Glory of the snow, the common name for Chionodoxa sardensis, are a comparatively newly introduced species of garden plant, found in the 19th century after being discovered on Crete. They multiply readily by both seed and bulblet, and are sometimes planted en masse. Seemingly summoned by melting snow, they push through, their foliage through the earth, their inflorescences to the sky.
Blooming with Forsythia, Chionodoxa sardensis is one of the first blue flowers of the season, and while all plants are equally special, perhaps the unique specialness of C. sardensis is partially in its shades of blue color. Blue is both cherished as a foliage color and yet is difficult to establish in a garden in a flower. Plants must go through a series of molecular modifications to produce a blue flower, and maybe as it is equally appealing to pollinators as more “naturally occurring” flower colors, plants might not have had to have been blue at all to survive better than others. A sign of intelligent design perhaps, or maybe chance. Perhaps we do not understand the full benefits of blue coloration yet. It might be worth mentioning here that it has been considered that there in fact is not even a “true blue,” in the garden.
The color of C. sardensis starts deep, and luscious. It envelops the viewer like fabric, and invites a touch, if only it were not so delicate. Velvety and iridescent, it has been called “gentian blue,” which is a specified color of a Porsche as well. The petals open to a paler blue. Bluer overall perhaps than Muscari, while there may not be a true blue (discovered yet) these blues of C. sardensis might have been a choice of God’s secret garden.
https://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/the-science-of-blue-flowers
The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture, 1981