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Author Topic: Bulb Log 2/2008  (Read 3058 times)

David Nicholson

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Bulb Log 2/2008
« on: January 10, 2008, 08:34:41 PM »
Cracking pictures there Ian, the new camera is really paying off.

Have a great time in the upside down part of the world and haste ye back (or safe home as they say in Northern Ireland)
David Nicholson
in Devon, UK  Zone 9b
"Victims of satire who are overly defensive, who cry "foul" or just winge to high heaven, might take pause and consider what exactly it is that leaves them so sensitive, when they were happy with satire when they were on the side dishing it out"

Carlo

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Re: Bulb Log 2/2008
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2008, 08:42:29 PM »
Maggi,

Isn't there a way the Bulb Logs could be incorporated into the forum so that they are published here directly?

It seems a bit round-about to start a new subject every month for the log when it could just be published here. We can handle photos and text and it just seems a natural. The logs can still be posted in their special spot on the web site...
Carlo A. Balistrieri
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Ian Y

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Re: Bulb Log 2/2008
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2008, 09:23:38 PM »
Thanks David, I am enjoying my new camera but I have yet to put it through its full paces.
I do hope to have a good time and I will give a full report on my trip when I return, I am not taking the new camera to NZ.

Carlo, thanks for the suggestion we welcome all comments. Yes it is possible to publish the bulb log here but no we will not do it that way.

Comments on the bulb log feed back can all go under one heading such as Bulb log 2008, or a monthly, quarterly feedback etc.
Ian Young, Aberdeen North East Scotland   - 
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https://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=bulb

Martin Baxendale

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Re: Bulb Log 2/2008
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2008, 10:39:29 PM »
Ian, I agree wholeheartedly with selecting new bulb varieties to name not just because they look different but also if they're more vigorous, faster-clumping and more disease-resistant than older varieties.

It's one of the main  reasons I'm trying to breed new snowdrops (especially tetraploids and triploids). So many of the older selections have been around for so long that they're not the most vigorous of garden plants (some never were!) and some of the best ones can be painfully slow to make decent clumps. Plus most existing snowdrops are highly prone to disease if the growing conditions aren't ideal.

New seedlings, on the other hand, are almost always much more vigorous and disease-free and hopefully more able to cope with different garden conditions. Hopefully tetraploids and newere triploids will be even more amenable to garden conditions as varied as those from Gloucestershire to Aberdeen and beyond.

Unfortunately over the years some snowdrop growers seem to have almost taken pleasure in the fact that many snowdrops are not too easy to grow, which helps to keep them rather 'exclusive'. I actually heard one well-known grower say to an audience 'we don't want too many people growing them, do we!' He was half-joking, but I think there was a bit of truth in there too.

I on the other hand would like to see far more people growing and enjoying vigorous, comparatively easy and beautiful big, showy snowdrops. I don't think they should just be for the exclusive knowledgeable few who can manage to coax them into staying alive.

Here endeth the rant.

Have a great time in NZ.
Martin Baxendale, Gloucestershire, UK.

annew

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Re: Bulb Log 2/2008
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2008, 08:17:15 AM »
While I agree generally with what Martin says, let's not forget that not everyone considers that bigger=better with snowdrops. We're in danger of losing the character of the little ones that some of us like to see, and there is a definite lack of smaller cultivars suitable for troughs and smaller rock gardens.
MINIONS! I need more minions!
Anne Wright, Dryad Nursery, Yorkshire, England

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Martin Baxendale

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Re: Bulb Log 2/2008
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2008, 11:50:01 AM »
While I agree generally with what Martin says, let's not forget that not everyone considers that bigger=better with snowdrops. We're in danger of losing the character of the little ones that some of us like to see, and there is a definite lack of smaller cultivars suitable for troughs and smaller rock gardens.

Anne, I meant 'big snowdrops' comparatively speaking. I doubt you'd ever be able to breed snowdrops as big as the trumpet daffs, for example, because it's just not in their genes to get that big (wild trumpet daffs are larger than most wild snowdrops).

I just meant things like Gal. Bertram Anderson and John Gray but maybe with stronger stems, perhaps a bit taller to keep the flowers out of the mud. That sort of thing. Improvements to make them more garden-worthy (and more vigorous and disease resistant) rather than gross giants.

I think most gardeners would like a few of such strong-growing, decent-sized snowdrops in the garden to make a show that you don't have tp get on your knees to see.   ;D   But keen gardeners would obviously also want the cute little neater ones too. Just as I like a decent clump of largish daffs in the garden but also the smaller species.

I am deliberately breeding small cultivars too, mostly using G. gracilis X plicatus, which will be ideal for pots, troughs etc. I mentioned this in a snowdrop thread last year and posted a pic of a new small one. I'll see if I can find it and re-post it here, and see if I can get pics of some others this year.
Martin Baxendale, Gloucestershire, UK.

Maggi Young

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Re: Bulb Log 2/2008
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2008, 04:20:03 PM »
As Ian prepares to fly off to New Zealand for the conference there, I see the tempting details for the Trillium Symposium scheduled for this coming April... see here :
http://www.trilliumsymposium2008.org/schedule.html
April 17 – 19, 2008
Wilmington, Delaware

That will be a great event, I'm sure.
Margaret Young in Aberdeen, North East Scotland Zone 7 -ish!

Editor: International Rock Gardener e-magazine

 


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