G. 'Upcher'

[apothecary]

The weather has finally turned here and it's almost like summer.  I have to admit, I abandoned the snowdrops for a few days to do some 'real' gardening in my own patch.  I'm just catching up again and I've put together these pics of what I presume must be 'Upcher' although our original records say it came in as 'Updier'.  I was worried it was an unofficial name for a long time and then I found what looked to be an original hand-written label for the plant and it has to be said it did look like 'Updier', but I'm sure it was meant to read 'Upcher'.  This is also from the Warburg collection.

[Martin Baxendale]

Hi Kristina.

I don't think too many people grow Gal. plicatus 'Upcher' these days as it's a fairly ordinary-looking selection from plicatus with nothing really special to distinguish it from a lot of other plicatus. The last time I saw it was a small and dwindling clump in the garden at Foxgrove Nursery near Newbury (who specialise in snowdrops). And that was quite a few years ago.

From memory, I'd say your snowdrop looks okay to be Upcher, and I'm pretty sure Primrose Warburg would have had it labelled correctly.

Hope you're enjoying all the fantastic sunshine, especially amongst the snowdrops - a really bright sunny day can totally transform a snowdrop patch when the 'drops open up properly and put on a proper display.

[snowdropman]

I don't think too many people grow Gal. plicatus 'Upcher' these days

Martin - I did until this morning! Each year that I have had this form the leaves have always looked a bit dodgy after it has flowered and this year they were particularly bad, looking distinctly streaky! This is one of those plicates that are said to be prone to virus and I finally decided that I could not stand the uncertainty any more, so I dug out my clump & disposed of it!

Kristina - I agree with Martin that what you have looks okay for g. plicatus 'Upcher'.

[Martin Baxendale]

Hi Chris. Yes, the small clump Audrey showed me at Foxgove years ago was looking pretty unhealthy and she didn't think she'd be able to keep it going much longer, or that it was really worth the struggle any more. One of those old plicatus forms that's suffered from old age - I think they pretty much all get virus eventually; just some of them cope with it better and struggle on. Gerard Parker's another that's a martyr to virus. I remember Colin Mason was devastated when he had to get rid of the Gerard Parkers from his garden because they'd become virused.

[apothecary]

Thanks for that, I'll bear the virus issues in mind too although, at the moment, I haven't noticed anything particularly unhealthy looking about them.