Glory of the Snow
Chionodoxa luciliae
Comes up through the tail of the cold and asks for nothing afterward — no feeding, no watering, no cutting back.
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Blue
- Sunlight
- Full sun through to partial shade.
- Watering
- Moderate moisture while it is growing in spring, and none after that.
- Feeding
- No feeding necessary.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- February
- Pruning
- Leave it alone once the flowers are over.
- Overwintering
- Dormant bulbs need no protection in a temperate climate.
- Jan–Mar Spring Growth
- Mar–Apr Flowering
- Apr–May Growing
- May–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Jan Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 3.9 in
- In-row spacing
- 3.9 in
- Between rows
- 5.1 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- A bulb with fine roots beneath it
- Working depth
- 4–10 in
- Can reach
- 16 in down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 2–4 in across, about 0.5–1× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 8 in of soil
Roots thread down from the base plate each season and are shed each season, and they go no further out than the leaves. Everything the bulb will store for next year is gathered in that narrow circle before the foliage yellows, which is why cutting the leaves early costs a flower.
The habit is Glory of the Snow’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Snakes & lizards Colubridae & PhrynosomatidaeHunts Mice & voles
A garter snake works the beds for slugs and voles and a fence lizard clears grasshoppers off a sunny wall. Almost every snake a gardener meets is harmless and useful; give them a log pile, a warm flat stone and a bit of cover and they stay.
Green-leaved flowers, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com