海角大神

Snowdrops begin blooming about the time of the vernal equinox in Vermont, where I live, perfectly timed with spring. All Galanthus species 鈥� there are about 20 鈥� are botanical immigrants, but few places are more congenial to growing them than is New England.

The galanthus in my garden are G. nivalis, common snowdrops. Don鈥檛 let 鈥渃ommon鈥� put you off: Snowdrops鈥� other country names 鈥� milk flower, fair-maid-of-February, Mary鈥檚 tapers, Candlemas bell 鈥� better point to the loveliness of these little blooms.

Each faintly scented flower hangs from a five-inch leafless scape like a delicate white bell marked with green.

There are scores of cultivars, including 鈥楩lora Pleno鈥�, the best known double-flowered snowdrop, and 鈥榃hite Dreams鈥� with its white-striped leaves. There鈥檚 also the eye-popping and pricey Galanthus woronowii 鈥楨lizabeth Harrison鈥�, which has yellow rather than green markings. (The seed company Thompson & Morgan bought a single bulb for about $1,100 last year.)

Flowers for weeks

鈥楨lizabeth Harrison鈥� isn鈥檛 likely to become part of my garden, but I do like giant snowdrops (G. elwesii), which are a bigger version of their common cousin. If you chose strategically, you can extend the galanthus season to several months by planting cultivars or species that bloom earlier or later.

But even if you plant only the common snowdrop, you鈥檒l have flowers for several weeks as long as the temperatures stay cool.

Because galanthus bulbs continue to be dug by the tens of thousands in the wild, many species are officially 鈥渋n decline"; Galanthus trojanus is 鈥渃ritically endangered,鈥� the last stop before 鈥渆xtinct in the wild.鈥� Make sure that any snowdrops you buy are labeled 鈥渘ursery propagated.鈥� 聽Bulbs imported from Holland are nursery propagated, as are named cultivars.

Like other hardy bulbs, snowdrops are sold in the fall 鈥� 50 G. nivalis bulbs for $30 from Brent and Becky鈥檚 Bulbs. This is a bulb not to buy at the local box store, as freshness is important.

If you become snowdrop-smitten, you鈥檙e going to have to order from England and Scotland聽or join a rock garden or bulb society to find the rarer species and cultivars, as most US sources rarely offer more than a two or three choices. (But now, as soon as blooming stops and before the foliage dries, is the time to divide stands of snowdrops if you have a friend willing to share.)

Easy growing

Cultivation is easy. Snowdrops are happiest in USDA Zones 3 through 7 in dappled sun, perfect for setting under trees or shrubs, and look best when planted tightly in informal clumps, about a dozen bulbs per square foot.

Plant them at a depth about three times the height of the bulb in soil that has been enriched with compost, and unless there are weather extremes, leave them alone. (Before you begin naturalizing snowdrops in your lawn, remember that their foliage must be allowed to wither naturally -- no mowing until it disappears.)

Snowdrops share all the virtues of winter aconites, grape hyacinths, crocus, and other pocket-sized bulbs that usher in spring. They thrive in the coldest regions, aren鈥檛 damaged by spring winds and rain, and emerge unaffected by late snowfalls.

In addition to being relatively inexpensive, they naturalize, increasing every year without help from the gardener. Snowdrops are, as the housemaid explains in the book "The Secret Garden": 鈥渢hings as helps themselves.鈥�

And nothing is nicer that that.

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Karan Davis Cutler is one of more than a dozen garden experts who blog regularly ab out gardening at the Monitor. To read more by Karan, click here. She's a former magazine editor and newspaper columnist and the author of scores of garden articles and more than a dozen books, including 鈥淏urpee -- The Complete Flower Gardener鈥� and 鈥淗erb Gardening for Dummies.鈥� Karan now struggles to garden in the unyieldingly dense clay of Addison County, Vt., on the shore of Lake Champlain, where she is working on a book about gardening to attract birds and other wildlife.