Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: no longer a member on January 20, 2008, 02:33:39 PM
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changing the name of this thread to reflect the content
This person is no longer a registered forum member
my yellow sandersii coming into flower i bought it last year so first time.
but its mostly green!
even more dissapointing my blonde inge which should have yellow iner markings is also green!
they look like a ordinary nivalis.
is this becuase i repot them each year?
is the disturbance cuasing this?
there all grown in pots.
rob
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nivalis Blonde Inge is known for dropping the yellow mark when moved. nivalis Sandersii should be yellow no matter what. Did you see it in flower when you bought it?
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As Mark says it's best to keep Blonde Inge without disturbing it if you can. My new bulb of Blond Inge was greenish last year :-\and so I hope this year she will show her true colours ;D
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my Blonde Inge flowered last year for the first time, and after planting,and she was as it should be,yellow. :)
even my Lady Elphinstone was yellow the first year(I planted her in slightly acid soil). ;D
I do not plan to repot every year,do you all repot every year? ???
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No I don't repot every year, or plan to! The important thing is to keep them well fed I think and just a new top dressing during the time they are below ground is all I intend to do for the ones in pots. I have some in lattice pots in the garden and time overtook me so the soil had settled and I hadn't top dressed. They look a bit odd growing a little below ground level but I didn't want to put anything more on once the leaves were clear of the sheath...better husbandry next year!
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Rob, as Mark has said, g. nivalis sandersii group should be yellow no matter what, so it sounds as if what you were supplied may well have been ordinary nivalis.
There was some discussion on this Forum last year about the pitfalls of buying snowdrops on Ebay - there are some good, reliable, sellers on Ebay but there have also been some bad experiences reported - whether this was due to the ignorance of the Ebay seller, or something else, is difficult to say.
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Rob why dont you make yourself some hyper tufa troughs to keep your collection permanantly planted?
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Stufff hypertufa troughs, Rob, why not make some fish-box troughs.... far superior! 8)
See here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/feature/fishbox/troughs.html !!
and here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/feature/back%20to%20troughs/backtroughs.html
and also here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/feature/chris/troughs.html
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:P LOL
Either way make a deep one so you can plant your bulbs deep
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vigerous leads, I think, to a richer yellow. We/I expect a photo tomorrow no matter what the weather
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Rob, go to B&Q or one ofthose types of place and look for the little sample pots they have of Masonery paint. get two or three colours, choose according to you personal taste, or to match your local stone walls etc.. Click the "fig. no" markings in Ian's article to see pix of the process... it is great fun and very effective. Gives plants a good hoem, nice and cosy and fit for long term living.
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We use the little pots of Sandtex masonry paint,, they cost about £1 each and three little pots of different colours will cover about two or three large polystyrene boxes.
If you can't lay hands on an electric paint stripper to seal the carved surface , then you can use a hairdryer, on the hot setting.. it takes a little longer than the paint stripper( which only takes seconds, or the whole thing melts!) Be sure and poke some drainage holes underneath... use a stick and poke from the outside of the box to the inside.. use a quick stabbing motion for a clean drainage hole.
Use a stippling motion for spreading the paint as well as applying the paint, you get a much more natural stoney look that wa... do not brush on the paint like painting a wall.
Hope this helps!
M
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Snowdrops......in pots.......??? ??? Only seedlings or those I haven't planted out yet. I'm thinking of redoing my snowdrop border and planting them in pond lily baskets plunged to keep track of them.
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and I'm doing the opposite, Anthony! Mine are coming out to get a good free root run
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and I'm doing the opposite, Anthony! Mine are coming out to get a good free root run
Aw shucks!
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I am using the pond baskets for all my snowies because I am scared of losing them / mixing them up. Until there are more than 5 bulbs of each, then they come out and go in the ground.
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John
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Have you ever lifted a latice pots with bulbs in full growth or nearing the end of the season? They are always root bound with only some of the roots escaping in to the soil
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and I plan to have all drops in the ground in pond baskets and also in pots in my wall-greenhouse.
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I really dont think snowdrops like to be cramped in pots. I keep mine for one year in a pot so I can get a good photo. There is more chance in a pot of slug damage, water at the base of the pot when sitting on the ground ....
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I'm with John, build them up in the lattice pots until you have five or so and then you can spread them about and keep a reserve in a pot. If you dig them up at the end of the season when the foliage is just about gone it doesn' matter if the roots are a tad congested surely as they will be making new ones in their new position? Or is there another pitfall?
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Thought I would make a small contribution instead of just enjoying your discussions.
I have Sandersii from more than one source, in various locations in my garden and they are all a bit more lime green than yellow this year, I am blaming the weather.
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Hi Carol
thanks for posting your experience with the colour of Sandersii. I am sure this will put Rob's mind at rest, knowing that they can occasionally come up lime green rather than yellow.
with best wishes
John
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Hello, Carole! I reckon that most of the yellow-marked snowies are like the yellow-marked Leucojums... that is, liable to vary from year to year and season to season. Keeps us interested ,though, I suppose!! :-X
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About the box, the application of heat , whether from a paint stripping gun or a hairdryer, is just to seal the surface after carving/sculpting... otherwise the polystyrene granules continue to be loose and rub off, after the heat sealing, the surface of the box becomes almost "glazed" and very strong. Whole process of heat sealing takes very little time and then box can be painted right away. Apply paint thinly.. this not only looks better but dries quiker! You do want to get all the white covered, of course, and to get a nice natural colour effect, but this can be acheived without a thick gloopy layer of paint. At this time of year, it'll take a while to dry in a shed or perhaps you could sit iti in the house for a while if that is convenient.
Cheers,
Maggi
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Yes, you're confused!! You carve into the surface to roughen it and stop it looking like polysytyrene, your harden it/seal it with the heat gun to glaze the surface and then you paint it, using dobs of different colours all over, blended in to give a stone effect.... now, are you with me? ::)
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so the heat hardens the poly?
I think he's got it, by george, he's got it!! ::) ;) ;D ;D
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And do you put the paint on before or after you use the blowtorch?
Paddy
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Artistic, Rob.
You know, the snowdrops couldn't care less what it looks like as long as the growing conditions inside are to their liking.
Looks well though.
Paddy
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Not bad at all for a first attempt Rob !
You might have filled the trough a little bit more though - with the compost settling I fear your drops will be a little low.
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Paddy! Cliff! Behave yourselves, please!
Rob, that is a most acceptable first effort. 8) :D
I think a little more heat sealing might have been called for, I think I detect a little too much "bobbliness" around the top edge. Not the end of the world though.
As Luc says, a little more soil would be better, since levels in troughs do tend to settle a good deal.
Now, that's a good big trough you've got there, so moving it is going to require gentle handling.
NEVER pull it by the top edges/ sides !! That will bust it, for sure. If however, you take the effort to take a good hold of it when you try to move it, like it was full of something very heavy and very fragile, then you will find it can be moved quite readily. For small distances, we lift it gradually onto a tough piece of sacking or such, and then drag it to its new spot. If the contents are very heavy, then sliding it onto a board is a good idea. With a bit of care these troughs can last for a very long time... our oldest ones must be about fifteen or more now, maybe more! Nearly as old as you, Rob ::)
You have made a great trough for your snowies... I bet it won't be the last one you make! If Ian is looking in on the Forum from NZ, he'd be delighted with your work.
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glad to put the spark in the mind. What's your planting mix?
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Nice trough Rob
However....
Here are pictures of my 'Wendy's Gold' in February 2004 and today. Not wishing to risk providing more of a meal for some insect I moved it from my garden to a pot in 2004 just after I took the first photograph; ordinary compost, no added drainage. In 2005 it produced some leaves and in 2006 it produced two flowers and I moved the large bulb(s) back into the garden but there were three small offsets I left behind in the pot. Now in 2008 these have reached flowering size. I don't think I ever changed the compost (and you can see it is getting a bit low in the pot) and I'm not sure if I ever fed it (it might have had a bit of Tomorite when I treated some nearby snowdrops). But the bulbs seem to be doing fine. There is a lot of superstition around growing snowdrops in pots but I have always found it very easy and very successful. Wendy's Gold is not the only snowdrop I have saved by rescuing it from the dangers of my garden into the safety of a pot.
P.S. If you look carefully, you can see how much I paid for the original bulb in 2003!
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Encouraging words, Alan and good to see your rescued bulbs doing well.
What is a trough though, if not a nice big pot? ::) 8)
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Encouraging words, Alan and good to see your rescued bulbs doing well.
What is a trough though, if not a nice big pot? ::) 8)
Indeed: although I stuff my pots under the climbing hydrangea to see them through the summer - might be harder to do that with a trough.
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There is a lot of superstition around growing snowdrops in pots but I have always found it very easy and very successful.
I heard this afternoon that Ron Mackenzie grows quite a few in 12" pots although he has a new bit of garden where they are lined out like vegetables!
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My 'Wendy's Gold' is growing well in what looks like pure clay. Clumping up nicely with 8 flowering shoots this year. I have given several away and only started with a bulb from Ian Christie 6 years ago.
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Avon's special list 2008 has Wendy for £25!!!
At the Gala in Shropshire I bought 3 Wendy in a pot for £15. At the end of the day so many good bulbs are left that no-one wants. Everyone is blinkered and wants the same thing. It's almost the higher the price tag the more desireable
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Clumping up nicely with 8 flowering shoots this year.
I was speaking to someone this afternoon Anthony who spreads her clump every couple of years and has a decent number of spares as a consequence.
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Rob can you take a close photo of your nivalis Sandersii.
If you smile nicely I might be able to let you have a bulb of 'Wendy's Gold'
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My clumps of plicatus never look congested like nivalis.
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Panic over then Rob, I reckon it's a good'un :D
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Robin Hall confines his nivalis Sandersii to a stone trough in acid conditions. This produces very yellow blooms
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Robin Hall confines his nivalis Sandersii to a stone trough in acid conditions. This produces very yellow blooms
I wondered what happened to him after Jimmy McGregor passed away? ::)
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Robin Hall (Scottish Folk Singer ) died in 1998, Anthony... as far as I know, Jimmy MacGregor is still very busy, sininging less but walking the hills, making programmes about that and other such stuff! :P
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I'm of course refering to Primrose Hill's Robin Hall
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Robin Hall (Scottish Folk Singer ) died in 1998, Anthony... as far as I know, Jimmy MacGregor is still very busy, sininging less but walking the hills, making programmes about that and other such stuff! :P
Ah yes. The wrong way round. :-[ I remember my sister getting Jimmy's autograph in the cafe at Queen Street railway station in Glasgow in the 70s.
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This is perhaps the wrong place to post but Maggi brought up the fish boxes (which I have never seen here in Sweden)
I use wooden boxes. They are very sturdy, easy to lift. last for ever and function well. Of course they do not look more like an antique stone through than a plastic pot looks like an antique urn ;).
I buy 150*20mm board of impregnated wood. Six pieces 310mm long will make a box with three 3mm slits in the bottom. I use 16 stainless steel screws to keep them together. (24 if I feel magnanimous)
In the bottom, I put a layer of coarse gravel so that drainage works also between the slits.
If someone is interested I could try to post a picture.
Göte
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This is perhaps the wrong place to post but Maggi brought up the fish boxes (which I have never seen here in Sweden)
I use wooden boxes. They are very sturdy, easy to lift. last for ever and function well. Of course they do not look more like an antique stone through than a plastic pot looks like an antique urn ;).
I buy 150*20mm board of impregnated wood. Six pieces 310mm long will make a box with three 3mm slits in the bottom. I use 16 stainless steel screws to keep them together. (24 if I feel magnanimous)
In the bottom, I put a layer of coarse gravel so that drainage works also between the slits.
If someone is interested I could try to post a picture.
Göte
Gote, yes, please do post a picture.
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I hope the picture works! this is my first attempt in the new list I believe.
The cross section of the board can, of course, be varied. I use approximately 150*20mm. The wood should preferably be treated against rotting. I am fortunate since I own some wood working machines so I always plane if there is any risk of splinters but it is usually possible to buy planed wood.
The length of the six pieces should be twice the width plus three times the required slit. On should be generous with the slit if the wood is dry. It swells a lot when wet. If the wood is untreated, one can use nails. However if one has paid for treated wood, only stainless screws last as long as the wood.
I cover the bottom with gravel so the whole surface is drained.
Since the “gables” do not go all the way to the ground, it is easy to get the fingers under and lift.
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Certainly a sturdy construction, Gote. It should last many years and, I think, looks as good if not better than the styrofoam fish boxes with the added cement/hypertufa covering. Sometimes if something is to be an artificial item in the garden it is as well to let it be obviously artificial rather than make a poor attempt at imitating nature.
Paddy
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Gote, I am surprised you can't find our infamous polystyrene fish boxes. The company which produces them has its head office in Sweden. - Sundolitt - Mind you you wooden boxes serve the same purpose but time consuming to make.
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I wouldn't add hypertufa covering to a polystyrene fish box. Five minutes with a blowtorch and it is ready to paint.
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it is as well to let it be obviously artificial rather than make a poor attempt at imitating nature.
Come now, Paddy, would you realy want twenty naked fishboxes sitting in your garden? They make great troughs, but some degree of artifice is surely better in that circumstance than using the plain white boxes? I know plenty folks do use 'em plain.... but it looks really scruffy! Gote's sturdy box is super, though I wouldn't like to move/carry it far when filled... that is the real plus point for the poly boxes! :D
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Maggi,
I think the fishboxes require great imagination.
Paddy
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All mine, 17, are covered in hypertufa
Rob you arent the only one with green tinted yellow snowdrops. All My 'Wendy's Gold' and limey green
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There is still a lot of good wood on the coast to build a proper wooden one!
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There is still a lot of good wood on the coast to build a proper wooden one!
Loads and loads of it, but surrounded by policemen so you can't get at it.
This is a result of a recent shipwreck off the Devon coast. The ship was loaded with timber and, in a storm, the timber shifted and eventually the ship went down. Much of the timber followed currents and the wind direction and floated Eastwards towards the Dorset coast. See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7197667.stmast.
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Isn't it interesting that when this ship was wrecked, with a cargo of timber, there are many policemen guarding it to prevent looting but last year when that container ship sank, or lost its cargo, there were no police and we saw pictures on TV of people carrying off motor bikes and washing machines, huge packs of babies' nappies... all sorts !
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Maybe they learnt from last year. Or more likely the owners of this one learnt from last year and quickly arranged a salvage coverage.
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Isn't it interesting that when this ship was wrecked, with a cargo of timber, there are many policemen guarding it to prevent looting but last year when that container ship sank, or lost its cargo, there were no police and we saw pictures on TV of people carrying off motor bikes and washing machines, huge packs of babies' nappies... all sorts !
Maggi,
Isn't it nice that the good old Friesian custom of 'Strandräuberei' (shore robbery/wrecking) is still alive?
I thought this was a speciality of the German coastland inhabitants centuries ago ;)
Gerd
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I think that is was because the Cornishmen were too good at luring in passing boats to be wreaked that we change our laws ;D
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Susan,
I have no idea why I see no fish boxes. It might have something to do with the fish retail structure in Sweden. I have to go to Germany to buy large size paper napkins made in Sweden.
It is not time consuming to make them if one has the right tools and I know that the ones I make now will still be there when I am dead.
Paddy,
I also think that it is better not to fake. However, I must admit that I might sometime succumb to the temptation to make a "Japanese" "Stone" Lantern in concrete since I cannot buy the real thing - only Chinese copies in the wrong kind of stone.
I use these boxes for propagation purposes so the looks are secondary. However, I tend to find that utility sometimes adds to beauty,
Göte
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Maggi,
I think the fishboxes require great imagination.
Paddy
Depends on the skill of the workman. Sandy Leven has loads of polystyrene fish box troughs in his garden, round the corner from my house, which are used at the 'Gardening Scotland' show in June. His fabulous team have won several gold medals and even close up they look like real stone and not a drop of hypertufa in sight, or on site, for that matter.
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Oh, to be so artistic, Anthony. I am limited in my abilities and go with the hypertufa troughs. Paddy
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Me too Paddy. I would set fire to myself. :(
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I think that is was because the Cornishmen were too good at luring in passing boats to be wreaked that we change our laws ;D
Most of the rich Tre........ families in Cornwall owed a large proportion of their wealth to 'wrecking'(ie family names commencing with Tre......)
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Isn't it interesting that when this ship was wrecked, with a cargo of timber, there are many policemen guarding it to prevent looting but last year when that container ship sank, or lost its cargo, there were no police and we saw pictures on TV of people carrying off motor bikes and washing machines, huge packs of babies' nappies... all sorts !
Two reasons.
1. the cargo from the Napoli (including BMW motor bikes and parts) were washed up on the Devon coast, and Devon people, including policemen, share Cornish people's love of 'wrecking' ;D
2. To be serious, the roads leading to the beaches where stuff was washed up, including full containers, are little more than tracks, with absolutely no space for parking so the police thought folks wouldn't bother. In addition all kinds of Orders were posted by HM Revenue and Customs declaring the stuff as protected salvage-as if people would take any notice of that! In the event people came from all over England, complete with metal cutting gear, vans to cart stuff away etc., and it wasn't long before most of the cargo was available on EBay! We walked over the Cliffs one Sunday to the main beach in question, which is about a few hundred yards long, and it was crammed with people many of whom were parking five miles away.