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Common Name: snowdrop
Type: Bulb
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Zone: 3 to 7
Native Range: Europe
Garden Location: Lang Family Bird Garden
Height: 0.5 to 0.75 feet
Spread: 0.25 to 0.5 feet
Bloom Time: February
Bloom Description: White
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Flowers: Showy Flowers
Tolerates: Clay Soil, Black Walnuts, Deer
Culture
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, humusy soils in part shade. Grows particularly well under deciduous trees where exposure to the sun is full in early spring but gradually changes to part shade as the trees leaf out. Also prefers cool climates, and is somewhat short lived when grown south of USDA Zone 7. Plant bulbs 2-3” deep and space 2-3” apart in fall. In optimum growing conditions, it naturalizes well by both self-seeding and bulb offsets. Allow foliage to yellow before removing it from garden areas. If left alone, foliage disappears by late spring as bulbs go dormant.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Snowdrop is a true harbinger of spring. It usually blooms in February in the St. Louis area and will often poke its head up through snow cover if present. The common name refers to the supposed resemblance of the flowers to drops of snow. Each bulb produces 2-3 narrow (to 1/4” wide), linear, basal leaves (to 4” at flowering) and a leafless flower scape (to 6” tall) which is topped with a single, nodding, white, waxy, bell-shaped flower (1” long).
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Garden Uses
Best massed in sweeping drifts in areas where they can naturalize, such as woodland margins or in lawns under large deciduous trees. Also effective in groupings in rock gardens, border fronts, in front of flowering shrubs or along walks or paths. Mix with other early flowering bulbs such as Eranthis (winter aconite).