List of early-flowering snowdrops

[emma T]

Oh well done. I'm going to try and make some peshmenii X reg-olg

[Gail]

Do you know how long the pollen stays viable if you wanted to try crosses between the autumn-flowerers and eg. a yellow February one??

[emma T]

The pollen keeps for quite a while in the freezer

[Gail]

Thank you Emma. My first reginae-olgae are out so as I have a couple of days off soon I shall collect some pollen.

[mark smyth]

Here are some photos of 'Autumn Beauty' that Michael kindly bought and posted to me

The leaves are applanate and have a hood

[Alan_b]

Thank you, Mark.  I understand that 'Autumn Beauty' was (and might still be) on sale at RHS Harlow Carr this year and the Michael you refer to is Michael Myers, who has produced a list of early-flowering snowdrops.

[Alan_b]

My bulb of what I take to be 'Autumn Belle' had leaves that were supervolute on one side and did not touch on the other side.

[Alan_b]

Still only in bud but incredibly early for a plicatus, this is 'Mary Hely-Hutchinson' in her first year with me.

[Alan_b]

'Mary Hely-Hutchinson' is now in full flower and enjoying the mild weather.


I've made a few changes to the master list which is in the first post on this topic, adding 'Frank Lesba' 'Frank Lebsa'. You can see a picture of that on on Ruben Billiet's web site here: https://passionforbulbs.wordpress.com/galanthus-autumn-flowering/#jp-carousel-264

Thanks to Maggi for correcting my misprint

[Alan_b]

Galanthus 'Autumn Beauty' is supposed to be an accidental cross between reginae olgae and a Hiemalis Group elwesii.  Until we have DNA testing for snowdrops, nobody will know for sure.  But looking down at the leaves you can see they are concave even if not totally supervolute.

[Alan_b]

Something I didn't intend to post (a copy of the first post in this topic) was here so instead here is a picture of 'Autumn Beauty' purchased this year at RHS Harlow Carr.  I think the mark on the inner petal looks a bit like a house with a pitched roof and a large door.  But the house is on fire and you can see the light green flames rising above the dark green roof.  What do you see?
 

[emma T]

Maybe another name for your list r-o 'Topaz'

[Alan_b]

Thanks, Emma, but I thought that reginae-olgae snowdrops were self-evidently early-flowering so I have not tried to list them.  I was also fearful that if you plot the number of named reginae-olgaes against time you might see that this number doubles every year or so.  Michael Myers is taking a more comprehensive approach so we should check that his list includes 'Topaz'.

My list is intended as a sort of aide-memoire so you can quickly identify which named cultivars are early-flowering without having to trawl through a book and read each detailed description.

[mark smyth]

Apologies if I've added this one already

Galanthus elwesii ex Rix. Its been out a couple of weeks
The flower height to the pedicel/ovary join is 6.5cm. The leaves are 1.5cm high x 10mm

[Alan_b]

Thanks, Mark, I don't have that one listed.  The list is in the first post on this thread and gets updated as new ones arise.

A Google search on galanthus "ex Rix" finds no relevant results.  Was this Martyn Rix?  If so,  it's not the only elwesii he distributed, e.g. http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11363.msg294866#msg294866 .  Mark, if you know who is distributing this one, can you ask them to give it a better name or a fuller description.  "Small, early, ex Rix" would be much less ambiguous than "ex Rix".