Tuesday, April 13, 2010

It's a Striped Squill!

Remember this sweet little flower I couldn't identify? Searching online for "white flower with blue stripes" didn't get me anywhere. Kansas Dad knew it must be a bulb, so I just happened to pull out Bulbs (The Time-Life Encyclopedia of Gardening series), which we inherited from my grandparents. There it is on page 136: "Striped Squill" or Puschkinia scilloides. (I think he'd be happy to know this series is getting some use.)

Once I knew the name, of course, an online search found tons of hits. I liked this page and this post.

It really is a lovely little flower. Sadly it's already gone. I don't know if it was eaten by the bunnies or if it just naturally died out.

In other exciting gardening news, the first irises flower stems are shooting up! I think our first irises bloomed in early May last year, so we still have a few weeks before they bloom, but I'm excited to see if the ones we transplanted do well this year. We still have seven or eight bunches to divide.