Galanthus reginae-olgae

[KentGardener]

Blimey - sorry to hear that Martin - my 12 months is nothing to compared to 48 months waiting.  Let me know where you are and I can send any surplus slug pellets I have to you ready for next year!

I find that I keep an eye on things for months and months - then, just when I turn my back for 5 minutes something horrid happens (be it slugs or mice or squirels or pheasants - or whatever little blighters ate the TileBarn Jamies!).

Today the holidaying cats have left my house after enjoying a four week vacation and gone back to their permanent home.  I have enjoyed their company but am glad they have departed before the majority of snowdrops start to break the surface in earnest.  I looked after the cats last February for a month and swore 'never again' at that time of year after experiencing the damage that 8 cat paws scratching away can do!

cheers

John

[Sandy Leven]

Here I hope is the picture of glanthus reginae-olgae 'Hyde Lodge'

[KentGardener]

Well done Sandy - I can see the picture now - very nice it is too.

thanks

John

[mark smyth]

very nice Sandy. Does it always have two flowers per scape?

[Anthony Darby]

I dug up my 'Tilebarn Jamie'. Bulb is fine, but the flowers are just not extending. Have repotted in 'gritty compost' and plonked it in the greenhouse. Growth is slowing down in there, but another pot of Narcissus viridiflorus has a flowering stem, so the long hot summer has been productive.

[Geebo]

Hi to All,
Just suggesting to look out for the gold finches,???they love to pick out the young buds.
They got to town on my Hellebores orient,last spring,too late before I noticed the buggers.

[SueG]

Hi Ian
it may not be mice but field voles - due to their actions I've given up growing trilliums as it is utterly disheartening to discover the little B******s have eaten through the new stem about a centimeter above ground level.
It is a particular problem if you're near to rough grass land, in my case a neglected lawn in the garden next door.

however now the neighbours have concreted over the garden and built a HUGE shed - I may try again.

Sue

[mark smyth]

 are you sure the are Goldfinches

[Geebo]

Well Mark,how could we ever be sure what happen,unless we have seen it he,only suggesting after what went on here,see them in action on a small apple tree, stripping all the blossom in a few hours,and last spring they left me just the remains of promising Hellebores,Sure it could be vermin to,but if there Golfinches  present look no further.
Ever grown Dierama from seed? watch out for the large vermin just as the gemination get started,the come from all directions to feest on the young sprouts,and leave you with the remains of the seed box,usualy upside down,overnight
Geebo.

[fermi de Sousa]

That's bad news for us in central Victoria as European Goldfinches are one of the introduced bird species in our garden! Actually they appear to be only visitors, especially around water during the summer. I must check if they visit during "Snowdrop Season"; our main bird pests are the sulphur-crested cockatoos which have taken to shredding the Daffodils as they come into flower!
cheers
fermi
in Central Victoria where the smoke haze from distant bush-fires has reduced visibility to around 300m!

[mark smyth]

Geebo it's usually Bullfinches that take buds off trees

[Geebo]

Hi Mark,
You so right,after getting up this morning,i know my Belgium ornitology had left me confused,In Belgium the Bullfinch is known as Goldfinch,and the goldfinch here is know in Belgium as aThistelfinch,hence they feed on the seeds of the thistel and  red spotted heads,from there my mistake,I would like to appologise and put it right.Still the bullfinch is wors than the blackbird.
Geebo,

[snowdropman]

In the summer I received a bulb of Galanthus reginae-olgae 'Tilebarn Jamie' and planted it next to a trough in a south facing gravel border. Two flower buds have been sitting at soil level now for several weeks but refuse to elongate. Should I 'throw in the towel' and accept that this snowdrop won't grow outside in sunny D or should I give it some more cold autumn weather? 

Hi Anthony - I wonder if the problem comes down to growing conditions?

In their natural habitat, reginae-olgae seem to favour north facing, shady places, often between rocks where their roots will be cool and where some dampness is always available.

I wonder therefore if dampness, or rather the lack of it in our recent very dry summers, is at least part of the answer to the problem you have experienced?

I have just today heard of at least one well known grower who keeps his r-o's damp all the year round and has had, what were described to me as, 'fantastic results'.

I cannot speak for conditions in your part of Scotland, but here in the south of England we have had 18 months of almost drought like conditions - in previous years my r-o's (and I grow about about 20 different forms of them) have generally performed well with no significant problems noticed, either with flowering, or with reproduction - this year however, after the 2nd very dry summer in a row (with a dry winter in the middle, thrown in for good measure!), I found that performance was more mixed.

I had one clump of 'Tilebarn Jamie' flowering quite normally, whilst another did no more than produce its leaves then go no further. I also had some other forms of r-o where, like you, the flower buds barely struggled above the surface and then just stopped.

Interestingly these flower buds, on very stunted stems, did eventually come into flower within the past week, but of course a month or more later than would normally be the case.

I wonder if this long drawn out flowering process is as a result of the heavy rains we had in October thru December, after an almost rainless summer, belatedly creating the right conditions of damp, combined with the milder December temperatures that we have been experiencing, belatedly encouraging growth.

As a matter of routine, I always put a thick layer of alpine grit down directly over my snowdrops (mainly just to help keep track of them) - in future, I intend to both increase the thickness of this layer, so that it acts more like a mulch, & also to follow the practise of the well known grower and to make sure that I keep the r-o's damp throughout the year.

It will be interesting to see if this has any impact upon performance next year!

[Anthony Darby]

You could be right Chris? Normally our summers are quite wet, but last summer was an exception with a week of temperatures above 30oC (first time since 1976). I can grow trilliums and cypripediums in full sun here, but as my snowdrop was not well established it may have suffered? We are now having gales of over 80mph with driving rain and Hogmanay has been cancelled in Glasgow and Edinburgh (and I suspect Stirling?), with 3 centimetres of water on my lawn!

[mark smyth]

events in Belfast and I guess elsewhere in N Ireland have been cancelled. Belfast City Council was ready to put on a £250000 concert in the city centre.