An Iowa Garden

This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Iowa Garden


Puschkinia scilloides is one of those neglected little spring flowers that's always listed in fine print on the back page of the bulb catalog under "Other Small Bulbs". However, I've always had a soft spot for it; it was I think, the first little bulb that spread all around for me, many years and four gardens ago. The fact that it made a valiant run at a complete takeover of that first garden, and the fact that it has followed me into each successive garden without really being invited, has not diminished my affection for it.
Now however, there's a new puschkinia in town: Puschkinia scilloides "Aragats' Pick". This is a selection of a superior wild clone found growing on Mt. Aragats in Armenia, the highest peak in that small, land-locked country and in the whole Lesser Caucasus Range. Aragats' Pick is superior in terms of being larger and sturdier than the regular commercial selection of puschkinia (perhaps it's a tetraploid). The flowers are 50% larger than those from the regular bulb, there are more of them (the bulb above will have twelve flowers), and the flowers are spaced better on a sturdier stalk (the regular species tends to flop its flower stalk over towards the end). Aragats' Pick also appears to multiply nicely.
I imagine my little tag-along puschkinias are a bit nervous now, but I won't toss them aside; we've been together too many years... of course some of my magnanimity stems from the knowledge that I'd have to nuke the whole garden to ever actually get rid of them.


Read More at Iowa Garden...