From the cold, frozen earth
A thin stalk emerged,
Primrose beautiful scilla-
Bright blue flower.Like blue pendants
Lost in the woods,
The bluebells blossomed in the spring,
Smiling at the heavens!
Hello, gardeners! Today I'll tell you about a flower that grows at my dacha and blooms before all the other primroses. This perennial bulbous plant is called scilla, also known as Siberian squill.
The plant is low-growing, with a small bulb bearing 2 to 4 linear green leaves and several peduncles bearing small, bright blue flowers with six petals. Depending on the variety, the petals can be blue, pink, or white. The flowers resemble small bells.
The scilla blooms early in March and April. Here in Krasnoyarsk, it bloomed in mid-April, despite the cold spring. There aren't even any dandelions yet; the poor violets are stuck in the frozen ground, reluctant to open their flowers.
And the scilla released its buds and as soon as the first sunny day arrived, it opened its bell-shaped flowers.
Scilla blooms for about two weeks, then small seed pods form in place of the flower.
When the seeds are ripe, the capsule opens and the small seeds fall out and are scattered.
I've only had this flower for a year. A neighbor dug up a small pile of faded flowers, and I planted them next to another low-growing primrose, a muscari. It also has small, bright blue flowers and similar leaves.
The scilla blooms before the muscari; it's already finished blooming, while the mouse hyacinth, as the muscari is also called, began blooming in early May. At first, I wanted to transplant the scilla to a different spot, but these two small flowers look nice next to each other. I added another primrose, a primrose with yellow flowers.
Siberian squill, like muscari, is an ephemeroid flower; after flowering, the leaves disappear, leaving the bulbs in the ground. To make the flowerbed more attractive, you need to plant some annuals nearby. I have cornflowers sprouting near the scilla; I might leave them or plant marigolds.
The little squill bushes are growing quickly, with baby bulblets forming near the bulblets, and even new shoots sprouting from the seeds. My neighbor already has a whole patch of bluebells. I hope my squill will grow well too.