Reading Catalogs In Wintry Evening

              It is pleasant time to read catalogs of flowers, plants, fruit trees in a wintry evening, to plan something, to think about where to grow, to transplant or to cut. Wherefore I've been thinking about the small bulbous flowers, I enjoy them in spring and early summer.

These are Bluebell (Scilla) and Pushkinia. Scilla is a wonderful well known plant, it is difficult to imagine a spring garden without it. Bright blue spots of Scylla are as pieces of the spring sky on flowerbeds or among the shrubs. The flowers can be single, bluish, purple, white, pink. After flowering, Scylla forms the fruit with little black seeds, but I rarely collect them because bulbs also form little ones for breeding.

Pushkinia is a charming little plant with pale blue or nearly white flowers, with two or three leaves, which appear simultaneously with buds. Flower stalks about 15 cm have 12-15 buds sometimes up to 30 flowers, they have strong fragrance during flowering and attract many bees and butterflies.

Pushkinia is better to watch it in a short distance. I want to try them for spring forcing! Several years ago I planted small bulbous plants in a shady place, there they grow well as in sunlit flower beds. They are frost resistant that is important for my Northern garden, I usually do not cover them for wintering. Although it is thought they can not tolerate acidic and marshy soils but I grow them in different soils and I don't see any backlog in blooming.

Do you grow these flowers? Did you like them for forcing?

Thank you!