Spanish bluebells, bulbs native to the Iberian Peninsula, come in a variety of colors. White City is snowy white, with fewer flowers per stalk than most pink or blue varieties. Flower spikes measuring 12 inches tall are covered in dainty, bell-shaped flowers in April. They are good for mass planting and reliably hardy in the Chicago area. In its native habitat it is frequently found growing underneath a canopy of deciduous trees with deep root systems like oaks that permit the two species to live side by side without directly competing for soil nutrients. By the time the trees leaf out, the bulbs have completed their growth cycle for the year and have begun to go dormant. Some taxonomic authorities consider bluebells to be squills, and catalogs may still list them as Scilla hispanica.