Bulb ID please

[mark smyth]

Can anyone name this plant for me? I bought it last year and didnt write a label. I just noticed it in flower and bud this morning.

[tonyg]

looks like Scilla bifolia 'Rosea'

[Carlo]

I'm with Tony on this one.

[mark smyth]

Thanks

[DaveM]

I planted a few bulbs of this pretty little thing out a few years ago. It sets copious amounts of seed............ Yep, it's trying for a take-over bid in parts.....

[mark smyth]

maybe but it's a lovely weed.

[Carlo]

AND it just opened here today...head of its blue/purple relation...

[Anthony Darby]

I have the blue one. Not likely to take over my garden. The pink Chionodoxa forbesii on the other hand........

[gote]

The pink scilla bifolia has never seeded itself in my place. The blue does but not much. That is the earliest blue bulb here. so it is very welcome.
(Mizcenkoana or what its name is as early but not as blue)
It is the same with chinodoxa. The pink does not seed itself - at least not as pink.
The blue one does however as I showed earlier this year.
The variations are amazing. A splitter could make out half a dozen "species" out of our lawn population.
We now have snow on the ground 1 cm or so.
Göte
 

[Paul T]

Never had seed here on either the Scilla bifolia or the Chionodoxa.  My pink bifolia has I think gone to the great garden in the sky unfortunately, which is a real shame.  The blue does OK for me but would do better if I move it somehere a little moister I think.  A friend just around the corner has hers in the ground and they're just amazing when in flower as this solid mass of blue!!  Glorious colour to them.  Can handle slightly weedy things like that quite easily, when they flower as nicely as these. 

[DaveM]

A few pix of Scilla bifolia rosea that has seeded itself around parts of the garden. First pic was taken a week or so ago and the others today; pity the lovely pink colour of the buds fades so in the mature flower. I originally planted just in one place (pic 2),  but it has turned up in a number of places (eg pic 5). I regularly cut off as many seed heads as possible, so that I can slow down the spread! Close-ups of the flowers also included.

[Maggi Young]

As you say, David, a pity the pink colour fades so much.... this is the case with nearly all the pink rhododendrons, too.... what is it about pink that makes it such a fleeting colour?

[Paul T]

Maggi,

Try Ipheion 'Charlotte Bishop' if you want a strong pink that lasts well.  First flowers of the season are always a wishy washy colour, but the further into the season it gets the stronger the colour.  Not sure if it is a product of our heat here or not, but the flowers later on end up almost a flourescent pink.  Good strong bright colour.

Dave,

Seeing your "weed" makes me lament losing mine even more.  Mine was definitely suffering from being too dry I'd imagine, which is why in your damper climate it thrives and spreads.  I've lost a few things to neglect the last few years while I was ill.