Ode to Lawn Flowers

Chionodoxa

I'm quite pleased with how the Chionodoxa have begun to flower in the lawn just as the Crocus are beginning to fade.

I like them so much I finally learned how to pronounce the name Chionodoxa - "key-own-a-dox-ah".

Or glory of the snow, if you prefer, but there is no snow around here so it seems to be a rather odd common name.

Key-own-a-dox-ah.

Most of what I planted last fall are Chionodoxa gigantea, I think. Maybe.

I'm already poised to order more to plant this coming fall because I can see the hundreds I planted last fall are really just a good start.

I love the look of the flowers growing in the lawn. Seeing them makes me more determined to have a lawn with flowers through the entire growing season, if I can.

Yes, this means I must accept plants other than Poa sp. and Fistuca sp., otherwise known as blue grass and creeping red fescue, in my lawn.

I must also accept the occasional Taraxacum officinale, dandelions, in bloom, amongst other plants that others refer to collectively as "weeds".

For summertime flowering, I've sown seeds for Trifolium repens, which is that miracle nitrogen-fixing legume that goes by the common name of Dutch white clover.

And I will never pull out any Viola sp. that might bless me with their flowers. I always cringe when people talk about killing off the violets.  Life is too short and violets are too pretty to kill them off just because they can be a little aggressive in some situations.

Speaking of killing off, when you decide to plant flowers in your lawn, you can never use weed killers, herbicides, ever again on your lawn. The herbicides will kill off the flowers.

Make no mistake, I'm still going to have a lawn. I'm still going to include grass in my lawn and I'm still going to mow it. I'm just also going to work very hard at including flowers in my lawn, as many as I can grow.  It makes me happy and surely delights the garden fairies.

Just look how the garden fairies arranged these crocuses in a circle.

Crocus circle mysteriously appeared!

Believe it or not.

It is sure better to have flowers in the lawn, than no flowers at all.

More Chionodoxa in the lawn.

Don't you agree?