March 16, 2025

“I like generosity wherever I find it, whether in gardens or elsewhere. I hate to see things scrimp and scrubby. Even the smallest garden can be prodigal within its limitations.”
– Vita Sackville-West, 1892-1962, English author, garden designer, and creator of Sissinghurst Gardens

Hurrah! It’s the Return of the Crinums, and a Warm Welcome to the ‘Bambino’ Dahlia!

Crinums – the more gracious cousins of the amaryllis – are once again available to bring their classic beauty to containers in the North (just bring them indoors for the winter) and flower beds in the South (where they may multiply over time). This year we;re offering three historic varieties:

Famous raspberry-red, vanilla-scented ‘Ellen Bosanquet’

Snow-white, long-blooming ‘Crinum x powellii’, hardy in zone 7a

Glorious, graceful and fragrant milk-and-wine ‘Crinum x herbertii’

We’re also delighted to offer the petite and cheerful ‘Bambino’ dahlia for the first time this spring. Perfect for the front of the border, this charmer sparkles in the garden with daisy-like white flowers that attract bees and butterflies over a long season - and it’s a generous producer of tubers as well as blossoms, making it a perfect pass-along plant for your gardening friends.

Gladiolus Aren’t Just for Cutting

It’s true that gladiolus are stunning in arrangements, but Rita (our office-manager-extraordinaire) loves them in the garden border as well. “Plant them tightly together in amongst your perennial plants,” she suggests, “they’ll form a nice tall cluster and contrast well with the rounder, lower forms of other plants” - and they come in a wide variety of colors to provide just the contrast you may be seeking. ‘Plum Tart’ is a vibrant purple while ‘Priscilla’ is a lovely combination of rose and white, ‘Trader Horn’ is a classic red…and for fragrance, try the white ‘Abyssinian’ glads. Best of all, thanks to some bumper crops, we’re able to offer many of these at 10% off their regular prices!

In Praise of Snowdrops

We enjoyed Lucy Bellamy’s article in Garden Illustrated which introduced us to the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival held every February in the Somerset market town where the ‘Snowdrop King’ James Allen worked in the 1800s, who she describes as ”one of Britain’s most recognized snowdrop breeders, and was likely the first person to breed snowdrops from wild species, by deliberately crossing and raising new hybrids.” Volunteers prepare for the festival the previous October by planting “thousands of snowdrop bulbs on roadsides, roundabouts,” schools and public areas as well as private gardens. One of the festival’s three directors, Amanda Hirst, says that “Whether you’re a galanthophile, a gardener or someone who appreciates art, poetry and beautiful things, there’s something for everyone.” You can see photographs of the 2025 Festival here as well as read winning poems submitted by both children and adults.

Here in Ann Arbor our snowdrops are starting to bloom now, just as the snow is melting, and are welcome signs that spring is on its way at last. Rabbits don’t bother them and they will naturalize over time, spreading in lawns or under deciduous trees. We offer different varieties of snowdrops each year; this year you’ll find long-petaled ‘Atkinsii’ from 1869, robust ‘Elwes’ 1875) and award-winning ‘Woronow’s’ snowdrop (1935).

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