

 the snow melted one or other of these bulbs 

 was in bloom every day until the end of 

 April. 



THE SNOWDROPS 



The giant snowdrop (Galanfhus Elwesii) 

 is generally a week or two later than the 

 common snowdrop (G. nivalis) but it is 

 often seen amid late flurries of snow, and the 

 flower is two or three times larger than the 

 common snowdrop — say three quarters of 

 an inch across. In spite of this great advan- 

 tage the bulbs do not cost a cent more. You 

 can get a thousand of either for $6. They 

 are cold, white flowers, daintily marked with 

 green and of exquisite pendulous habit. 



I speak of thousands because all these 

 March-blooming bulbs ought to be planted 

 by the thousand in order to produce such 

 effects as are here pictured. The flowers 

 here recommended stir the heart as no others 

 do, and they are fairly permanent and sure 

 of increase. But if you expect a big display 

 from them you would better save your 

 money and buy tulips. These little messen- 

 gers of spring have a very different mission 

 in life. Not one of them can compete even 

 with crocuses for show. 



THE SCILLAS 



The best known blue flower of March is 

 Scilla Sibirica which, like the snowdrop, can 

 be naturalized in the lawn. The bulbs 

 cost $io a thousand. 



The common Siberian scilla has only one 

 to three flowers on a stem. The Taurian 

 variety, which was distributed last fall, some- 



