There's a mad dash every spring in my gardens between the bright yellow globe TROLLIUS and the pretty blue SCILLA hispanica to see who's going to bloom first. More often than not the TROLLIUS win the race but this season those little blue SCILLA were the winners by two full days.

This is a flower w/ lots of names. Technical botanical name is HYACINTHOIDES hispanica (SCILLA hispanica is actually a synonym) It has more common names than I could list here.....including 'Spanish Bluebell', 'Wood Hyacinth' and 'Siberian Squill' Safe to say this wonderful little spring bloomer has been a tough one for botanists to easily classify.

No matter what they're called I eagerly wait for these guys to show up each spring. They live in the Arch Bed next to a stone walkway I built several years ago so I pass them every time I head into the gardens. From the center of tiny green spears of foliage strong 6" stalks appear- each supporting numerous little intense blue blossoms. Individual flowers are up to an inch across, composed of six blue petals w/ a single dark blue vein running down the middle of each petal. Photographed these very fragrant little gems early on a cloudy morning.