SNOWDROP

Snowdrops are among the hardiest flowers known to our gardens, and are invaluable for their welcome snow-white bells in the earliest days of the opening spring. They should be planted in clumps, and left alone for years. The double-flowering variety is exquisitely beautiful:



we might, indeed, speak of it as a bit of floral jewellery. The flowers are bell-shaped, closely packed with petals, like so many microscopic petticoats arranged for the 'tiring' of a fairy: they are snow-white and sometimes delicately tipped with light green. This variety is as hardy as the single, and the best for growing in baskets and pots. When employed in lines the planting ought to be very close together, and the line should be composed of several rows, making, in fact, a broad band. Such a ribbon when backed with Scilla sibirica is very beautiful. The best way of displaying the Snowdrop alone is in large groups densely crowded together. The effect is much more telling than when the same number of bulbs is spread over a larger area. Put the roots in drills, two inches deep, and if possible in a spot where they need not be disturbed for two or three years. Snowdrops may be grown in pots, and be gently forced for Christmas. But unless wanted very early, it will answer to lift clumps from the border in November and pot them.

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