Galanthus April 2020

[Leena]

Some snowdrops from yeasterday. Yellow ones are my favourites, and most of them do ok also here.
Primrose Warburg and Spindlestone Surprise both do fine and increase, and I couldn't say which one is better.  PW in the picture.
Madeleine is a bit slower to increase for me.
I planted one bulb of Midas last summer from Avon Bulbs, and it seems to be a later coming up (which is good considering my climate), and small but so so lovely. 
Trymposter is increasing well, and after a slow start also More the Merrier is doing fine.

[Alan_b]

Your 'The More the Merrier' is looking surprisingly normal.  It's a messy ipoc but yours have a greater number of regular outer petals than I would have expected.  Here is a picture i took a few years ago:


Either this is a response to your different growing conditions or an impostor or two has found its way into your stock. 

[Leena]

Alan, it is very different from normal G.nivalis I have, and the outer petals have some green tips, but you are right in that it doesn't look messy.
I planted it in a place where there are no other snowdrops close (the closest is 'The Pearl' about one meter away), and others are more than two meters away, and I haven't noticed any seedlings in that bed.
Maybe it is the weather this winter, earlier it has started to flower inside the snow, and been damaged a bit, but this year we had no snow and it is doing fine.

[johnw]

Galanthus gracilis from seed cw Mt. Vermion, Greece 06/05/10 by Melvyn Jope.  Some nice ones including one showing signs of green-tipped outers, hopefully in time these will become more defined.

john

[Leena]

John, very nice! It is so rewarding to get plants from seeds, they are something that are difficult to get otherwise.

Alan, here is another picture of 'More the Merrier' from another angle. Looking more like they should, what do you think?
The second picture is 'Sibbertoft Magnet'.. another kind of Magnet.
Then 'Wendy's Gold' which in this moist bed grows well, but in my other beds very poorly.
'Diggory' grows well in anyplace I plant it.
The last picture is G.plicatus bought from Sulev Savisaar two years ago, and it is from Staryi Krym in Crimea, and collected in 1985.

[johnw]

A Happy Passover & Easter to all.

john

[Alan_b]

Alan, here is another picture of 'More the Merrier' from another angle. Looking more like they should, what do you think?

Yes, very much so; much more like what I would expect.   

Then 'Wendy's Gold' which in this moist bed grows well, but in my other beds very poorly.

My old house was quite close to Wandlebury Ring, where 'Wendy's Gold' originated.  Indeed I was once shown more or less the exact spot.  I would not have though the ground there was particularly moist and it's in the driest part of England.

[Anthony Hawkins]

Indeed Wandlebury is on a ridge of chalk hills, absolutely unretentive of moisture. But the Ring has been in human occupation for over 2000 years, and has trees, so there will be pockets and layers of humus.

[Leena]

It is so strange.
I have 'Wendy's Gold' in three places in the garden. One is on a sunny side of a plum tree, which I think is quite dry place. I have also 'Bill Clark' beside WG, and barely alive. Some centimeters away are 'Mrs Macnamara' doing fine, and also 'Falkland House' and G.plicatus from Gail doing fine and increasing.
Then I have WG in another woodland bed which is not moist, and beside it 'Spindlestone Surprise' multiplies, but WG  decreases.
In the moist (and acid!) woodland bed in my picture above WG does best, so I don't know what to think.
I could add lime to the plum tree bed, to see if it helps!

[Cod]

A late arrival in sunny Kent. I think a plicatus with a little green on the outer.

[Leena]

I have 'Wendy's Gold' in three places in the garden. One is on a sunny side of a plum tree, which I think is quite dry place. I have also 'Bill Clark' beside WG, and barely alive. Some centimeters away are 'Mrs Macnamara' doing fine, and also 'Falkland House' and G.plicatus from Gail doing fine and increasing.
Then I have WG in another woodland bed which is not moist, and beside it 'Spindlestone Surprise' multiplies, but WG  decreases.
In the moist (and acid!) woodland bed in my picture above WG does best, so I don't know what to think.
I could add lime to the plum tree bed, to see if it helps!

In the first picture is my 'Wendy's Gold' under the plum tree. I planted two bulbs in 2013, and this is what they look now, not doing well. Behind them is unnamed G.plicatus which I planted the same year, and I have even divided it once since.
The second picture is from another bed where WG doesn't do well (it is behind the Helleborus niger so it doesn't show, but it has only leaves this year). On the right is 'Primrose Warburg', and on the left 'Spindlestone Surprise', and in the middle G.nivalis 'Lutescens', not doing so well either. All planted in 2015 one bulb each, so SS and PW do fine, while WG or 'Lutescens' not so good. Why, I don't know.
The third picture is 'Spindlestone Surprise' in another bed, thriving also there.
Fourth picture is 'Poculi Perfect', really perfect.
The last picture is 'Lapwing', still flowering. All photos are from yesterday.

[Leena]

Some late snowdrops.
'E.A.Bowles' is still flowering and the seed pods are looking promising.. I hope.
'Glenchantress', which I like a lot, but I planted 'Fieldgate Tiffany' in a wrong place, it should be in front of a bed with no other plants to smother it.