Floriferous Snowdrops - 3 or more flowers per bulb.

[Alan_b]

I thought I might try to compile a list of those snowdrops that frequently produce 3 or more flowers from each bulb.  I think this is an admirable quality that deserves more attention than it seems to get.  I am going to need help on this topic, however, as I can only bring one to mind so far.

Galanthus 'Miss Willmott' hybrid, producing 2, 3 or 4 scapes per bulb.
Galnthus plicatus 'Trinity'.  From Avon Bulbs who describe it thus "Trinity - A stunning new G.plicatus which always produces two or three scapes from large bulbs. Standing bolt upright, the flowers have a wonderful green inner plus outers marked with what resembles a pale green scallop shell."

Other suggestions welcome.

 

[art600]

Alan

Miss Willmott has produced 5 flowers - Dean has one this year

[Maggi Young]

To know how many flowers are coming from one bulb,  am I right in thinking you'd need to be aware how many leaves  the type was expected to have and to be sure there was only one bulb you were counting from?

[Leena]

This is interesting!
How is 'Melanie Broughton' growing for others?
I planted one big bulb August 2014, it seemed then like one bulb and I didn't see outside that it would be dividing itself, but in the spring 2015 the shoots came out like this. Is this because it had divided or is this typical for it? It hadn't come up yet this year before the cold and snow came so I don't know yet how it is this year.

[Alan_b]

Maggi, I think that most of the time it isn't too hard to tell the difference between multiple scapes emerging from the same bulb and two noses in close proximity.  But you'll only be completely sure when you lift the bulb.     

[emma T]

One from Avon named 'Trinity ' , 3 flowers per bulb and green tipped outers to boot

[Graeme]

not sure where to post this but - I am looking for between 1,000 and 3,000 normal snowdrop bulbs to plant in a new area we are creating.  Can anyone suggest the best place to obtain them from in the green?

[Tim Harberd]

Hi Alan,
   I would agree that collecting a list of floriferous cultivars would be a good thing to do. However I'm not convinced that recording 'flowers per bulb' is the way to go. Partly because I don't count all my bulbs every year (!) And partly because if I had a bulb which produced 3 flowers this year I would be unimpressed if it was still a single bulb producing 3 flowers in a couple of seasons time.
   As the pictures from John Grimshaw show (posted by Maggi 8th Jan on the Chipping Topic):  First year flowering is almost completely out of the new owners control (Well,.... you could kill it!)

   So, I'd be interested to hear about cultivars which out perform the following series:
1 flower year one
3 flowers year two
9 flowers year three
   and… I wouldn't be bothered about how many bulbs they chose to do it from.

Tim DH

[Anne Repnow]

I usually take a photo of the bulbs I buy. Here are some drops of which single bulbs were planted  and more than 2 scapes were produced in the first season (or which proved very floriferous in the second). It is possible, that these bulbs were divided - beneath their tunic and thus unseen by me.

- G. 'Fieldgate Fugue' (3 flowers first season)
- G. 'Ivy Cottage Corporal' (1 flower first season, 6 flowers second season)
- G. 'Sutton Courtenay' (7 flowers first season!)
- G. plicatus E.A. Bowles (2 flowers first season, 5 flowers second season)
- G. 'Percy Picton' (4 flowers first season)

[Alan_b]

Thanks, Emma, I'll add that one to what I can now call a list (as there is more than one entry).

Tim, I take your point but a snowdrop that might be a good doer for one person may perform poorly for someone else.  Many of my snowdrops seem to progress by fits and starts and will have years when they bulk-up very rapidly and other years when they make little progress.  'Green Light', a snowdrop I have studied since its inception, certainly does this.  But a snowdrop that manages to produce more than two scapes even a proportion of the time is exceptional.  A few snowdrops are renowned for this but I'm not aware that anybody has taken the trouble to list them collectively.  That's what I would like to do here.

Bolinopsis, I'll read-up on the ones in your list. 

 

[Mariette]

Safest is to choose those varieties producing 3 or more stalks from one pair or set of leaves. Yesterday I saw ´Wolfgang´s Gold´ with three buds emerging between two leaves.

[Anne Repnow]

Indeed, Mariette, that would probably be the best way of doing it. It would eliminate those fat bulbs that have already devided inside (probably all those I listed above  ).

[Alan_b]

Safest is to choose those varieties producing 3 or more stalks from one pair or set of leaves.

I agree completely.  Leena's 'Melanie Broughton' must surely have divided internally because there are five distinct 'shoots' all spaced apart.  It is relatively common (yet tremendously gratifying) when a snowdrop bulb does that.  I occasionally observe a later stage of development with multiple bulbs still attached at the basal plate.

Yesterday I saw ´Wolfgang´s Gold´ with three buds emerging between two leaves.

That is what I'm after - but it needs to happen regularly, not just once in a blue moon.  I know nothing whatsoever about 'Wolfgang's Gold' so I won't add it to my list until someone can vouch for its regularity in producing three scapes.

[Leena]

Leena's 'Melanie Broughton' must surely have divided internally because there are five distinct 'shoots' all spaced apart.  It is relatively common (yet tremendously gratifying) when a snowdrop bulb does that.

Yes, you must be right Alan. 
I'll try to look for bulbs which behave like Mariette suggested.

[Alan_b]

Yes, you must be right Alan. 

Let's say that I am probably right.  You would only know for sure by lifting the bulb to see what is going on under the ground.  I have certainly never ever lifted a snowdrop bulb that has multiple shoots (as in Leena's picture) to find that they have all emerged from a single nose on a single bulb.