Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: Leena on April 04, 2024, 05:28:44 PM
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Last week-end weather was warm and snow melted fast (not all but about half of it). Snowdrops and first crocuses came up. Then April 2-3 winds turned to north again, and weather got colder. There was about 10cm new snow, which was probably good to protect flowering plants and Helleborus buds, as it was -10 last night. Today it was 0C, but sunny and snow started to melt again, but it is still below freezing for couple of days.
These pictures were taken before this new cold snap.
'Bill Bishop'
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'Lord Lieutenant'
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'Green of Hearts'. This and 'Lord Lieutenant' are good in a way that they increase. The clumps don't get overcrowded but new bulbs grow farther from the mother bulb. I have never divided these and they are well positioned. For instance 'Bill Bishop' needs dividing because the clump will be too tight.
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'Hugh Mackenzie' has been quite slow to increase here, or at least in this spot.
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I took a 4 minute video today in sunny weather. This is just snowdrops in the snow in my earliest bed. I wrote the subtitles in English.
https://youtu.be/9KQ9xP26JtE
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Lovely to see. But strange how snowdrops (and other plants) that would be weeks apart coming into flower here all arrive together. Galanthus 'Greenish', for example, is reliably late here and will only start flowering when the majority of other snowdrops are finishing.
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I took a 4 minute video today in sunny weather. This is just snowdrops in the snow in my earliest bed. I wrote the subtitles in English.
Great video Leena, thank you! Today it was 24°C!
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But strange how snowdrops (and other plants) that would be weeks apart coming into flower here all arrive together. Galanthus 'Greenish', for example, is reliably late here and will only start flowering when the majority of other snowdrops are finishing.
It is very interesting how adaptable snowdrops are. Most have adapted itself to our winters and springs, and all flower about the same time, but there are some which don't do well. For instance 'Godfrey Owen' isn't doing good. I have tried it twice and both plants slowly (or actually quite fast) decline. Both are still alive, but not flowering and I think it is a too early one to grow here.
When I started buying snowdrops I concentrated on late flowering ones, because I thought only they could be grown here, but I was wrong, and many early flowering cultivars do well and just flower later. Like 'Mrs Macnamara' which I have been able to increase to several different spots and it does well in all. Of G.plicatus cultivars 'Diggory' is a good doer here, but 'Gerard Parker struggles. It is good to try also earlier ones, in case winter is short and so then there would be also early snowdrops in flower. :)
Great video Leena, thank you! Today it was 24°C!
Thank you for watching, Herman. It is warm over there! Here it is now +5C, and last Friday (video was from Thursday) we got even more snow, but next week snow will start to melt. Most of my snowdrops are in my woodland beds (still covered by snow), the one in the video was my earliest bed with only some snowdrops and sun always melts the snow there first.
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Snow is now gone and snowdrops continue to flower. Many are at their best now, but there are still some to come up.
'Trumps'
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'Little Magnet'
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'Sibbertoft Magnet'
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'More the Merrier'
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Snow is now gone and snowdrops continue to flower. Many are at their best now, but there are still some to come up.
Thanks for sharing all your great plants, Leena.
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My best older G.woronowii
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These are G.woronowii planted last summer, all came up well and all have a bit different markings
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I planted one bulb of 'Ballerina' in summer of 2017. It has increased very well and I divided it to three different spots two years ago.
In this spot there is one bulb which came up earlier than others and the flower if bigger than others. It behaved the same way also last year.
It is the big one in the middle. I had no other snowdrops close to 'Ballerina' clump, and don't know what to think of this. Could it be just a very big bulb..
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Here is another picture, the rest look like 'Ballerina', don't they?
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Thanks for sharing all your great plants, Leena.
Yes, and beautifully photographed too.
You have a great collection Leena.
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Thank you Ashley. :)
I really think I have enough snowdrops now ::), and should concentrate trying to get them to grow well (I always say that, but now after brexit it is easier to act like it). Most grow well, but there are several which I struggle with. There is nothing better to seeing plants increase and grow well. :) :)
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Leena, great snowdrops. Here the season is over, so it is nice to see some more.
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Wonderful pictures and video, Leena! Snowdrops and other early blooms look really attractive in snow. We had snow on the same day but as the snowdrops in our garden were more advanced by that time, they were flattened on the ground, and many got dirty. Not long after, the heat from Sahara hit. Not an easy season.
Some 300 km south from Finland, my garden is definitely earlier than Leena's. Nevertheless, we experience quite the same conditions regards the seasons. It was very cold winter and usually cold winters result in yellowish markings on blooms and yellow blotches on leaves. I can see the yellow hue on 'Trumps' in both gardens this spring.
But there might be differences too. Back in 2014 I bought a single bulb of 'Godfrey Owen' from Avon Bulbs and it have thrived ever since. And I can't tell that it is very early in my garden. Definitely later than 'Mrs MacNamara' or 'Reverend Hailstone' which seem to be earliest in my collection.
Ten years old 'Godfrey Owen':
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'Godfrey Owen'
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'Godfrey Owen', along with 'Sentinel' (left) and 'Pat Mason'
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Snowdrop Bed
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More great pictures, Villu! It is such a pleasure to enjoy the snowdrops coming later in the gardens of yourself and Leena. A pleasant extension to the season for so many of us!
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Some 300 km south from Finland, my garden is definitely earlier than Leena's. Nevertheless, we experience quite the same conditions regards the seasons. It was very cold winter and usually cold winters result in yellowish markings on blooms and yellow blotches on leaves. I can see the yellow hue on 'Trumps' in both gardens this spring.
But there might be differences too. Back in 2014 I bought a single bulb of 'Godfrey Owen' from Avon Bulbs and it have thrived ever since. And I can't tell that it is very early in my garden. Definitely later than 'Mrs MacNamara' or 'Reverend Hailstone' which seem to be earliest in my collection.
Thank you Villu, it is good to compare the conditions, and your garden is earlier. It is interesting how also you see yellow hue in 'Trumps' after a cold winter, the same as here. I've been told that I don't have the real cultivars if they are yellowish, but I know I have gotten them from a very reliable sources, and it is the conditions here which result in yellowish colour in some years.
Your 'Godfrey Owen' is magnificent! I planted another try of it to more moist bed (the first one was in dryish bed) and it has produced more leaves now though not flowering. Hopefully I find a spot where it will grow well (right now it occured to me one more spot to try - I will move the diminished bulb from dry bed).
'Mrs M' is always very reliable snowdrops here even though it is early.
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I made a 27 min video of about 50 snowdrop cultivars I grow (many common or older cultivars), and made subtitles in English. There are still some snowdrops coming up or in the beginning of flowering, so maybe I will make another shorter video later.
https://youtu.be/kFFR3pz5emI
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Thank you Leena, it was a pleasure!!
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I made a 27 min video of about 50 snowdrop cultivars I grow (many common or older cultivars), and made subtitles in English ...
Thank you for this lovely video Leena. Really beautiful snowdrops.
And so many honeybees! There must be hives (and maybe a beekeeper) nearby.
What is the little trillium beside your 'Glenorma', and the colchicum near the first 'Trinity' you showed?
I also enjoyed hearing some 'horticultural' Finnish (rare here in Ireland), as well as the wonderful birdsong & woodpecker drumming.
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Thank you Stefan and Ashley. :)
And so many honeybees! There must be hives (and maybe a beekeeper) nearby.
What is the little trillium beside your 'Glenorma', and the colchicum near the first 'Trinity' you showed?
I also enjoyed hearing some 'horticultural' Finnish (rare here in Ireland), as well as the wonderful birdsong & woodpecker drumming.
We have wondered about honeybees, because we don't know any hives nearby, but I guess they can fly quite a ways when they find something they like, and now crocuses and snowdrops provide food more in my garden than they can find elsewhere. Even native willows and Tussilago farfara are not yet flowering, but Hepaticas are in a warm spot.
Trillium beside 'Glenorma' is Trillium nivale, and near the first 'Trinity' is Colchicum bulbocodium. Near 'Wendy's Gold' closer to the end of the video was Colchicum szovitsii, I don't remember if it showed.
We have lots of birds in the garden, and I love this time of year for their song.
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Trillium beside 'Glenorma' is Trillium nivale
Oh! I thought it was a Trillium pusillum.
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Oh! I thought it was a Trillium pusillum.
I once sowed T.pusillum, but the seedlings died in a bad winter. I don't know if it should be hardy here.
Trillium-book says that it starts to flower when T.nivale ends.
Here is 'Glenorma' with T.nivale, and more on the left. :)
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When 'Glenorma' is big, 'Wifi Big Bang' is huge, compare it to Eranthis and Crocus. It is also quite leafy plant, at least now in the end of flowering.
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Some snowdrops from last week. The good thing about this cold weather (right now 0C in the middle of the day) is that snowdrops flower longer.
'Wendy's Gold'
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This is my 'Bill Clark'. I bought it ten years ago and I think it has flowered twice since. The next year after planting, and then it started going downhill. I moved it to a more moist bed, and then it flowered another time, but then no flowers until now. I distinctly remember that the yellow marking in the inners was right in the beginning. I don't know why it looks like this now this year. Has the original bulb been replaced by a seedling or what?? However, the marking is not as strong as in 'Wendy's Gold'.
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'G.plicatus from Staryi Krym', I like this one. In the background G.gracilis planted last summer is just starting to flower.
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'Greenpeace' is a good doer here.
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As is 'S.Arnott'
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Very enjoyable pictures and stories, Leena! It is wonderful that you have a good snowdrop season this year!
Our own season here in Estonia was cut short by April "heatwaves", temperatures rising up to 22 degrees in Celsius on April 10th. But it was close to 20 on March 31st too (all time record braking in March)! Now only the latest varieties are in fading bloom.
No matter the heatwaves, it is winter today and everything is covered by snow now! That how hectic this spring is and climate has become (?!).
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Snowdrops in snow
Just a day before, everything looked so different.
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'E.A. Bowles'
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'Marjorie Brown'
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'Amy Doncaster'
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No matter the heatwaves, it is winter today and everything is covered by snow now! That how hectic this spring is and climate has become (?!).
It is the same here, we got 20cm snow yesterday and everything is white, again! Temperatures have gone up and down this winter/spring like never before.
The past 5 days it's been 10C colder than normal here.
Your picture of 'Amy Doncaster' is beautiful. :)
This is 'Alison Hilary', picture from a week ago, and now they are under snow.
It was planted last autumn, and it is a very small plant, with small flowers. I didn't know that from pictures I had seen. Otherwise a nice plant.
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Villu, Leena is perfectly right, the combination of ´Amy Doncaster´with the blue hepatica is admirable. Also, the one with ´Marjory Brown´- I guess the blue comes from a chionoscilla?
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Thank you Mariette! :) You are right, 'Marjorie Brown' is with Chionoscilla allenii. Wonderful deep blue bulb. A lot better than Scilla bifolia which is believed to be one of the parents.
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To finish off the month and our snowdrop season here, I share some of the best performers from this year. Hope you'll enjoy!
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'Bill Bishop'
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'Blonde Inge'
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'Cowhouse Green'
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'Don Armstrong'
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'E.A. Bowles'
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Some more:
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'Moreton Mill'
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'Ophelia'
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'Pat Mason'
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'Rosemary Burnham'
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'Spindlestone Surprise'
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And some more:
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'Susan Grimshaw'
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'Trimmer'
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'Trympostor'
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'Wendy's Gold'
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'Veronica Cross'
Who ever is more interested in my plants and in my garden, can check out my blog at http://tistoupaevaraamat.blogspot.com/ (http://tistoupaevaraamat.blogspot.com/) It is in Estonian but pictures are international! ;)
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Villu, you can grow snowdrops so well! Mine never increase so well or are such big clumps. Yours are fabulous!
Here snowdrops are over in the most early and sunny places, but in a more shadier spot they are still flowering.
'Midas' has been a very good snowdrop here, and increases well (in spite of what I just wrote), and I divided it last summer.
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'Glenchantress' has been very slow to increase, and it always flowers late here. I like this very much.
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Two days ago I took a long video (33 min) from my most floriferous place in the garden right now.
There are still snowdrops flowering and crocuses. At the same time Corydalis and Hepatica are also flowering.
Sorry, no English translation, but I have written the names of the plants in the video.
https://youtu.be/jFRJ7j3YIXY
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Really beautiful Leena, thank you :)
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It was my pleasure, thank you Leena!
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Thank you Ashley and Stefan, I'm happy you enjoyed it even though I only spoke Finnish.
The snowdrops which were still flowering were not up early when the bad weather came again.
I thought cold is now over, but today the forecast said it will be again 7 degrees colder than usual next week and even snow one night!
And it is May.
Close to the end of the video I showed a double snowdrop, possibly a seedling.
In that side of the bed I have never planted any double snowdrops though I have several close by (Flore Pleno, Barbara's Double, Flocon de Neige, and across the path Ailwyn).
In that spot I had 'E.A.Bowles' which sadly vanished one winter, but it had produced self sown seedlings which I showed. They are all single plicatus two earlier flowering ones and one later.
This double has also some plicate leaves.
My question is, is there a named double snowdrop like this (which I haven't bought but perhaps I had gotten the wrong plant, though I really don't think I have planted anything just there), or could this be a seedling from 'E.A.Bowles'?
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Two days ago I took a long video (33 min) from my most floriferous place in the garden right now.
There are still snowdrops flowering and crocuses. At the same time Corydalis and Hepatica are also flowering.
Sorry, no English translation, but I have written the names of the plants in the video.
Leena, beautiful spring garden with a lot of botanical treasures. Thanks for showing!
Your Hepatica’s are growing well! I am surprised that japonica’s and pubescens also are growing well in your garden, probably because of snowcovering in winter.
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A wonderful presentation of Your glorious spring-garden, Leena! Its so colourful - in our part of the world hepatica and larkspurs, for example, start flowering at the end of the snowdrop-season. Your climate provides advantages one might envy You for. :)