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Amaryllidaceae FAMILY Least Concern

Leucojum aestivum

Leucojum aestivum

Edibility
1/5
Medicinal
3/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitBulb
Growth—

Leucojum aestivum is a fairly hardy plant and will withstand soil temperatures down to at least -5°c[1]. Easily grown in organically rich, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade and adapts well to clay soils[2]. Easily grown in ordinary garden soil[3]. It does well in a moist heavy soil in full sun or partial shade[3, 4, 5, 6] and is happy in water-logged conditions[6]. Plants can be naturalized in damp rough grass[7]. Flowers are produced within 4 - 5 years from seed. The seedpods are swollen and filled with air so that they can be dispersed by floating in water[6]. Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer or rabbits[8].

Propagation

The seed is best sown as soon as it is ripe in a well-drained soil in a cold frame. Stored seed requires 2 - 3 months cold stratification, it should then germinate in 2 - 4 weeks at 10°c[9]. Sow the seed thinly so that the seedlings can be allowed to grow on undisturbed in the pots for their first year of growth. Give them an occasional weak liquid feed to ensure that they do not become nutrient deficient. Pot up the small bulbs when dormant, planting 2 - 3 bulbs in each pot. Grow them on for another 2 - 3 years before planting them out. Division of offsets in September/early autumn. It is best done as soon as the foliage ripens[3]. Scooping the bulbs. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Leucojum+aestivum>

Pollinators

Bees

References

  1. [1]The New Plantsman. Volume 1, 1994. — Matthews. V. · Royal Horticultural Society · 1994 · ISBN 1352-4186 ↩︎A quarterly magazine, it has articles on Himalayacalamus hookerianus, hardy Euphorbias and an excellent article on Hippophae spp.
  2. [2]KemperCentreForHomeGardeningPlantFinder — Missouri Botanical Garden · http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/ ↩︎Basic cultivation details, plant uses, habitat etc for several thousand species of plants, mainly from the temperate zone.
  3. [3]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  4. [4]Flora of the British Isles. — Clapham, Tutin and Warburg. · Cambridge University Press · 1962 · ISBN - ↩︎A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.
  5. [5]Shade Plants for Garden and Woodland. — Brown. ↩︎
  6. [6]Bulbs — Phillips. R. and Rix. M. · Pan Books · 1989 · ISBN 0-330-30253-1 ↩︎Superbly illustrated, it gives brief details on cultivation and native habitat.
  7. [7]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  8. [8]Perennial Garden Plants — Thomas. G. S. · J. M. Dent & Sons, London. · 1990 · ISBN 0 460 86048 8 ↩︎A concise guide to a wide range of perennials. Lots of cultivation guides, very little on plant uses.
  9. [9]Growing from Seed. Volume 2. — Rice. G. (Editor) · Thompson and Morgan. · 1988 · ISBN - ↩︎Very readable magazine with lots of information on propagation. An interesting article on Ensete ventricosum.
  10. [10]Plant Sources of Galanthamine: Phytochemical and Biotechnological Aspects — Berkov S. et al · 2009 · https://doi.org/10.1080/13102818.2009.10817633 · ISBN 1310-2818 ↩︎
  11. [11]IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — http://www.iucnredlist.org/ ↩︎A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat.
  12. [12]Tanaka's Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World. — Tanaka. T. & Nakao S. · Keigaku Publishing; Tokyo · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎The most comprehensive list of edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.
  13. [13]Galanthamine from snowdrop—the development of a modern drug against Alzheimer’s disease from local Caucasian knowled — Heinrich M. & Teoh H.L. · 2004 · http://10.1016/j.jep.2004.02.012 ↩︎