Snow bells blooming at the front entrance of my house at Bluebird Gardens.

What Do You Call These?

Of all of the spring bulbs blooming in my garden, I have to confess I love finding these. They are not the most dramatic, or even the prettiest, but their hanging white flower heads that look like tiny white bells have an air of enchantment about them. I imagine the garden fairies are nearby, playing among the green leaves. I have always called them "snow bells."

Since posting a couple of pictures of them in bloom, friends have suggested these have a different name. They grew up calling these "snow drops." For me, snow drops are the low to the ground, also white blooming bulbs that also bloom in spring but have a different flower shape.

Snowdrops are much shorter than snowbells but share the same flower color.

Snowdrops do look like they could be cousins to snowbells, don't they. Look how they share the same light green dashes at the edges of the flower petals.

In doing a quick search for the flower pictures, I found these are also called "summer snowflakes," which seems a sweet whimsical name. Leucojum aestivum also is referred to as "dewdrop" another wonderful descriptive word for the way the white, bell-shaped flowers droop.