VIRGINIA BLUE BELLS - WONDERFUL NODDING BLOOMS

VIRGINIA BLUE BELLS are wonderful nodding blue blooms that can be naturalized or interplanted among your daffodils, tulips, bleeding hearts, or rhododendruns.  They especially go well with hostas and ferns, which will fill in and be attractive after the Blue Bells go dormant.  They are lovely planted in rock gardens.  They are a very low maintenance perennial.  They tolerate wet soil, light shade, mild winters, or the most severe of winters.  They are medium height--about a foot to 2 feet tall, and bloom in March or April, depending where you have them planted.  They prefer moist, humus-rich soil, and naturalize well.  To propagate, sow seeds immediately after they ripen, or divide plants during their summer dormancy.  (Be sure to mark them in the spring so you can find them, though).  Slugs love Virginia Blue Bells, so make sure you put down a slug bait, or hand-pick slugs in night or early morning to protect their luscious leaves.  I love their emerging foliage right now--a beautiful bright green with purple veining, with purple buds.  By the end of the month, the plants will be lush, and the buds will be ready to bloom with flowers that start off purple-pink, then turn a beautiful shade of true blue.  I love this perennial!