🌿Summer Snowflake blooming on Shaw Island 🌿

Summer Snowflakes
(Leucojum aestivum)
Blooming this day of
5 April 2020
Gatehouse Garden,
on Shaw Island, WA.

The so-called summer snowflake, Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant' is in full bloom by early April, and may run on into May. The common name is a misnomer because it blooms in spring, and has gone dormant by summer. It is deer resistant, and a great naturalizer for Z 4-8. 
      In spring, leafless stems that are up to 36" in height bear up to 8-bell shaped, slightly chocolate-scented, white flowers. 'Gravetye Giant' is a standout of this genus because of its vigor. It is a more robust, taller, and heavier bloomer. The summer snowflake prefers to not dry out completely in summer while dormant. It never flops, according to Christopher Lloyd.
      The Elizabeth Miller Library includes this bulb on their list of Great Plant Picks. Best of all, gardener Gwen Yansen, one of the first to grow this plant on Shaw Island, had fat clumps of Leucojum in her perennial flower beds and was generous about sharing to those friends without. 

🌿 Summer Snowflakes for a Happy Spring 🌿

"A garden is not a picture,

but a language, 

which is of course, 

the major art of life."

American writer, Henry Mitchell

Summer Snowflake
Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant'
Descendants of bulbs shared by
island gardener, Gwendolyn Yansen.
BOTH resistant to deer and listed on the
Great Plant Pick list from the
Miller Library, Seattle.
Anno 12 April 2019,
standing up to
the rain in the Gatehouse woods.