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Chionodoxa
Also called Glory of the snow, Scilla, Squill, Squills
Glory-of-the-snow is a group of small bulbous perennials (formerly the genus Chionodoxa, now section Chionodoxa within Scilla) grown for early-spring blue, white or pink flowers. Plant dormant bulbs in late summer or early autumn and give them light while growing, with tolerance of deciduous shade.
Scilla section Chionodoxa, known as glory-of-the-snow, is a small group of bulbous perennial flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. Formerly treated as the separate genus Chionodoxa, they are now included in Scilla as a section. The section is endemic to the eastern Mediterranean, specifically Crete, Cyprus and Turkey. The blue, white or pink flowers appear early in the year making them valuable garden ornamentals. The common name of the group is based on the habit of flowering in high alpine zones when the snow melts in spring.
There has been considerable confusion over the correct names of species grown in gardens, with the most common being called either Chionodoxa luciliae, C. forbesii or C. siehei. A 2005 Royal Horticultural Society publication which illustrated all three of these species stated that the most common garden species is properly called C. siehei. C. siehei and C. forbesii are now regarded by other sources as synonyms of S. forbesii.
Three species were awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit (H4 – hardy outdoors anywhere in the British Isles) in 1993 which was re-confirmed in 2004: S. luciliae, S. sardensis, and S. forbesii (as C. siehei). (S. nana subsp. albescens was also given the award subject to availability.)
Assuming there are six species, as listed above, three occur in south-west and west Turkey, two in Crete and one in Cyprus. Garden plants have naturalized outside of their native range, e.g. in the UK, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. A natural hybrid S. siehei x S. luciliae also occurs.
Star Hyacinth · Alpine squill · Turkish Squill · Forbes' glory-of-the-snow · Pyrenean Squill · Amethyst Meadow Squill · Boissier's Glory Of The Snow · Mishchenko Squill · Dwarf Glory Of The Snow · Portuguese Squill · Lesser Glory Of The Snow · Siberian squill
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Scilla sect. Chionodoxa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
