Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: KentGardener on February 01, 2012, 06:26:30 PM
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A full 5 days at work this week with no snowdrop treks planned for the blog until the weekend.
Luckily I had work that was best done from home today and managed 45 minutes in the garden at lunch time to see how the Galanthus were doing.
It was bitterly cold - the kind of wind that sucked the warmth from you at the first contact. A few picture form here today - but I had to use every trick I could to get the flowers to pose for their photos on this bitterly cold day.
1 - A new one for me last year from Joe. 'Fatty Puff''. I look forward to seeing how this looks in a group.
2 - One of Davey's recent finds. The pretty little 'Kalum'.
3 - 'Kalum' posed and deserved a second photo. :)
4 - Brian showed a picture of this one a couple of weeks ago. I love the way the green on the outers is also visible from below the petals on 'Amy Doncaster' - Very nice. 8)
5 - Amy again just to start the month off with some pics ;D
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Kalum looks fantastic ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Super pix, John. Not easy in the kind of weather you describe... rather like that up here today too:
not nice - cold to the bone sort of day
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most of mine were glued to the ground all day, the first few hours at work today were painful :-\ the contractor suggesting I clear up their mess got a suitably frosty reply.
Kalum and Amy Doncaster both look lovely.
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Oh, I just love Fatty Puff, what a great name!!!
;D
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I didn't realise 'Fatty Puff' looked so good with its skirts up. :D
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John
I will definitely let you take all the photos this weekend.
Kalum & Amy are stunners and I quite like Fatty Puff.
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Kalum looks fantastic ;D ;D ;D ;D
Davey - 'Kalum' is new to me - can you tell me anything more about it?
Many thanks
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KALUM, KALUM never heard about him.
AMY WINEHOUSE DONCASTER is a heartbreaker!!!
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John
I will definitely let you take all the photos this weekend.
Hi Arthur
I have noticed that pictures of people get a lot more views than pictures of snowdrops. So while I am busy taking pics of flowers maybe you could be taking pics of all the people. ;D
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Is it Fatty Puff or Fattypuff, as in Fattypuffs and Thinifers? Is there a Galanthus Thinifer to go with it? That might be a good name for the long thin flower (picture 4 of the blog photos) that we saw last week, were it to be cultivated.
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Hello to all,
well I would like to send some photos from the snowdrops- headbourne, Wendys Gold and Richard Ayres started to flower, but here in my part of Germany it's so awfully cold: -9°C!
What a sad look. All lying almost like dead on the ground.
I received tickets for the gala, but no galanthus list was enclosed.
Have you got the same experience?
Martina
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Martina the snowdrop list has, hopefully, been mailed to Europe today. I suppose us in the UK can expect it to drop on Friday or Saturday.
I'll not go to the local AGS lecture on Saturday so I can oh and ah at the list
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Fatty looks great.
I cant believe that Griffin Press want £10 to mail me a copy of the revised edition of the snowdrop book
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Well, maybe if the list takes more than 3 days I will be in Britain by then and the list in my post box in germany. Well, well.
But thanks for letting me know, Mark.
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Well, maybe if the list takes more than 3 days I will be in Britain by then and the list in my post box in germany. Well, well.But thanks for letting me know, Mark.
Martina - Maybe someone can scan it and email it to you or your phone. You want to be prepared for the sale!
johnw - drizzle.
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Kalum looks fantastic ;D ;D ;D ;D
Davey - 'Kalum' is new to me - can you tell me anything more about it?
Many thanks
Chris a few years ago i helped my friend clear an old graveyard of brambles and nettles ect and after doing the job i asked if i could take some snowdrops from the thousands that has naturlized on there,(at the time did not collect snowdrops or no anything about them)amongst the ones i got there were a few with green outers and the best one was named Kalum(when i dug them up they were not in flower),it is a fantastic dooer grows like stink and tough as old boots.It was found at a place near Mansfield Woodhouse here in Nottinghamshire.
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Martina - Maybe someone can scan it and email it to you or your phone. You want to be prepared for the sale!
johnw - drizzle.
John, good idea! I was just thinking about my antique mobile phone- no way! But, yes,that's an idea! Laptop!!
I better should be prepaired, you're so right!
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John
I will definitely let you take all the photos this weekend.
Hi Arthur
I have noticed that pictures of people get a lot more views than pictures of snowdrops. So while I am busy taking pics of flowers maybe you could be taking pics of all the people. ;D
Done - that means I won't be in them ;D
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Nice photos John - all lovely and Fatty Puff has to go on my wishlist. Kalum is a good find Davey (all the better that it was pot luck - a nice surprise for you).
Was too cold for me today and someone has run off with my kneeling pad and I did not feel like kneeling in the mud. The ground is well and truly frozen here.
Here's a few from yesterday - nothing great.
1. Coloured stemmed dogwood border
2. Norris - nice big flower although very simple
3. Narcissus 'Cedric Morris'
Jennie
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is that orange ish stem Midwinter Fire?
have decided my bed is too green so some are coming out, that combo looks very nice.
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Love the dogwood border.
Must be lovely to see such colour in the midst of winter.
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is that orange ish stem Midwinter Fire?
have decided my bed is too green so some are coming out, that combo looks very nice.
Yes Richard it is Midwinter Fire and it really does glow much more than my photo captures. Bought a few stems on ebay last week - 'Annie's Winter Orange' which looks lovely and bright as well. If you want to try growing them from stem cuttings I can send you a bundle - I hate throwing them away! The black one 'Kesselringii' is very effective with the greens. I also have sibirica with bright yellow foliage - fab leaf colour. PM me.
Wish I had room to grow more coloured stemmed Cornus and Salix - I love them and they are such a good backdrop for the snowdrops.
Jennie
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jennie - Smashing dogwoods there. Are those railroad tracks installed for moving your pruchases from the Gala? ::)
johnw
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jennie - Smashing dogwoods there. Are those railroad tracks installed for moving your pruchases from the Gala? ::)
johnw
I wish :D They are however railway tracks for a train that runs all the way around the garden - complete with tunnel ! It is now out of action but I have been thinking how nice it would be to get it going again one day - would cost a fortune though. We used to put our German Shepherd and baby goat on the train with us and they would happily chug round ;D Happy Days
Jennie
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Many thanks for the background info to 'Kalum' - are you able to tell me anything about how/why you chose this particular name?
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Is Cornus sericea one with coloured winter stems and if so, has anyone a picture of it please?
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Is Cornus sericea one with coloured winter stems and if so, has anyone a picture of it please?
Lesley - I done a quick google and apparently C sericea has blood red stems and is now considered a threat to the wetlands in Ireland as it layers itself. I found these pics - the second one is C sericea baileyi. Hope this helps
Jennie
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Thank you Jennie. That is certainly stunning colour isn't it?
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Many thanks for the background info to 'Kalum' - are you able to tell me anything about how/why you chose this particular name?
Chris, 'Kalum' is the name of Davey's son. :)
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmm no sign of my Fatty Puff :(
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Many thanks for the background info to 'Kalum' - are you able to tell me anything about how/why you chose this particular name?
Chris, 'Kalum' is the name of Davey's son. :)
Lucky son :)
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Why, Chris, it is good to see you back on these pages. I think we have missed your comments.
Paddy
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmm no sign of my Fatty Puff :(
No sign of mine either Chas, it was a very small bulb when it arrived last year, I've had a root around the pot and it's vanished altogether :'(
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The trainspotting analogy is taking hold: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16789834 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16789834)
Great picture of a forumist 8)
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There is a rather nice photograph of a certain Carolyn Walker in that article. 8)
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The trainspotting analogy is taking hold: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16789834 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16789834)
Great picture of a forumist 8)
Yes, a lovely picture of Carolyn. So much prettier than her double yellow drop avatar 8)
Most amusing to see on the page , supporting a link to a time-lapse video of snowdrops, a photo of (what else?!!) a Leucojum emerging through the snow ! ;D ;D
The actual video from the link is of snowdrops, but here's the photo:
I suspect this is what we really want ;)
[attach=1]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Galanthus_nivalis#p003k0pp = video link
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Love the dogwood border.
Must be lovely to see such colour in the midst of winter.
Thanks Maggiepie ;)
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There is a rather nice photograph of a certain Carolyn Walker in that article. 8)
I guess my attempt to go incognito on the forum (and everywhere else) has been blown but I am glad you like the photo. I tried to look at the time lapse sequence but it said "not available in your area"---see they don't even allow photos of snowdrops into the US ;D.
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Carolyn looking at your web site and snowdrop list - does your Wendy's Gold always have two eyes? If it does I'll buy some from you this summer ;)
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Carolyn looking at your web site and snowdrop list - does your Wendy's Gold always have two eyes? If it does I'll buy some from you this summer ;)
Hi Mark
I don't sell 'Wendy's Gold' as I only have two bulbs myself. Mine was given to me by Charles Cresson, a prominent local collector. I am not sure I even know what you mean by two eyes because the only Wendy's Gold' I have ever seen is mine. Could you post a photo to illustrate? Here is a photo of mine:
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I had to look very hard to see this but above the main yellow mark on the inner petal there seems to be two faint yellow dots. Those would be the "eyes" Mark referred to and they are not (AFAIK) a normal feature of Wendy's Gold.
In fact the whole shape of the mark looks wrong, something like this http://www.snowdropinfo.com/plicatus-wendys-gold.html is typical (i.e. larger, fuller, not shaped like an inverted heart).
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thats them - nicely set in the shadows of the claws
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That looks very much like the mark on 'Wendy's Gold' relative 'Bill Clarke' - an almost perfect circle with a notch out of it at the sinus.
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Take a look at Mark's website pic...
http://www.snowdropinfo.com/plicatus-bill-clarke2.html
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For reference Alan confirmed with Bill Clark that the correct spelling should be Bill Clark and not Bill Clarke.
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For reference Alan confirmed with Bill Clark that the correct spelling should be Bill Clark and not Bill Clarke.
That's an unfortunate mistake. It's been so widely published as 'Bill Clarke'.
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I had to look very hard to see this but above the main yellow mark on the inner petal there seems to be two faint yellow dots. Those would be the "eyes" Mark referred to and they are not (AFAIK) a normal feature of Wendy's Gold.
In fact the whole shape of the mark looks wrong, something like this http://www.snowdropinfo.com/plicatus-wendys-gold.html is typical (i.e. larger, fuller, not shaped like an inverted heart).
I will have to look into this. The photo was from last year. It is blooming now and I will look again and talk to Charles. In the meantime, here are two more photos from last year. The first is of the same plant and the second is my other plant. any further guidance is appreciated but no one need fear that I am selling this---I only wish I had that many:
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Carolyn, I think the first photo is the same one you showed earlier. I cannot see any "eyes" on the second photo but the main mark is still wrong
Thanks, John, for reminding us about the spelling of Clark. I blame that Mark Smith and his snowdropinfo web site!
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I thought Bill Clark also. Both photos above have eyes. I no longer have Bill so maybe someone can go outside to have a look
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Carolyn, your plant has a long thin ovary, also like 'Bill Clark(e)'. The ovary of 'Wendy's Gold is shorter and rounder. You'll see this if you compare the pics from Mark's web site of the two...
http://www.snowdropinfo.com/plicatus-wendys-gold.html
http://www.snowdropinfo.com/plicatus-bill-clarke2.html
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Has anybody notice the faint green mark on the end of the petals on Carolyn yellow
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Do you now :P
You need to go to Specsavers ;D
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Carolyn, I think the first photo is the same one you showed earlier. I cannot see any "eyes" on the second photo but the main mark is still wrong
Thanks, John, for reminding us about the spelling of Clark. I blame that Mark Smith and his snowdropinfo web site!
It's spelt 'Bill Clarke' in "Snowdrops".
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I saw the 'yellow' tips also but thought it was stag.
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I can see pale eyes in Carolyn's second photo : pic DSCN2556.
They are very pale, wide apart and high up... but they are there!
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Bill Clark
Wendy's Gold
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It's spelt 'Bill Clarke' in "Snowdrops".
Martin - the 2006 Reprint of 'Snowdrops' carries the correction
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"The Snowdrop, in purest white array, First rears her head on Candlemas day."
Today is Candlemas, marking the mid point of winter (I always think it should be Feb 14th) half way between the shortest day and the spring equinox; and they used to say that the Christmas season lasted for forty days - until February 2nd. The first snowdrop reared its head months ago, but in honour of the occasion I went outside with my camera to take a few snapshots. As it is bitterly cold there are some general shots and one or two where you can’t see the inners as they are being very sensible and huddling up!
1 Firstly what remains of a snowdrop bed by the side of the house, the only ones left here are ‘Doris Page’, ‘Yamanlar’ , ‘Martha MacLaren’, ‘Heffalump’, ‘Peardrop’, the clump going over is ‘Henham No 1’ and in the foreground ‘Longstowe’.
2 ‘Heffalump
3 ‘Gerard Parker’
4 The area where the fenceposts were replaced next door. It took a whole morning to sort out the clematis and get it back on the fence and several parts of this bed are compressed with footprints.
5 The delightful ‘Anglesey Abbey’
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6 ‘Benton Magnet’ - needing attention later in the year
7 Still one of my favourites ‘Lapwing’
8 One of the first areas planted which needs a good sorting out, here are the likes of ‘Comet’, ‘Green Man’, ‘Bungee’, ‘Lode Star’, ‘Lady Elphinstone’ etc etc
9 The very floriferous ‘Homersfield’ from Mike & Anne Broadhurst
10 A Greatorex find SA 0902 which has one flower above another, unfortunately this makes for a very confused picture!
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11 ‘Long Drop’ and Iris reticulata ‘JS Dijt’
12 ‘Swanton’ beginning to make a nice group
13 ‘Ivy Cottage Corporal’ another Broadhurst snowdrop
14 The incredible ‘South Hayes’ with it’s bold outer mark
15 Not a very good photo I’m afraid but this is the very attractive ‘Corrin’, the shape of the flowers makes it difficult to focus (that’s my excuse anyway).
Just for all you lurkers ;)
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It's spelt 'Bill Clarke' in "Snowdrops".
Martin - the 2006 Reprint of 'Snowdrops' carries the correction
Ah, I see. I have the original edition.
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Brian stunning pics,i have just got lapwing and i think it is fantastic as well,the greatorex find is a bit special as well.
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Davey I thought you'd like a few pictures as you missed out on Saturday (mind you John & Brenda's is far, far better); you have just reminded me to look at Comet, will do so now.
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wow that's a lovely form of South Hayes. Well jeal as they say in Essex. Corrin is a beauty also.
I dont know Candlemass
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wow that's a lovely form of South Hayes. Well jeal as they say in Essex. Corrin is a beauty also.
I dont know Candlemass
It's a time of year, Mark, not a 'drop.
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Candlemas assembly always had me giving out the weather rhyme
If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter is gone and won't come again.
If Candlemas Day be dry and fair,
The half o the winter's to come and mair;
If Candlemas Day be wet and foul,
The half o the winter's gane at Yule.
It's fair and bright ???
I think the church calendar also has all the Christmas candles being used up at Candlemas. Just found this on the internet:
It was the day of the year when all the candles, that were used in the church during the coming year, were brought into church and a blessing was said over them - so it was the Festival Day (or 'mass') of the Candles.
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Has anybody notice the faint green mark on the end of the petals on Carolyn yellow
I noticed that too Davey - and it appears on both the photographs of Carolyn's yellow plicatus taken year apart.
I've got the first edition of the book too Martin and have made a hand written amendment in the index and on that page as I remembered someone speaking to the man himself and posting the correct spelling of his name on here.
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11 ‘Long Drop’ and Iris reticulata ‘JS Djit’
12 ‘Swanton’ beginning to make a nice group
13 ‘Ivy Cottage Corporal’ another Broadhurst snowdrop
14 The incredible ‘South Hayes’ with it’s bold outer mark
15 Not a very good photo I’m afraid but this is the very attractive ‘Corrin’, the shape of the flowers makes it difficult to focus (that’s my excuse anyway).
Just for all you lurkers ;)
The puckering on Swanton is quite nice as well Brian.
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Has anybody notice the faint green mark on the end of the petals on Carolyn yellow
I noticed that too Davey - and it appears on both the photographs of Carolyn's yellow plicatus taken year apart.
I've got the first edition of the book too Martin and have made a hand written amendment in the index and on that page as I remembered someone speaking to the man himself and posting the correct spelling of his name on here.
If you could breed stong green lines on that yellow now that would be something.
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The puckering on Swanton is quite nice as well Brian.
Even more pronounced when the sun shines ;)
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Lovely photos Brian - and thanks for the Candlemas rhyme - you learn something new every day :) Am I right in assuming that South Hayes and Corrin are inverse pocs? They are both lovely.
I have been looking at last years photos of my Wendy's Gold and they seem to have a H marking - is that ok? Mine are not all that yellow and I put that down to the shady spot they are in.
Snowdrops are flat to the ground today and it is freezing out there 30F at present. Hope it warms up for the weekends adventures.
Jennie
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It's spelt 'Bill Clarke' in "Snowdrops".
Martin - the 2006 Reprint of 'Snowdrops' carries the correction
If your name is Bill Clark and the snowdrop named after you is called Bill Clarke then you are bound to feel cheesed-off. The spelling with an "e" was a mistake, let's all of us try not to perpetuate it.
I remembered someone speaking to the man himself and posting the correct spelling of his name on here.
Yes, that was me! I showed you where he lived/lives last Saturday.
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Am I right in assuming that South Hayes and Corrin are inverse pocs?
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Book says of Wendy's Gold that it shows the largest marking and the yellowness can vary.
an elongated V with very short arms
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It's spelt 'Bill Clarke' in "Snowdrops".
Martin - the 2006 Reprint of 'Snowdrops' carries the correction
If your name is Bill Clark and the snowdrop named after you is called Bill Clarke then you are bound to feel cheesed-off. The spelling with an "e" was a mistake, let's all of us try not to perpetuate it.
I wasn't suggesting that anyone should continue using the incorrect spelling, just saying that I'd noticed that it was spelt "Clarke" in my (original) "Snowdrops".
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I was responding to Alan's jokey comment about blaming Mark's website for having the wrong spelling. I've seen it spelt with an e lots of times, in catalogues etc, obviously based on the original spelling given in "Snowdrops". That's not to say I'm advocating using an incorrect spelling. That would be stupid.
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I've got the first edition of the book too Martin and have made a hand written amendment in the index and on that page as I remembered someone speaking to the man himself and posting the correct spelling of his name on here.
John, you might also want to make a note that the 2006 Reprint also contains another correction viz G. elwesii 'Howard Wheeler' was incorrectly shown as 'Harold Wheeler' in the 2001 Edition.
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You would be surprised how many letters come here with the surname Smith and Smythe
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I tried earlier to get a photo of my Wendy's Gold but it was just too cold. But they look exactly like the ones in the pictures Jennie posted.
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with two eyes, Alan? All my Wendy's have a large mark with two little raised extensions
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Aren't the yellow "eyes" just the anthers showing through the translucent petals?
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with two eyes, Alan? All my Wendy's have a large mark with two little raised extensions
No, Mark, pay attention. Carolyn Walker posted photos of a "Wendy's Gold" with a wrong mark, whether or not the eyes are real. Then Jennie ("kentish_lass") posted photos of her own Wendy's Gold. Mine look like Jennie's.
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with two eyes, Alan? All my Wendy's have a large mark with two little raised extensions
No, Mark, pay attention. Carolyn Walker posted photos of a "Wendy's Gold" with a wrong mark, whether or not the eyes are real. Then Jennie ("kentish_lass") posted photos of her own Wendy's Gold. Mine look like Jennie's.
LOL :) Glad yours are the same Alan - I will sleep easy in my bed tonight now. Well, not too easy as it is well under freezing tonight and I have lattice pots outside but surrounded with bark. Do feel like dashing out and getting Big Boy in though but he is right up the top of the garden - so can stay there!
Jennie
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No eyes here on Wendy's Gold. Anthony, I too thought the anthers might be showing through the inners on Carolyn's.
johnw
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I've got the first edition of the book too Martin and have made a hand written amendment in the index and on that page as I remembered someone speaking to the man himself and posting the correct spelling of his name on here.
John, you might also want to make a note that the 2006 Reprint also contqins another correction viz G. elwesii 'Howard Wheeler' was incorrectly shown as 'Harold Wheeler' in the 2001 Edition.
That's scribbled in there too along with various other stuff I have learnt along the way. ;D
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No eyes here on Wendy's Gold. Anthony, I too thought the anthers might be showing through the inners on Carolyn's.
johnw
If it were the anthers showing through they'd be awfully short to be showing through that high, wouldn't they? :-\
I expect I'll be out trying to measure anther lengths tomorrow on ordinary 'drops. Why do I allow myself to be drawn into these things....... :-\ :-X
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I tried to look at the time lapse sequence but it said "not available in your area"---see they don't even allow photos of snowdrops into the US ;D.
I tried too but the little YouTube circle went round and around and around but never progressed further. Waited for 5 minutes but the timelapse didn't start. I wonder why BBC is so stingy with sharing outside the UK.
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11 ‘Long Drop’ and Iris reticulata ‘JS Dijt’
In NZ a long drop is something QUIte DIFFERENT, from the days before inside loos and modern plumbing. ???
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11 ‘Long Drop’ and Iris reticulata ‘JS Dijt’
In NZ a long drop is something QUIte DIFFERENT, from the days before inside loos and modern plumbing. ???
Tee hee ;D ;D
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Sorry Alan I was blinded by yellow
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A few clarifications...
Alan--the second photo is a slightly different angle because Mark referred to a shadow so I thought it might help.
KentGardener--all the photos are from March 2011, the first year I had the plants. I received them in bloom in March, and they thrived over the intervening time. Both are blooming now and one has produced a second plant with a flower. It is overcast today and the flowers aren't open, but I will be investigating them carefully as soon as the sun shines.
Martin--I had compared the two photos before you posted the links again :), and I clearly see the difference. I went to a lecture (on Tasmanian gardens) today and stopped by Charles Cresson's house to look at the original clump. The flowers aren't open, but we pried several apart (I hate doing that) and they all looked like the photos that Jennie posted. I want to wait until the flowers actually open to see if there is variation in the individual plants. However, if there isn't then it seems unlikely that I would get the only two nonconformists. In a PM, Mark suggested that mine might be seedlings, but I think that is unlikely because Charles is very careful not to let his special snowdrops seed into themselves. He collects the seeds. Since everyone seems interested (I feel like I stirred a hive), I will pursue this further. In the meantime, if Jennie's photo is what true 'Wendy's Gold' looks like then I would rather have my very yellow 'Bill Clark' no matter how you spell it ;D (now you have got me using those ridiculous little faces).
Thanks for all your help and advice, Carolyn
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I feel like I stirred a hive
That's Galanthomania for you
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Sorry Carolyn, I didn't mean to be pushy posting the links again together and suggesting you compare them, just trying to make it easier to do a comparison, especially of the ovary shape. Mark made it even easier by posting the actual pics together so I needn't have bothered. :)
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they all looked like the photos that Jennie posted.
Curiouser and curiouser
In a PM, Mark suggested that mine might be seedlings
Martin Baxendale is the expert on that side of things. I don't think Wendy's Gold has ever been known to self-pollinate and produce another yellow snowdrop so a proven seedling would be very interesting
I would rather have my very yellow 'Bill Clark'
Of course, it's not 'Bill Clark'; it just looks more like Bill Clark than Wendy's Gold does. If the 'eyes' are real then it is new and unique and very nice indeed.
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In the meantime, if Jennie's photo is what true 'Wendy's Gold' looks like then I would rather have my very yellow 'Bill Clark' no matter how you spell it.
I must admit Carolyn that mine is extremely greeny yellow. When it clumps up more I will move some to another part of the garden in slightly different soil and more sun to see if it changes the colour. Out of interest is your 'Bill Clark' in sun or shade? My soil is quite alkaline and amended soil over clay so not sure if that is making a difference. Makes me wonder if it is worth getting another Wendy's Gold from another source to see if it will be more yellow.....or is that just an excuse to buy more snowdrops ;)
Will be interested to see if you get to the bottom of the puzzle.
Jennie
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Carolyn look for yellow tips on your yellow snowdrops
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Carolyn, I did think that the ovary on your yellow was even more elongated than in 'Bill Clark', and it is a very bright clean yellow. When saying it looked like 'Bill Clark' I was thinking that the entire stock that yours came from might turn out to be 'Bill Clark' supplied wrongly named. But if the rest are all 'Wendy's Gold' then you may well have a new seedling, possibly from a pod that was overlooked.
Snowdrops tend not to self-pollinate readily, generally needing to cross with a different clone to set seed reliably, but it can happen, and if Wendy's Gold did manage to self-pollinate and set a seed or two then the seedlings ought to come yellow as it's effectively a yellow crossing with a yellow so the recessive yellow gene expresses itself in the seedlings. What normally happens is that Wendy crosses with a nearby green-marked snowdrop (unless deliberately pollinated with another yellow) and the seedlings all come green(ish). I have a theory that sometimes a snowdrop will be partially pollinated by another nearby flower and also gets some of its own pollen in its stigma, and the foreign pollen overcomes the self-pollination inhibitors, allowing the flower's own pollen to fertilise ovules. But it's just a theory.
In any case, I think it's looking increasingly likely to be a seedling. Unless the original stock was mixed and by pure chance you got the only 'Bill Clark' bulbs. I think you need to check all the other flowers to be sure there isn't any variation.
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Carolyn, I did think that the ovary on your yellow was even more elongated than in 'Bill Clark', and it is a very bright clean yellow. When saying it looked like 'Bill Clark' I was thinking that the entire stock that yours came from might turn out to be 'Bill Clark' supplied wrongly named. But if the rest are all 'Wendy's Gold' then you may well have a new seedling, possibly from a pod that was overlooked.
Snowdrops tend not to self-pollinate readily, generally needing to cross with a different clone to set seed reliably, but it can happen, and if Wendy's Gold did manage to self-pollinate and set a seed or two then the seedlings ought to come yellow as it's effectively a yellow crossing with a yellow so the recessive yellow gene expresses itself in the seedlings. What normally happens is that Wendy crosses with a nearby green-marked snowdrop (unless deliberately pollinated with another yellow) and the seedlings all come green(ish). I have a theory that sometimes a snowdrop will be partially pollinated by another nearby flower and also gets some of its own pollen in its stigma, and the foreign pollen overcomes the self-pollination inhibitors, allowing the flower's own pollen to fertilise ovules. But it's just a theory.
In any case, I think it's looking increasingly likely to be a seedling. Unless the original stock was mixed and by pure chance you got the only 'Bill Clark' bulbs. I think you need to check all the other flowers to be sure there isn't any variation.
Martin
Thanks, that is all very helpful information. I intend to check all the flowers next Thursday and not just a sample like we did today. It was quite overcast and cold and the buds were tightly shut so we could have misjudged the size of the mark when peeling back the outer segments. Although there are other snowdrops in the area of 'Wendy's Gold', the closest cultivar, which is right next to it, is.... 'Lady Elphinstone'.
Carolyn
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I have a theory that sometimes a snowdrop will be partially pollinated by another nearby flower and also gets some of its own pollen in its stigma, and the foreign pollen overcomes the self-pollination inhibitors, allowing the flower's own pollen to fertilise ovules. But it's just a theory.
Martin -
Interesting concept.
Does anyone know exactly how many tubes are in the stigmatic column of a Galanthus? i.e. How many fathers can a single pod contain? In Rhododendron of course you can have mutliple fathers for the seed produced by one seedpod (ovary). I know this has nothing to do with your theory above but it sure throws some expectations out the window when we do a deliberate cross and do not emasculate & protect the stigma afterwards.
Sad there has een so little research done on fertility in Galanthus. Do we even have solidly verified chromosome counts for the species and inter-specific hybrids?
johnw
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(I feel like I stirred a hive)
With so many folks getting stung on ebay these days I think you really lucked out with this one. Much prefer it to Wendy's Gold - much more intense yellow and somehow more dramatic in appearance. Not often we hear of someone getting the wrong snowdrop and being elated.
johnw
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I have a theory that sometimes a snowdrop will be partially pollinated by another nearby flower and also gets some of its own pollen in its stigma, and the foreign pollen overcomes the self-pollination inhibitors, allowing the flower's own pollen to fertilise ovules. But it's just a theory.
Martin -
Interesting concept.
Does anyone know exactly how many tubes are in the stigmatic column of a Galanthus? i.e. How many fathers can a single pod contain? In Rhododendron of course you can have mutliple fathers for the seed produced by one seedpod (ovary). I know this has nothing to do with your theory above but it sure throws some expectations out the window when we do a deliberate cross and do not emasculate & protect the stigma afterwards.
Sad there has een so little research done on fertility in Galanthus. Do we even have solidly verified chromosome counts for the species and inter-specific hybrids?
johnw
John,
All galanthus have the same basic chromosome count - 2n = 24, most being diploids but with some known triploids, tetraploids and hexaploids. So theoretically all species can inter-cross, although some species have widely differing DNA mass which seems to make them less likely to cross while others with similar DNA mass seem to cross more readily. Inter-specific hybrids of course all have 2n=24 and their DNA mass varies according to parentage, which can help when guessing at what the parents of a hybrid might be.
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Sorry, John, missed your other question about stigmatic tubes and ovules. I don't know about the tubes, but galanthus tend only to have a few ovules per ovary compared to say narcissus - often only a handful of seeds per capsule, although that can vary upwards to perhaps twenty or so, but usually much less. The low levels of ovules per ovary don't help when you're trying to breed with low-fertility triploids and hybrids as that of course reduces the chances of success from any particular pollination even further.
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Does anyone think the extremely cold weather we are are now enduring could damage our snowdrops considering how far advanced they are after the mildest January on record?
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Does anyone think the extremely cold weather we are are now enduring could damage our snowdrops considering how far advanced they are after the mildest January on record?
They should be fine in the main. Snowdrops are pretty tough, unless frozen solid in unprotected wet pots for a long time as happened to some people last winter. In the ground they should be okay. The cold hasn't been severe enough, at least here in the UK, or prolonged enough to go deep into the ground.
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I have a snowdrop coming today from ebay but the ground is rock hard. What would be the best thing to do? Thanks in advance for any advice.
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If I was expecting a snowdrop scatigaz, I'd plant it in a pot of well draining gritty compost & keep it frost free until better weather. Last year I kept all my new acquisitions in pots protected from frost on the shady side of my bungalow & then planted them out in July when they were dormant bulbs. They had formed lovely firm bulbs as the protected environment helped them retain their foliage much longer than being out in the garden.
As soon as I unpack snowdrops I dip them in diluted Canna Rhizotonic root stimulator & Growth Technology 'SuperDrive'. I also water them in with the same solution. These are both expensive but a little goes a very long way & if I'm planting a £50 snowdrop I like to think I'm giving it a little kick up the behind........ From experience I've found it seems works.
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That's scribbled in there too along with various other stuff I have learnt along the way. ;D
Perhaps we should have a new thread :-\
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A better picture of G.'Corrin' - I can't tell you how many attempts I have made ::)
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A better picture of G.'Corrin' - I can't tell you how many attempts I have made ::)
And well worth all of the effort - lovely markings :)
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I have a snowdrop coming today from ebay but the ground is rock hard. What would be the best thing to do? Thanks in advance for any advice.
Number one hope they don't freeze in the mail, always a big concern here shipping anything before late March. Otherwise pot and await a thaw.
I agree with Martin, the snowdrops will be fine. In mid April 1981 we had -7c after a very early Spring, +20c even in February that year. That was highly unusual, friends were in Edinburgh that same day - the end of the AGS Tours - and they too had an extremely bad frost the same night, whacked all the new growth on the rhodos. The evergreen azaleas were showing colour in late March here and then bam. The snowdrops were long over and were not at all affected by the strong frost.
johnw
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That's scribbled in there too along with various other stuff I have learnt along the way. ;D
Perhaps we should have a new thread :-\
Could do, Chris..... if you'd like to help by assembling a note of the posts referring to such things?
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And well worth all of the effort - lovely markings :)
Cheers Chris, I could see that it was worth it from all the viewings it has had - I expect Rannveig will be knocked over by all the requests ;)
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Great pictures everyone as usual. I cant believe we have snowdrops with open petals today the ground is frozen solid with bright sunshine I suppose this opens the flowers. I am posting a few from the garden one is a Castle no 14 2011 collection which is very scented a heavy honey like smell very powerfull, cheers Ian the Christie kind
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Ian I am growing Baylham here also ,do you have any idea where it originated....................I was thinking Norfolk (Brian?)
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Castle no 14 2011 collection which is very scented a heavy honey like smell very powerfull, cheers Ian the Christie kind
That's interesting, Ian. I find that plicatus and p. byzantinus generally don't have a very sweet honey scent but a mustier scent, not unpleasant but not as strong and sweet as the typical nivalis honey scent.
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Ian I am growing Baylham here also ,do you have any idea where it originated....................I was thinking Norfolk (Brian?)
These 3 links should help
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2931.msg70297#msg70297
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2931.msg70267#msg70267
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1498.15
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Hi Martin the G plicatus Castle 14 is in a pond basket so brought it in to photograph it is very strong would not want to live with it all the time a very neat snowdrop only 10cm high just now suspect it will get taller, cheers Ian.
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Thanks Chris
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Martin I went out a had a sniff of my plicatus 'drops. None were musty
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Martin I went out a had a sniff of my plicatus 'drops. None were musty
Maybe musty is the wrong word. I find the plicatus scent is quite different to the honey scent of nivalis but it's difficult to describe it. Certainly not sweet.
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Hi Martin the G plicatus Castle 14 is in a pond basket so brought it in to photograph it is very strong would not want to live with it all the time a very neat snowdrop only 10cm high just now suspect it will get taller, cheers Ian.
I'll have to keep an eye out for it coming on the market when it's been bulked up for sale. I select out strongly scented snowdrops from amongst my seedlings so I can breed for scent as well as flower quality because I think it's just as important. The range of subtly different (and sometimes not so subtly different) scents you can get is quite fascinating.
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Brian - Corrin is lovely and well worth the effort. Am amazed it is standing up as all mine are flat to the ground. Everything in the greenhouses, tunnel and potting shed are frozen solid. I have put some potted snowdrops in the front porch where they will not freeze. Even the ones sunk into deep bark are frozen. Will just have to hope and pray.
Ian - lovely photos....I especially like Pyramid. Are the outers really that long? I love the long petalled ones.
Jennie
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Mark, what would you say the scent from your plicatus was like? It varies of course, not all are exactly the same.
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I was out photographing the first G. nivalis clump to open when I noticed that at least five of the flowers have four outer segments and most have four inner segments too. A quick survey of my hundreds of other nivalis clumps revealed only the standard three. Snowdrops has a division of nivalis for this A2c and says nivalis is inclined to do this but only lists two examples. Does anyone know about or have experience with this? I am of course going to separate the plants in question for observation in future years.
Thanks, Carolyn
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Hi Martin the G plicatus Castle 14 is in a pond basket so brought it in to photograph it is very strong would not want to live with it all the time a very neat snowdrop only 10cm high just now suspect it will get taller, cheers Ian.
I'll have to keep an eye out for it coming on the market when it's been bulked up for sale. I select out strongly scented snowdrops from amongst my seedlings so I can breed for scent as well as flower quality because I think it's just as important. The range of subtly different (and sometimes not so subtly different) scents you can get is quite fascinating.
Martin it's fantastic to hear somebody taking scent into the equation while breeding.
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A few quick pics in today's sunshine...
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Hi Martin the G plicatus Castle 14 is in a pond basket so brought it in to photograph it is very strong would not want to live with it all the time a very neat snowdrop only 10cm high just now suspect it will get taller, cheers Ian.
I'll have to keep an eye out for it coming on the market when it's been bulked up for sale. I select out strongly scented snowdrops from amongst my seedlings so I can breed for scent as well as flower quality because I think it's just as important. The range of subtly different (and sometimes not so subtly different) scents you can get is quite fascinating.
Martin it's fantastic to hear somebody taking scent into the equation while breeding.
I agree.
Scent is very important to many of us as a real factor in our enjoyment of flowers.
When Malcolm McG. was editor of the Rock Garden he was always tryingto get me to write about scent in flowers... I always refused, because the appreciation and perception of fragrance is such a subjective thing. And for most scents it is really hard to find suitable words to describe them!
....and still we have no fragrance button on the forum.... such a disappointment to me..... ::) :P ;)
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....and still we have no fragrance button on the forum.... such a disappointment to me..... ::) :P ;)
Maggi, that might be a blessing, thinking of those ugly big things whose name escapes me that are supposed to smell like death warmed up.
Am sure you know the plant of which I speak.
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thinking of those ugly big things whose name escapes me that are supposed to smell like death warmed up.
contractors? ;D
I might be a little bitter after the last week or so.
think it was Steve who bought me a Rev Hailstone as a swap a few years ago, the scent from one flower having been in a warm car was amazing.
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All my Washfield Warham/Finale are now above ground with their flowers visible between the leaves. This is at least 4 weeks early.
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Probably should have shown this last month. A lovely elegant plicatus grown from seed. The photos don't show how elegant it is.
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I noticed that at least five of the flowers have four outer segments and most have four inner segments too.
I think by and large this is something that can happen one year but not the next; so I generally ignore four-petalled nivalis when I find them. But a minority of snowdrops will do this reproducibly.
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That's scribbled in there too along with various other stuff I have learnt along the way. ;D
Perhaps we should have a new thread :-\
Could do, Chris..... if you'd like to help by assembling a note of the posts referring to such things?
I just checked and I only have the 'Bill Clarke' and 'Harold Howard Wheeler' scribbled in. I thought I had made more amendments that that..... :-\
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I was out photographing the first G. nivalis clump to open when I noticed that at least five of the flowers have four outer segments and most have four inner segments too.
Hi Carolyn
About 6 years ago a friend and I went on the hunt for 4 petal flowers on a private estate in Hampshire. I think we found about 5 different ones all with 4 petals that we took into our gardens. Sadly none ever did it again in future years - though one did have 3.5 petals last year.
Hopefully the fact that you have 4 in a slump could mean that it is a stable form and definitely worth keeping separate to study in future years.
Over here there are some reputably stable 4 petal forms sometimes sold.
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Probably should have shown this last month. A lovely elegant plicatus grown from seed. The photos don't show how elegant it is.
I like that Mark - very substantial looking flower and nice upright chunky foliage
Jennie
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Hi Chas, sorry do not know but I like the inner marks have had a look at the leaves and flowers suspect that it has some G plicatus in it will try and get a close up picture but we are under snow today was expected but getting deep already, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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Chas and Ian, Baylham is sold by Barrie Turner on Ebay.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2931.msg70297#msg70297 (http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2931.msg70297#msg70297)
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Well we were warned about snow and it has arrived in large quantities just managed to get some pictures of the snowy snowies before the are buried, cheers Ian the Christie kind
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Just lots of rain and cold wind here in Aberdeen. :P
Was astonished to see on the lunchtime news that Heathrow has already cancelled a third of the flights tomorrow in expectation of 15cms of snow. :o
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A few quick pics in today's sunshine...
Steve, when I corresponded with Olive Mason in 2010 about the snowdrop that she had named for her Aunt, she called it 'Aunt Agnes' - I couldn't help but notice that your photo caption says 'Aunty Agnes' (and quite by co-incidence I have just received an email from someone else who refers to it as 'Auntie Agnes').
I am led to wonder if this new snowdrop is already circulating under several (slightly) different names?
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Just lots of rain and cold wind here in Aberdeen. :P
Was astonished to see on the lunchtime news that Heathrow has already cancelled a third of the flights tomorrow in expectation of 15cms of snow. :o
My understanding is that the flights have been cancelled because they know that they will only be able to get planes in and out on a restricted basis whilst this snow is actually falling i.e. because of lack of visibility - once the snow has actually settled on the ground, they appear to be pretty confident about clearing it quickly because of all of the new equipment that they have invested in since the fiasco of a year or two back.
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A few quick pics in today's sunshine...
Steve, when I corresponded with Olive Mason in 2010 about the snowdrop that she had named for her Aunt, she called it 'Aunt Agnes' - I couldn't help but notice that your photo caption says 'Aunty Agnes' (and quite by co-incidence I have just received an email from someone else who refers to it as 'Auntie Agnes').
I am led to wonder if this new snowdrop is already circulating under several (slightly) different names?
Chris, You may well be right. ;)
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A few from today. Cold here -5c still. Head still ringing as forgot to shut the alarm off before entering.
All Saints
Augustus
Bertram Anderson
hmmm - too cold to stretch for the label - might be a good quizz
John Gray
nivalis ssp. imperati ex Dr. Fischer
Percy Picton
plicatus Diggory - trying to get this back on its feet again after pilaging it and a disease outbreak
johnw
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Robin Hood
plicatus Sophie North
Seagull
Sutton Courtenay
unknown - leaves
unknown - flower
The unknown is most like a named one in inventory whose label has gone missing. Anyone care to take a stab at it.
johnw
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The name of hmmm has just come to mind, so I am ready for guesses.
johnw
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John, from the large spathes I'd say hmmmm is warei. The unknown - did you have rizehensis. From the leaves, it looks like it could be the triploid form rizehensis Baytop.
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Gawd you're good Martin!
I seem to have accounted for all rizenhensis but just searched my file for Warei and entry says under nivalis Warei (original source Foxgrove) "where is pot #1?". I will take more shots when the leaves expand. This bulb would date back to the 90's so I hope it is the "good" Warei I saw on Foxgrove stand back a couple of years ago.
Premature. The green tipped hmmm should be Mill House. I'll check the label tomorrow.
The unknown could be one of the rizehensis marked dead - will check again. Now out the door to a Chinese NY Banquet.
johnw
johnw
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Chez Millen in Kent after a lecture last night. I did Crocus, they do Galanthus.
Here are a few which caught my eye on a very cold morning. Fantastic use of railway sleepers for making terraces.
White Swan
Big Boy
Roger Rough
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wow I really like the use of sleepers
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"Insert Quote wow I really like the use of sleepers"
Me too. The sleepers standing vertically are especially nice. And they certainly look a lot larger than the ones to be found in Canada. Are they about 10 inches wide? I hadn't noticed the trains in England were particularly big, just that the doors don't open from within.
johnw
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shame about the weather, decided it was too far to go to see drops frozen to the ground :(
spring platt looks very nice and yes the upright sleepers look great, will try again next year.
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Richard
You might have trouble even getting there.
15 cm here and has drifted.
Also knocked out my SKY satellite, so cannot watch England getting their come-uppance in the warm of Dubai.
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Chez Millen in Kent after a lecture last night. I did Crocus, they do Galanthus.
Here are a few which caught my eye on a very cold morning. Fantastic use of railway sleepers for making terraces.
Not only that Tony, but you don't have to bend down to see them ;D
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Richard
You might have trouble even getting there.
15 cm here and has drifted.
Also knocked out my SKY satellite, so cannot watch England getting their come-uppance in the warm of Dubai.
Hope it stayed on for England beating Scotland :'( inthe Rugby yesterday, Art?
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Hope it stayed on for England beating Scotland :'( inthe Rugby yesterday, Art?
[/quote]
Unfortunately yes - I think I prefer watching paint dry.
The poor beating the incompetent ::)
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Hope it stayed on for England beating Scotland :'( inthe Rugby yesterday, Art?
Unfortunately yes - I think I prefer watching paint dry.
The poor beating the incompetent ::)
[/quote]
I did not watch, the shouting and cursing upsets me.... and Ian too :P
Ian tells me that it is miraculous that Scotland has discovered a new way of losing... to dominate the play and still lose to an inferior team. ::)
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Maggi, it was beyond belief that Scotland did not win. It was certainly not a case of England winning but of Scotland losing.
Paddy
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Hope it stayed on for England beating Scotland :'( inthe Rugby yesterday, Art?
Unfortunately yes - I think I prefer watching paint dry.
The poor beating the incompetent ::)
I did not watch, the shouting and cursing upsets me.... and Ian too :P
Ian tells me that it is miraculous that Scotland has discovered a new way of losing... to dominate the play and still lose to an inferior team. ::)
[/quote]Sometimes it's not about how you win ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D SORRY
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You're quite right, Davey... a win is a win. Makes it tough for the loser though!! ;D ;D
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I only jest Maggie,all my dads side of the family are from Fife and we always argue about England vs Scotland ;D ;D
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Martin - The hmmm was indeed Mill House.
Frigid here at -8c and only a scratch of snow on the ground. Low last night of -11c but rising to +3 tomorrow.
johnw
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Martin - The hmmm was indeed Mill House.
Frigid here at -8c and only a scratch of snow on the ground. Low last night of -11c but rising to +3 tomorrow.
johnw
John does Mill House differ a lot from Warei.
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Martin - The hmmm was indeed Mill House.
Frigid here at -8c and only a scratch of snow on the ground. Low last night of -11c but rising to +3 tomorrow. johnw
John does Mill House differ a lot from Warei.
Davey - Here are two shots of each - Mill House and Warei (source Foxgrove 15-20 years ago). I fear this Warei may have packed it in. Photos from previous years. MH has a split spathe otherwise the ovary is different, mark is a shallower angle and possibly the price. ;) Pot is inaccessible so can't check vernation and leaf, I can find no refernce to it as a nivalis. ??? Leaves are quite small compared to other nivalis.
johnw - a balmy -7c
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A few more from today:
Seagull
plicatus Sophie North
Percy Picton
Marjorie Brown
Jessica
Icicle
elwesii ex Don's friend
johnw
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And a few more:
Gregory Gill
George Elwes
Cicely Hall (certainly worthy to bear her name as above GE)
All Saints (I'm quite fond of this one)
johnw
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Lastly 3 plicatus grown from SRGC 93-1634.
Quite a few have markings with spikey tops to them. As they grow in a trough and get transplanted annually I wonder if I should let them stay put to see if the markings will fill out.
johnw
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Your weather may be cold and horrible outside, John, but you are getting super pix of the 'drops.
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My goodness, John, a wonderful selection of snowdrops. Paddy
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Your weather may be cold and horrible outside, John, but you are getting super pix of the 'drops.
A cheap Fuji Coolpix which I dropped on the greenhouse floor this afternoon! Still working.
johnw
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Your weather may be cold and horrible outside, John, but you are getting super pix of the 'drops.
A cheap Fuji Coolpix which I dropped on the greenhouse floor this afternoon! Still working.
johnw
Sturdily built, eh? ....and the camera too, of course. ;D ;D ;)
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John it's 'Gill Gregory' not the other way round. Nice photo's for a snow covered day here.
Davey 'Mill House' was named by Cliff Curtis as you can see it is very similar to G.'Viridapice', however on a mature bulb the flower is held on a very long pedicel.
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Martin - The hmmm was indeed Mill House.
Frigid here at -8c and only a scratch of snow on the ground. Low last night of -11c but rising to +3 tomorrow.
johnw
Sorry John, I thought your hmmmm had large spathes but looking back at the photo I think I was mistaking leaves for spathes. Must have been tired or in a hurry :-\
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A few photos from Myddleton House
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Excellent photos Jennie
It almost looks warm :)
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Why has Galanthus 'Ruth Maclaren' not been mentioned before.
I bought this from Wol & Sue at Myddleton House. A vigorous plant with an excellent mark - also very distinctive looking like a small snowdrop sitting on the inverted 'v'.
I will post a picture later.
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Art - I think Ruth and Martha are both John Grimshaw's neices. They both lived here for awhile with their parents and luckily John visited so we had a great speaker for our Chapter. If Ruth is as good as the 'Martha McLaren' I have you have added a great snowdrop to your collection. I haven't seen it offered at Colesbourne yet.
johnw
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It almost looks warm :)
There speaks an optomist ;)
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It almost looks warm :)
There speaks an optomist ;)
Not really, I think his spectacles are still fogged up!
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Art - I think Ruth and Martha are John Grimshaw's neices. They both lived here for awhile with their parents and luckily John visited so we had a great speaker for our Chapter. If Ruth is as good as the 'Martha McLaren' I have you have added a great snowdrop to your collection. I haven't seen it offered at Colesbourne yet.
johnw
Thanks for the info John.
I think the mark is a stunner - looking for a new battery for camera to take the photo that I am sure will require the drooling emocion - stand by Maggi
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In 2010 I purchased about 1,000 seeds of Galanthus nivalis from Jelitto. At the time I was amazed they sprouted immediately. Thereafter I paid no attention to them whatsoever. I transplanted them whilst dormant with the soil intact and without examing the bulbs. I really paid no attention to them after the pepped above ground. That is until today when they all flowered blue. Some sort of squinny Scilla or Chionodoxa. :-X
johnw
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In 2010 I purchased about 1,000 seeds of Galanthus nivalis from Jelitto. At the time I was amazed they sprouted immediately. Thereafter I paid no attention to them whatsoever. I transplanted them whilst dormant with the soil intact and without examing the bulbs. I really paid no attention to them after the pepped above ground. That is until today when they all flowered blue. Some sort of squinny Scilla or Chionodoxa. :-X
johnw
Oh, that hurts :-X
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Here are shots of 'Ruth Maclaren' taken in my kitchen for obvious reasons, but contributing a slightly strange colour.
I think that this is a must for all drop fiends - the mark includes a bonus snowdrop. :) ;D :)
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That's lovely Arthur, I especially like the bonus drop :D
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that is very nice.
this is all I could find today, Bill Baker's Large in foreground.... ;)
I did like the effect of the snow on recently dug beds in the kitchen garden.
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That's lovely Arthur, I especially like the bonus drop :D
Something to look for at the Gala scrum.
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Here are shots of 'Ruth Maclaren' taken in my kitchen for obvious reasons, but contributing a slightly strange colour.
I think that this is a must for all drop fiends - the mark includes a bonus snowdrop. :) ;D :)
A ' pregnant' snowdrop,lovely :o
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That's lovely Arthur, I especially like the bonus drop :D
Something to look for at the Gala scrum.
Mark
Have you ever seen it offered before?
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Very nice Arthur, a good addition to any collection :)
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Arthur that would make a fantastic valentine present.I have never heard of it but then again being soooo new to the game i haven't heard of quite a few.
Thank you John and Brian for explanation of mill house.
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Arthur - Ruth Maclaren is lovely and definitely one to add to the wishlist.
Lovely snow scenes Richard - it looks pretty much like that here.
Here are a few photos of plants bought on Saturday
1. This is Arthur's Jonathan - mine is plastered to the ground in the snow. On Saturday there was a very distinctive orange glow between the markings but my camera has not picked it up very well. It is a lovely snowdrop
2. Gemini ex PC from Glen Chantry. A really huge flower that willingly opens its wings. I love it.
3. Fieldgate Fugue
4 & 5. Plants for sale on the Glen Chantry stand
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I've had G. x allenii in the house all day trying to get it to open for a photo, but it seems very unwilling. Is this as far as it goes?
Emerald Isle, on the other hand, did oblige.
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I've had G. x allenii in the house all day trying to get it to open for a photo, but it seems very unwilling. Is this as far as it goes?
Emerald Isle, on the other hand, did oblige.
Beautiful quality photos Anne. The dark background really works - I will have to find a dark board.
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Not before now Arthur
Anne maybe Allenii isnt ready to open. Guard the Emerald Isle while I'm there ::)
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John it's 'Gill Gregory' not the other way round.
Correct in the inventory, backwards in the mind. ;)
johnw
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Absolutely gutted, had just one flower in my Gal Diggory. With the hard frost we have had over the last few days it was flat on the ground.
Today I noticed that something had been having a go at it :(
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Here are shots of 'Ruth Maclaren' taken in my kitchen for obvious reasons, but contributing a slightly strange colour.
I think that this is a must for all drop fiends - the mark includes a bonus snowdrop. :) ;D :)
Great snowdrop Arthur. If you hadn't mentioned the bonus I would never have spotted it. I did spy a green bat in flight though.
johnw
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Oh, that hurts :-X
I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse when they id the bulb!
johnw
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Rick - sorry to hear about your Diggory. It is so annoying when things like that happen after you have waited a year for it to bloom. I finally had two flower heads on Hunton Green after waiting two years.....and something has snapped one of the flowers off and left it laying beside the plant grrrr.
I am having trouble posting photos but will give it one more go.
Here are a few more taken in the snow yesterday in the their pots - it was nice and bright for photographs.
1. Toby
2. Naughton
3. woronowii 'Cider with Rosie' - very very tiny
4. South Hayes
5. Homersfield (have wanted this since Brian posted it last year)
6. Priscilla Bacon
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Here are shots of 'Ruth Maclaren' taken in my kitchen for obvious reasons, but contributing a slightly strange colour.
I think that this is a must for all drop fiends - the mark includes a bonus snowdrop. :) ;D :)
Great snowdrop Arthur. If you hadn't mentioned the bonus I would never have spotted it. I did spy a green bat in flight though.
johnw
I see that, I see that!
Oh good grief, this is serious... something must be done.....
repeat after me : Margaret, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower,
you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower .....
dear me... must lie down in darkened room. :P
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Keep calm and eat chocolate until it passes, Maggi.
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Rick - sorry to hear about your Diggory. It is so annoying when things like that happen after you have waited a year for it to bloom. I finally had two flower heads on Hunton Giant after waiting two years.....and something has snapped one of the flowers off and left it laying beside the plant grrrr.
I am having trouble posting photos but will give it one more go.
Here are a few more taken in the snow yesterday in the their pots - it was nice and bright for photographs.
Thanks!!
Lovely photos, really like Cider with Rosie (had never heard of it before) and Homersfield.
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My Epiphany doesnt look correct. ???
elwesii Lord Monostictus
elwesii Comet doing a Magnet
Margaret Biddulph
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Those armfuls of bags certainly held some goodies Jennie, ;D you'll love Homersfield, very floriferous. I like the way that Gemini behaves too :)
Anne your Emerald Isle is stunning, mine is under 4 inches of snow, I wish I'd had it in a pot to admire it indoors :D
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'Wendy's Gold' Round Two
Before I post the photos, I would like to remind everyone of the background. Mark went on my website where I have a photo of 'Wendy's Gold' and asked if my 'Wendy's Gold' always had two eyes. I didn't know what he was talking about and posted the photo on the forum. From there we were off and running.
Well my 'Wendy's Gold' opened and here are the results. The 2011 flower is on the left and the 2012 flower of the exact same plant is on the right (I only have two). The flower spread apart is below. Enjoy, Carolyn
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Fascinating Carolyn.
It has to make you wonder if plicatus has unstable markings. I just checked my Wendy's Gold photos and it's scary. They too are all over the map, short marks, tall marks, dagger-topped marks and ovaries of every shape possible.
re: my posting 165 looks rather silly now. I will have to pay closer attention to each and every plicatus seedling for stability, a seemingly impossible job.
johnw
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Well, Carolyn - to me it looks as if it has turned itself back into Wendy's Gold! How bizarre. Maybe it just needed time to settle itself down in your garden. It goes to prove how mistakes can easily be made and at the rate snowdrops are changing hands in the UK it could all too soon be one big mess of wrongly named plants and utter confusion.
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it could all too soon be one big mess ... and utter confusion.
Could be? ::) ;)
johnw
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Anne your Emerald Isle is stunning, mine is under 4 inches of snow, I wish I'd had it in a pot to admire it indoors :D
Re Anne's photographs of G. 'Emerald Isle'
I would have expected to see some green striping on the outer segments of G. 'Emerald Isle'. Perhaps the photograph doesn't show them or they are not so strong this year - this is something I have noticed, stronger/weaker one than another.
Photograph from last year attached for comparison. Not open here yet, planted outdoors.
Paddy
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Some snowdrops do seem to have rather unstable genes that cause seasonal variations and variations depending on the age of the bulb, like variations in inner mark, variations in green outer markings (as in Emerald Isle - and an ikaria seedling of mine that had great green tips last year and none at all this year!) but the majority are pretty stable from one season to another. It seems there can also be some variation in ovary shape, although here again most snowdrops do seem to be fairly stable in that regard as well. Maybe Wendy's Gold is just one of those rather unstable examples. We already know that the yellow colour can vary a lot depending on conditions, so it's probably no surprise that it can vary in other ways too. People probably just don't generally look that close - one of the benefits of seeing good quality large close-up photos on here.
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It could be the light in Anne's photo but I can see green.
I bought my elwesii Lord Monostictus in 2008 as a single bulb. There are now 18. After dividing them last year it's interesting to see a variation in height and flowering time.
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It could be the light in Anne's photo but I can see green
I see what you mean, Mark. At first glance there's no green, but when you stare at it you seem to get just a hint of green shading, then it's gone again! Weird!
BTW I think I may be coming down with something similar to you. Very tired and aching, flu-like but also very icky :-\ Hope I'm well enough for the gala.
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Paddy, there are green marks, but they are quite faint and I couldn't get them to show up very well on the photo.
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a few of mine:
S Arnott
Brenda Troyle
Diggory
Llo 'n' green
Trym (does this always have such a limey coloured ovary?)
Trymlet (even more so)
David Baker
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Paddy, there are green marks, but they are quite faint and I couldn't get them to show up very well on the photo.
I could see very faint green marks and assumed it was either the season or the difficulty of photographing it. My 'Big Boy' and 'Jessica' have no green marks this year so I had half thought it was the season. Of course when it thaws they might suddenly appear :D
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Does Diane's Trym look more like South Hayes? S Arnott must be an all-time classic, everybody should have some.
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You are right that the mark is much bigger than you would expect for 'Trym', but I would have thought the outers were much broader than you would expect for 'South Hayes', there are now loads of 'Trym' seedlings about with names exhibiting slight variances and perhaps it is a seedling from a 'Trym' rather than an offset or one of these like 'Trymposter' 'Trumpolute' etc?
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Does Diane's Trym look more like South Hayes?
Yes, it does have a stronger mark than usual. It came from Wol so I assume it's correct. Don't want to mention "South Hayes" :'( - mine is in Galanthus isolation hospital being treated for stag. hopefully caught in time.
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well the ground is frozen solid so i thought instead of being bored post a couple of pics from the greenhouse.First one i would like an id for it was bought as G.viripice,the second is its tiny brother G.elfin(is it spelt right because i have seen it spelt elphin as well)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0031-1.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0032-2.jpg)
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first one looks like Viridapice to me.
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first one looks like Viridapice to me.
Richard my normal viridipice doesn't have such long ears and these flowers are a lot smaller.But still i am no expert.
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Davey, last time I saw ears that long there was a furry face under them, chewing carrots!
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It came from Wol so I assume it's correct.
I shouldn't think there's any doubt then. They do know what they're doing 8)
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Davey, last time I saw ears that long there was a furry face under them, chewing carrots!
I have said it before but you fair make me chuckle.
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Back for a moment to Anne's G. 'Emerald Isle' - Looking back, I think I can see some hint of green alright. I have found that some years the green is more visible than others.
On a similar vein, I have noticed one flower in a clump of G. 'Comet' with noticeable green markings at the tips of the outer segments. Likewise, I have the same on G. elwesii monostictus this year, very faint.
Nice to see G. 'Brenda Troyle' doing nicely for you Diane. It is one which has done very well for me here and I am delighted with it. Will post a photograph in a few minutes.
Paddy
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Richard my normal viridipice doesn't have such long ears and these flowers are a lot smaller.But still i am no expert.
my pot grown plants are always smaller, they also vary quite a lot depending on where they are growing, mine do have very long ears like the photo, I'll take some pics when things have thawed.
Paddy that's a lovely clump, I've just planted a lot & I'll be very happy if they look like that in few years.
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... Maybe Wendy's Gold is just one of those rather unstable examples. We already know that the yellow colour can vary a lot depending on conditions, so it's probably no surprise that it can vary in other ways too. People probably just don't generally look that close - one of the benefits of seeing good quality large close-up photos on here.
I'm still a bit surprised; you would think that so many of us grow Wendy's Gold we would have noticed before if it had a habit of turning into Bill Clark from time to time. On the other hand, I do sometimes neglect to look closely at the snowdrops I own whilst giving minute attention to the ones on the sales table. But thanks very much for posting the photos, Carolyn. I regard this as a demonstration of how well this forum can work when we combine good photographs, sharp eyes and our collective knowledge.
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Richard my normal viridipice doesn't have such long ears and these flowers are a lot smaller.But still i am no expert.
my pot grown plants are always smaller, they also vary quite a lot depending on where they are growing, mine do have very long ears like the photo, I'll take some pics when things have thawed.
Paddy that's a lovely clump, I've just planted a lot & I'll be very happy if they look like that in few years.
Thank you Richard
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Diane - Nice collection there.
How many outers on your Trymlet this year?
johnw - +3c and overcast.
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A couple of Forumists have asked to see "Flamborough Head" that I mentioned a few posts ago..
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Diane - Nice collection there.
How many outers on your Trymlet this year?
It's not opened up yet, so hard to tell. ::)
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A couple of Forumists have asked to see "Flamborough Head" that I mentioned a few posts ago..
Now if Maggi can't see Foghorn J. Leghorn in that one I'll eat my snowdrop hat.
Quite unique Steve.
johnw
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the best I could do outside today, one of my finds poking through.
and Melanie Broughton I picked up at the weekend.
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Steve Ermentrude would have been better
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Dear me.... I can see both Foghorn Leghorn AND Ermintrude in that Flamborough head... I thought all you were supposed to see off Flamborough Head was passing boats?
(An old friend of mine is married to a VERY eminent E.N.T. specialist who looks more like FL than the cartoon character does.... I've never been able to keep a straight face speaking to him. :-X :-[ )
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Wow Steve - that is very unusual. I did not have a clue who Foghorn Leghorn was so googled him and could see the likeness immediately :D
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Lovely photos everyone. Paddy that natural drift of Brenda Troyle is breathtaking. I love the simplicity of her and have it lining a pathway in the garden where it stands really tall - but I have a way to go before the clump is as impressive as yours.
I took a few photos inside today but the focus is not that great.
1. Puck - very weird little one
2. Puck again showing 2 protrusions from the ovary
3. Puck inside
4. x Lady Dalhousie
5. x Lady Dalhousie close up
6. Gray's Child
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well the ground is frozen solid so i thought instead of being bored post a couple of pics from the greenhouse.First one i would like an id for it was bought as G.viripice,the second is its tiny brother G.elfin(is it spelt right because i have seen it spelt elphin as well)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0031-1.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0032-2.jpg)
With the split spathe your viridipice looks more like Sharlockii to me :)
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A few more
1. Daglingworth
2. Ruth Birchall
3. plicatus Little Emma
4. woronowii Cider with Rosie with open flowers
5. Edith - love the sheer size of this one
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I thought Sharlockii also
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Cider and Edith wow.
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Great variation in sinus depth in your pics Jennie
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Anybody help with a name for me. My label says Y. snowdrop ::)
Angie :)
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Thank you Mark and Jo i thought that as well.£3 bargin
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Great variation in sinus depth in your pics Jennie
I know Jo its amazing.....but still my family insist they all look the same & think I'm bonkers ;)
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Jennie
Your Edith is spectacular, what a mark. :o
johnw
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In 2010 I purchased about 1,000 seeds of Galanthus nivalis from Jelitto. At the time I was amazed they sprouted immediately. Thereafter I paid no attention to them whatsoever. I transplanted them whilst dormant with the soil intact and without examing the bulbs. I really paid no attention to them after the pepped above ground. That is until today when they all flowered blue. Some sort of squinny Scilla or Chionodoxa. :-Xjohnw
Oh, that hurts :-X
Actually had long discussions with Jelitto today, they have been absolutely super to deal with. The matter has been reasonably explained - a forgivable mistake -and resolved to my satisfaction.
In the meantime my contact has confessed to being a Leucojumphile
Turns out the Scilla was bifolia. I know nothing about it. Is it garden-worthy? Hard to tell here as they're juvenile.
johnw
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Loving the images...some real beauty's... 8)
Few of mine last couple of days...
1) Merlin
2) Nothing Special
3) Sandersii
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In 2010 I purchased about 1,000 seeds of Galanthus nivalis from Jelitto. At the time I was amazed they sprouted immediately. Thereafter I paid no attention to them whatsoever. I transplanted them whilst dormant with the soil intact and without examing the bulbs. I really paid no attention to them after the pepped above ground. That is until today when they all flowered blue. Some sort of squinny Scilla or Chionodoxa. :-Xjohnw
Oh, that hurts :-X
Actually had long discussions with Jelitto today, they have been absolutely superb to deal with. The matter has been reasonably explained - a forgiveable mistake -and resolved to my satisfaction.
In the meantime my contact has confessed to being a Leucojumphile and has been selecting vernums - dwarves, doubles and so on. So now I have ordered seed of regular vernum as well.
Turns out the Scilla was bifolia. I know nothing about it. Is it garden-worthy? Hard to tell here as they're juvenile.
johnw
A Leucojock, eh? That's good news! Sounds interesting that he's selecting them.
Scilla bifolia is quite a cute little thing - can make a nice show potfull in the right hands and it's good for naturalising in the garden. Not the most spectacular of garden plant if sparsely planted but fat drifts are good (well, fat drifts of just about any bulb are good!)
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Great photos everyone.
A picture I took on Saturday before the snow fell.
'Art Nouveau'
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re: the Leucojock
I am trying to envision dwarf Leucojum vernums, they sound very enticing. Watch out Galanthus!
johnw
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Apologies for introducing a touch of blue into this thread.
Scilla bifolia for John W.
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Apologies for introducing a touch of blue into this thread.
Scilla bifolia for John W.
Ah - these are cute little things and I have them seeding around in my woodland beds. They look quite nice among the snowdrops and I cannot imagine they would hinder them - I may be wrong. A lovely haze of blue when they are flowering.
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they are lovely but if it's anything like the one we have here they spread very fast & get into everything.
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Loving the images...some real beauty's... 8)
Few of mine last couple of days...
1) Merlin
2) Nothing Special
3) Sandersii
Nice photos Warren. Your sandersii looks nice. I have just bought a different clone as the one I bought 15 years ago is still only four flowers this year! Talk about slow to increase - stayed as one bulb for many years and I finally moved it two years ago and it is finally s-l-o-w-l-y growing - suppose the Narcissus fly will get it now ::)
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I have just bought a different clone as the one I bought 15 years ago is still only four flowers this year! Talk about slow to increase - stayed as one bulb for many years and I finally moved it two years ago and it is finally s-l-o-w-l-y growing - suppose the Narcissus fly will get it now ::)
The quickest clone that I have found to increase is the one from Roger Norman at Ivycroft. Seems a really good do'er in my garden. 8)
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Anybody help with a name for me. My label says Y. snowdrop ::)
Angie :)
Angie i am not 100% sure what drop it is but that is a lovely pot of yellow drops.
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Warren's photograph of 'Sandersii' also caught my eye; thought it caught the plant perfectly; lovely shot, pretty flowers.
A few snowdrops from the garden, shots taken over the last few days.
Paddy
Bill Bishop
elwesii monostictus
John Long
Mighty Atom
nivalis under magnolia
Pride o' the Mill
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A few more. Paddy
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Superb Arnott patch, Paddy. And Sophie North is doing very well for you too. Your garden obviously suits the snowdrops. You should probably be growing all of ours for us!
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Last few, Paddy
Waverley Aristocrat - raised by Harold McBride in Northern Ireland
Woodtown - an Irish snowdrop, very promising.
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Superb Arnott patch, Paddy. And Sophie North is doing very well for you too. Your garden obviously suits the snowdrops. You should probably be growing all of ours for us!
Oh, Martin, please send them over. I really do think I should be growing them for you. LOL.
I was trying to convince Ian Christie that he really needed to trial G. 'Elizabeth Harrison' here in my garden just to be sure it would do well under other conditions. Pity he didn't take me up on my offer.
G. 'S. Arnott' does very well here. That clump is from three bulbs purchased around 2000, so a good increase.
By the way, G. 'Sophie North' was set back quite a bit last year but has recovered well this year. It was moved the year before last so that may have set it back.
Paddy
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Fantastic drops Paddy. I so wish I had your space to grow them. As soon as something does well here I have to give it away to friends. :)
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Fantastic drops Paddy. I so wish I had your space to grow them. As soon as something does well here I have to give it away to friends. :)
John, as I said to Martin, I would be delighted, and most thankful, to grow your excess snowdrops here. I have the space and they would be given a good home.
Of course, I have been the beneficiary of your generosity previously and they are all doing very well.
Paddy
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Stunning Paddy i'm really jealous of your weather as well,all your drops are looking fantstic, mine are frozen to the ground :(
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Apologies for introducing a touch of blue into this thread.Scilla bifolia for John W.
Thanks so much Roma.
johnw
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If I was expecting a snowdrop scatigaz, I'd plant it in a pot of well draining gritty compost & keep it frost free until better weather. Last year I kept all my new acquisitions in pots protected from frost on the shady side of my bungalow & then planted them out in July when they were dormant bulbs. They had formed lovely firm bulbs as the protected environment helped them retain their foliage much longer than being out in the garden.
As soon as I unpack snowdrops I dip them in diluted Canna Rhizotonic root stimulator & Growth Technology 'SuperDrive'. I also water them in with the same solution. These are both expensive but a little goes a very long way & if I'm planting a £50 snowdrop I like to think I'm giving it a little kick up the behind........ From experience I've found it seems works.
Mike - I ordered the Canna Rhizotonic root stimulator on ebay but never realised you were talking about two products. Do you mix the Growth Technology 'SuperDrive' with the Canna Rhizotonic to make an all in one potion? I intend to try this on my Avon bulbs when they arrive bareroot (I pray they do not arrive too soon as we still have lots of snow on the ground and freezing temps at night).
I know several people are interested in these products as we chatted about it at Myddleton House on Saturday. I am always interested in trying anything new and it makes sense that a healthy bulb will be more resistant to disease and other problems (except NF and Swift Moth of course).
So I use 4mls Canna Rhiz to one litre of water?
I may leave my 'precious' purchases ie. Cider with Rosie in a lattice pot this year in my net polytunnel or in the woodlands between the trees with netting thrown over them. The Narcissus Fly is not getting this one ???
thanks
Jennie
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Loving the images...some real beauty's... 8)
Few of mine last couple of days...
1) Merlin
2) Nothing Special
3) Sandersii
Nice photos Warren. Your sandersii looks nice. I have just bought a different clone as the one I bought 15 years ago is still only four flowers this year! Talk about slow to increase - stayed as one bulb for many years and I finally moved it two years ago and it is finally s-l-o-w-l-y growing - suppose the Narcissus fly will get it now ::)
Thanks Jennie
My other sandersii doesn't look half as good as this one,, sound's very like your clone ..for some reason just can't stop looking at this one...!! :)
Warren
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A few more. Paddy
Paddy...Lovely images...must say your Sophie North & Arnott are stunning... :)
Warren
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I have just bought a different clone as the one I bought 15 years ago is still only four flowers this year! Talk about slow to increase - stayed as one bulb for many years and I finally moved it two years ago and it is finally s-l-o-w-l-y growing - suppose the Narcissus fly will get it now ::)
The quickest clone that I have found to increase is the one from Roger Norman at Ivycroft. Seems a really good do'er in my garden. 8)
That's the one pictured John...came from Roger Norman..fallen in love with this one... :)
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Paddy, that much S Arnott is just beautiful!
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they are lovely but if it's anything like the one we have here they spread very fast & get into everything.
Richard - I admit I am a tad apprehensive as Scilla hispanica and S. siberica are absolute thugs here. You can pull all the foliage off as it emerges and they still spread. Chionodoxa luciliae is just as bad but difficult to dislike.
johnw - -1 to 0c, clear skies.
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Paddy - how beautiful and healthy your snowdrops look - they are very happy in your Irish garden thats for sure. Absolutely stunning. 'Woodtown' is lovely.
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'Nothing Special' looks nothing special - am I missing something, or is it someone's little joke on the gullibility of galanthophiles?
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'Nothing Special' looks nothing special - am I missing something, or is it someone's little joke on the gullibility of galanthophiles?
Anne my friend has quite a large clump of it and looks lovely,it's a large flower and from what i can tell grows like stink.
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Then they could have given it a better name, I think. ::)
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Then they could have given it a better name, I think. ::)
I agree but i think the story is the person who's garden it was found in was asked what is that snowdrop there called and the reply was why its nothing special so it was named nothing special.
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Then they could have given it a better name, I think. ::)
I agree but i think the story is the person who's garden it was found in was asked what is that snowdrop there called and the reply was why its nothing special so it was named nothing special.
Which all goes to show how (pause for reflection).....No I won't say it. ::)
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If I was expecting a snowdrop scatigaz, I'd plant it in a pot of well draining gritty compost & keep it frost free until better weather. Last year I kept all my new acquisitions in pots protected from frost on the shady side of my bungalow & then planted them out in July when they were dormant bulbs. They had formed lovely firm bulbs as the protected environment helped them retain their foliage much longer than being out in the garden.
As soon as I unpack snowdrops I dip them in diluted Canna Rhizotonic root stimulator & Growth Technology 'SuperDrive'. I also water them in with the same solution. These are both expensive but a little goes a very long way & if I'm planting a £50 snowdrop I like to think I'm giving it a little kick up the behind........ From experience I've found it seems works.
Mike - I ordered the Canna Rhizotonic root stimulator on ebay but never realised you were talking about two products. Do you mix the Growth Technology 'SuperDrive' with the Canna Rhizotonic to make an all in one potion? I intend to try this on my Avon bulbs when they arrive bareroot (I pray they do not arrive too soon as we still have lots of snow on the ground and freezing temps at night).
I know several people are interested in these products as we chatted about it at Myddleton House on Saturday. I am always interested in trying anything new and it makes sense that a healthy bulb will be more resistant to disease and other problems (except NF and Swift Moth of course).
So I use 4mls Canna Rhiz to one litre of water?
I may leave my 'precious' purchases ie. Cider with Rosie in a lattice pot this year in my net polytunnel or in the woodlands between the trees with netting thrown over them. The Narcissus Fly is not getting this one ???
thanks
Jennie
Don't worry Jenny, we have sent out some orders this week, but are keeping an eye on the weather, and hopefully won't post out to anyone whilst they are still having freezing temperatures or snow - we will try our best :)
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Ding Dong??? Now I wonder who that could be? ;D No prizes for guessing!!
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Mike - I ordered the Canna Rhizotonic root stimulator on ebay but never realised you were talking about two products. Do you mix the Growth Technology 'SuperDrive' with the Canna Rhizotonic to make an all in one potion? I intend to try this on my Avon bulbs when they arrive bareroot (I pray they do not arrive too soon as we still have lots of snow on the ground and freezing temps at night).
I know several people are interested in these products as we chatted about it at Myddleton House on Saturday. I am always interested in trying anything new and it makes sense that a healthy bulb will be more resistant to disease and other problems (except NF and Swift Moth of course).
So I use 4mls Canna Rhiz to one litre of water?
I may leave my 'precious' purchases ie. Cider with Rosie in a lattice pot this year in my net polytunnel or in the woodlands between the trees with netting thrown over them. The Narcissus Fly is not getting this one ???
thanks
Jennie
Don't worry Jenny, we have sent out some orders this week, but are keeping an eye on the weather, and hopefully won't post out to anyone whilst they are still having freezing temperatures or snow - we will try our best :)
Welcome Ding Dong.......not the best weather for you at the minute, eh? Thanks for coming in to reassure folks!
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Sorry to disappoint you Martin and Maggie - not Alan, just Maxine from the AB office :) The weather here is not too bad, just very cold, but snow forecast in the next few days. Just hope it doesn't spoil the Gala for everyone!
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Sorry to disappoint you Martin and Maggie - not Alan, just Maxine from the AB office :) The weather here is not too bad, just very cold, but snow forecast in the next few days. Just hope it doesn't spoil the Gala for everyone!
Hi Maxine. That's what I meant - someone from Avon Bulbs, not necessarily expecting Alan or Chris. Heavy snow is expected here and down the M5 corridor Thursday night and Friday. If it's bad I may not make it to the gala. Then again I'm coming down with something horrible and flu-like so might not have made it anyway. :-\
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Well Hello DINNNG DONNNG!! 8)
Sorry Jennie, yes I mix the two together 4ml of 'Rhizotonic' & 1ml of 'Superdrive' per litre of clean water. I draw up the product in a syringe & then squeeze out the amount required as I think it is important be very accurate with dosing.
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Hi Maxine,
Please note that the weather here in Waterford, south-east Ireland, is perfectly balmy; no frost, no ice, no snow. Snowdrops would be very welcome.
Paddy
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Sorry to disappoint you Martin and Maggie - not Alan, just Maxine from the AB office :) The weather here is not too bad, just very cold, but snow forecast in the next few days. Just hope it doesn't spoil the Gala for everyone!
No disappointment at all, Maxine..... I knew you you are!
Not at all sure who I am, of course... you'd have to ask Matron...... ;D
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Please note that the weather here in Waterford, south-east Ireland, is perfectly balmy; no frost, no ice, no snow.
send that over here please, am bored of it now, the garden is still covered in snow & ice, my back hurts from too much digging & I've broken two spades including my favourite.
seems odd to get attached to a spade :-[
nothing to take pics of apart from a brave Robin that has been dodging forks and spades to get to worms.
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Thanks for all the photos everyone. Paddy your spreads of S. Arnott and nivalis look superb. I have a dose of flu and it is a stinker, my third day in bed but at least I have enough energy to catch up on the forum today. Must be on the mend.
Chris
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seems odd to get attached to a spade :-[
Not at all, I broke the prong on my favourite fork and am devestated :'(
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Porr Brian.... still, if the worst should happen you can still eat with your fingers.......... ;D
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;D ;D ;D Being a Yorkie that's what he was broought up to do!
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Garden Fork? Brian
Same here I have a favouite,it used to be my mothers............goodness knows how old it is
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hi Maxine. Great to have you posting.
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nice to know I am not alone, am determined to get a new handle put on the spade, had to resort to a solid metal one, just not the same ::)
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few more from the greenhouse
Imbolc
Lady Beatrix Stanley
scruffy looking Bertram Anderson
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Richard,
I hadn't thought much of G. 'Imbolc' previously but have a few in flower here at the moment and see it would be a good snowdrop in a group. Looking forward to it bulking up.
G. 'E.B. Anderson' is an outstanding snowdrop, I think; love it.
Weather continues to be great here, if a little damp, and I lifted, divided and replanted several large clumps of G. nivalis. Also, planted a good number of hostas which had been held in pots since last August, split Epimedium 'Lillafee' (sp?) and replanted in a few positions. Lifted, divided and replanted a Hellebore 'Dawn'. Also, just to really make you jealous, cleaned the hen house and cleaned the gutters.
Paddy
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That is it, Paddy, it looks good in a group. I think lots of snowdrops are like that, it's their stature in a group which can be so attractive.
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A nice green tip ex Garden Centre elwesii
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Also, just to really make you jealous, cleaned the hen house and cleaned the gutters.
sounds ok, I spent the day pruning & tying in a vine standing on a snow covered narrow stone ledge trying to avoid a 20ft drop ;D
I really like Imbolc, it's very short but doesn't drop its flower on the ground, hasn't done that well but I've just got some more bulbs so I can hopefully find a good home for it.
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A little something for the weekend.
1. 2 and 3 G plicatus 'Walter Fish
4, 5 and 6 G plicatus 'Richard Blakeway-Philips'
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and a few more:
1, 2 and 3 G 'Betty Mansell'
4, 5 and 6 G 'Chequers
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and
1, 2 and 3 G 'Icicle'
4 G elwesii 'Henley Green Spot'
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and finally for Jennie so she can stop dreaming
1 and 2 G elwesii 'Moses Basket'
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and finally for Jennie so she can stop dreaming
1 and 2 G elwesii 'Moses Basket'
;D ;) ;D Gorgeous
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Lovely photos there David.
I especially like the sharp apical mark of plicatus Richard Blakeway-Philips, photo #2.
johnw - preparing for very heavy rain then a sharp plunge in temperature.
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A lovely garden centre find Mr Campbell. 8)
Good to have a greenhouse Richard - something I don't have the space for and dearly miss.
Mr King - very good pictures of Brian's new drops. It would have been nice to see you at Myddleton on Saturday but I can't say that I blame you choosing the ironing at home rather than standing in a cold frozen field for 4 hours!
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and finally for Jennie so she can stop dreaming
1 and 2 G elwesii 'Moses Basket'
;D ;) ;D Gorgeous
:o ??? :o :'( Horrid! There is a touching story behind the name, but I just cannot like the look of this snowdrop.
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me neither...
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I like it because it is distinctively different. A flower that anyone could spot in a garden and know what it is straight away. 8)
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I like it because it is distinctively different. A flower that anyone could spot in a garden and know what it is straight away. 8)
I have to agree and you wouldn't have a problem naming that next to any other snowdrop at 50 metres.I think there are too many single marked Nivalis or Nivalis x plicatus named plants.(Please don't shout at me for that statement) ;D ;D
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I like it too David! Ifs possible can i have some pollen of it?
Finally its thawing over here after 2 weeks severe frost with -21 as a maximum(only 1 night!) I hope they all recover before next weekend when our Gala starts at the Zaanse Schans in Zaandam www.sneeuwklokjesgala.nl
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I have a love/hate relationship with it - I guess I love it a bit more since I bought it ;)
It has a certain ungainly attraction, and yes it is distinctive, we can't like them all...can we? ::)
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I must admit I really like Moses Basket and can imagine a clump of 20+ flowers among groupings of other 'normal shaped' snowdrops in a bed. It would really be an eyecatcher. I do have a penchant for the odd & mutated :) What is the sad story behind it?
Snow still laying on the ground - wish it would melt.
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Very cold here still and not much sitting up. Here are a few species for me they have an elegance and simplicity.
G fosteri
and one which came to me as G kemulariae that I think is supposed now be called lagodechianus
G koenenianusx fosteri though I can't see much of the upper mark of fosteri in it, but the foliage definitely koenenianus
and one I showed a couple of weeks ago but since then it has been frozen so couldn't resist taking a new shot of sandersii
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Marvelous again Ian.
re: lagodechianus seems someone has left an orange lightbulb on. ;) It mulitplies vigorously but I have never managed a single flower on my clump outdoors or in. Someone suggested shade. Any hints?
johnw
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Marvelous again Ian.
re: lagodechianus seems someone has left an orange lightbulb on. ;) It mulitplies vigorously but I have never managed a single flower on my clump outdoors or in. Someone suggested shade. Any hints?
johnw
John the lagodechianus is in a pot - there I admit it. I tried it outside and finding the right spot has been difficult though I think I might have a couple of flowers coming on one outdoor group. I find this one is very difficult and I am glad to know I am not the only one. The flowers do show orange as I am sure you know because the anthers show through the inners. In cultivation I have just kept these with a few other potted ones which as I am useless at growing things in pots is therefore pretty much neglected. The book says that it grows 1800 to 2400 metres in the eastern Caucasus and might suggest cold and dry in winter and not wet in summer - I know I have moved mine to a better drained site. Perhaps others may be able to share their experience with this plant as it would be nice to get more flowers :(
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so couldn't resist taking a new shot of sandersii
I don't blame you, it is a fantistic group of sandersii.
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Just thought I would try again, snowdrop more open so maybe would be easier to identify. Looked at some pictures posted on the forum and thought it looked like Sandersii.
Angie :)
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Just thought I would try again, snowdrop more open so maybe would be easier to identify. Looked at some pictures posted on the forum and thought it looked like Sandersii.
Angie :)
Yes, Angie - Sandersii. Did this come from Anthony?
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That's good that I have a name now. I got this snowdrop from a SRGC member that sadly is no longer with us, Ron Smart. Every time he came to visit me he took along a plant, they were usually hardy orchids. He gave me the snowdrop but had lost the name. Such a nice man.
Thanks Martin.
Angie :)
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so couldn't resist taking a new shot of sandersii
I don't blame you, it is a fantistic group of sandersii.
Thank you Rick
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Nice to meet so many people at the recent galanthus events down in Devon.
Here's a couple of photographs of Rosemary Burnham. One I bought in the green in the spring and the other as a dormant bulb in the summer. Spot the difference!
[Photo's to follow, as I seem to be having trouble uploading them...]
One thing I've learnt this year might explain why a number of purchases from last year seem reluctant to flower ... is how to spot a pot-grown snowdrop from a snowdrop picked in the green and stuck in a pot. The former is likely to have roots at the bottom of the pot and maybe even moss on the top.
Those German snowdrops on sale looked gorgeous. Next year, I'll have to pack a sack of compost, pots and a trowel in the car!! [Thanks for the tip, Toby].
Regards, Malcolm.
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Photos... I hope!
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She really is lovely Malcolm ;D
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Just catching up - Moses Basket reminds me too much of defenders in a football match waiting for a penalty shot...
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Just catching up - Moses Basket reminds me too much of defenders in a football match waiting for a penalty shot...
Oh dear... laughed so loud I woke Poppy the dog up. :-X
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Here's a couple of photographs of Rosemary Burnham.......
She really is lovely Malcolm ;D
Page 3 next?
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That'd be more of a perky little double nivalis? [said, straying into dangerous territory]
She really is lovely Malcolm ;D
Page 3 next?
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;D ;D
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'Mrs. Thompson' has no intentions of becoming a page three girl. However, she has been behaving rather oddly in the garden of late.
I noticed today one flower stalk with two flower heads and then another flower which had produced triplets. Very odd behaviour indeed.
Paddy
Galanthus 'Mrs. Thompson'
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This photograph strikes me as a good illustration of the habit of G. 'Straffan' producing a second and later flower from each bulb and so giving it a long flowering time in the garden as it effectively flowers twice. You can see the first flush of flowers well developed while a second flush is beginning lower down.
This is G. 'Coolballintaggart', by the way - a synonym for G. 'Straffan'. G. 'The O'Mahony' is another synonym and it may be of interest that these bulbs came directly from "Coolballintaggart" which is the garden of The O'Mahony.
Paddy
G. 'Coolballintaggart'
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A few yellow snowdrops in flower at the moment.
Paddy
Galanthus 'Primrose Warburg'
Galanthus nivalis 'Sandersii Group'
Galanthus 'Spindlestone Surprise'
Galanthus 'Wendy's Gold'
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'I noticed today one flower stalk with two flower heads and then another flower which had produced triplets. Very odd behaviour indeed.
Paddy
Galanthus 'Mrs. Thompson'
Not at all Paddy, 'Mrs Thompson' (aka 'Yorkshire Cottage') is known for this behaviour, and a mature clump can be really floriferous.
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Beautiful photos Paddy - I especially love the one of Straffan illustrating the second flowers so perfectly. I am growing a flower I thought to be Straffan but I think it is wrong. I will post a photo when it recovers from the snow.
I went to the RHS Halls in London today and bumped into many forum members who had travelled there from far and wide.
There was a distinct lack of snowdrops compared with last year but the stands were cleverly filled with spring colour. Lots of gorgeous Hellebores (I never saw Hepaticas this year), tempting Heucheras and a stand with all different types of potatoes clearly explaining their flavours and uses. Lots to see and a great day all round.
At the end of the day I realised I had been taking all my photos on the 'macro setting' which was annoying - so they are not as clear as I would have liked.
Here are a few shots from today:
1. Recognise anyone?
2. Another crowd shot
3. Kentgardener, Emma T, Alan Street from Avon Bulbs and AlanB - forum members
4. Kentgardener, Emma T, AlanB and me (Kentishlass)
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Here are a few more from today at the RHS Halls, London
1. Maxine on Avon Bulbs enjoying herself :)
2. That forum member again
3. and again
4. and again
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:-* :-* :-*
Nice hat Jennie ;D
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Jennie, thank you for showing us the pictures. Don't worrie about the macro-setting. It looks like a great day and nice chats. Did you find more snowdrops that were on your wish list?
Lina.
Hat? Can we see more?
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:-* :-* :-*
Nice hat Jennie ;D
Got some funny looks on the train :D
Lina - it has snowdrops embroidered over it but I don't have a picture.
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1. Recognise anyone?
2. Another crowd shot
I can see SRGC forum members KentGardener, Johnjearrard, Chad, John Grimshaw. And can also spot Alan Street, Matt Bishop, and maybe the back of Rod Leeds head!
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2. That forum member again
3. and again
4. and again
Good lord - I've got a stalker! ;D
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yep nice hat Jenny..... Knitted by some lady ;D
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yep nice hat Jenny..... Knitted by some lady ;D
Yeah! I was told "Some lady off ebay knitted it...."
I wonder who that could have been? ;D
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Good lord - I've got a stalker! ;D
You also have an impersonator who was at the RHS show, camouflage trousers, little or no head hair but rather bigger and bulkier than the genuine article. Perhaps he is there in one of the crowd scenes?
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Thanks for the photos of the show Jennie , wish I'd arranged time off work now!
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Showing my ignorance - who is the chap, apparently holding a fire extinguisher, talking to John :)
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Showing my ignorance - who is the chap, apparently holding a fire extinguisher, talking to John :)
That explains Joe Sharman's stance, he's obviously weighed down by it ::)
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That explains Joe Sharman's stance, he's obviously weighed down by it ::)
Perhaps it's in case things get heated when he tell you that your order arrived too late and he isn't able to supply you with any snowdrops this year?
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Didn't recognise hime without his beanie :)
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...who is the chap, apparently holding a fire extinguisher... :)
lol ;D That did made me chuckle Arthur.
The snow has at last melted in my garden after (stubbornly sitting there for a week getting harder and harder)! I was expected the worst, with drops flat to the ground, covered in mud, and looking translucent.
However, once again, I have been pleasantly surprised at how resilient these little white flowers can be. 8) Some pics from my little patch of England.
1 - ABJF_11_1 something I spotted in one of Alan's secret areas last year that seems a good'un so far.
2 - 'Cider with Rosie' - a very kind gift from a friend.
3 - One of the reasons I didn't buy 'Sprite' yesterday at the RHS (besides the price and my empty wallet :D). Something that we found when DavidQuinton, Brain Ellis, Myself and Richard Hobbs were wandering through a snowdrop woodland during 2009
4 - elwesii 'Wispy' - one of Phil Cornish's finds. Does very well here and always looks healthy - but one day is likely to be given away to make space for something more distinctive.
5 - 'E. A. Bowles' - a very kind gift from a friend.
6 - Another pic of Davey's foundling 'Kalum' - still hanging in there and still looking pretty.
7 - nivalis 'Mark Solomon' - a very kind gift from a friend - during the last few years it was a perfect poculiform - this year it is not quite so perfect.
8 - another poculiform nivalis - this time via the AGS sales table at a show. I am trialling various versions of nivalis and elwesii poculiforms to see which perform best in my garden.
9 - 'The Bride' - a very leafy elwesii poc that is almost past it for this year.
10 - 'Trymlet' flowers that have just dropped. I think these flowers always looks best after they are at least a week old - these have only just dropped.
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yep nice hat Jenny..... Knitted by some lady ;D
That was such a surprise! Tell your mum I like it even more now ;)
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Unless things cool down a bit again to make the flowers here last for a few more weeks, the following photographs might be my last Galanthus pictures of 2012. :'(
1 - 'Jessica' another of Phil's wonderful finds.
2 - I've previously posted pictures of this yellow in the last few years. It is one I purchased as 'Fieldgate Superb' from a well known nursery ::). I have since been given a kind gift of the real 'Fieldgate Superb'. But this yellow does so well here I have kept it and also passed some on. I settled on labeling it as 'Fieldgate Superb NOT!' after considering members suggestions of 'Primrose Surprise' or 'Spindlestone Warburg' ;) ;D
3 - 'Pear Drop' - I've been told "a wonderful scent" - but my nose doesn't find that. :-\
4 - 'South Hayes' - It needs splitting but I am scared to do so as I have spoken to a couple of people who lost their entire clumps when they disturbed them in the green. :-\ Fingers crossed for me doing it in the dormant time......
5 - another pic of this same group of 'South Hayes' that might demonstrate how the outer mark can vary a lot in a clump. Guessing the older bulbs have the better marks?
6 - 'Trimmer' the flower turning translucent from old age but still filled me with pleasure today at it's beauty.
and finally...
... 7 - one of my favourite snowdrops (for me, very slow to increase) 'Pat Mason' in all her voluptuous glory 8)
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I'm just now reading over the last few pages for the first time.
Great pics as always everyone - such a shame 'Rosemary Burnham' didn't seem to like my garden. But I have a slim hope as 2 small elwesii leaves have appeared where she used to be.....
Paddy - great yellows (and I am glad you showed them as I have just remembered a message that someone gave me at the RHS show yesterday asking me to pass on their thanks to someone in Kent for a sandersii gift - phew).
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John
Thanks for adding to my wish list - fantastic drops in fantastic condition.
Enjoy the sunshine in Madiera.
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Great pics as usual John,will eventually take some here ::)
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John
Another round of superb photos and cultivars John. Pat Mason is quite the buxom snowdrop.
johnw
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A few shots on this warm - +8c - sunny day.
I just got 4g of replacement G. nivalis seed. I soaked it in warm water overnight. Does it appear to be correct this time?
elwesii Beth Chatto not
Peardrop
nivalis seed?
johnw
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A few shots on this warm - +8c - sunny day.
I just got 4g of replacement G. nivalis seed. Does it appear to be correct this time?
johnw
Looks right for galanthus to me, John.
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A few shots on this warm - +8c - sunny day.I just got 4g of replacement G. nivalis seed. Does it appear to be correct this time?
johnw
Looks right for galanthus to me, John.
Martin - Thanks. I must have been in a daze when I sowed the last batch but seems they looked very similar.
johnw
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Here are a few of mine from today
G Compton Court thanks Anne, the picture doesn't do it justice
G Spindlestone Surprise again from a generous friend and spot the difference with the next one - answers on a postcard
G Primrose Warburg getting toward her prime
G Penelope Ann
and a top snowdrop Magnet
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Ian - You do so extremely well with the yellows. Which would be your top 4-6 choices of yellow nivalis?
johnw
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John - good question - I was just about to ask the same.
Ian - What is the pH of your soil? Do you give them any special treatment?
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A few yellow snowdrops in flower at the moment.
Paddy
Galanthus 'Primrose Warburg'
Galanthus nivalis 'Sandersii Group'
Galanthus 'Spindlestone Surprise'
Galanthus 'Wendy's Gold'
Superb pictures Paddy.
Just wondering, Sandersii has been on my wishlist for some time and I noticed that the leaves on your group of sandersii are much taller / bigger than the Sandersii I usually see on pictures. Is this a different group???
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Nothing different that I know of, Rick. It has been in flower for a while and, perhaps, the leaves have simply grown with the season.
Paddy
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Surely "Sandersii" has become a catch-all title for a yellow nivalis snowdrop, not necessarily related to the one originally distributed by Mr Sanders? So there could be lots of different groups of Sandersii snowdrops that are unrelated.
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Amazing how snowdrops perk up after the snow and frost! We have a few in pots for display this coming Sunday and they looked very sorry for themselves at the beginning of the week. Now brought into the house and greenhouse the flowers have come on rapidly. In the garden too you would think flowering may have been set back, but none of it! We have big drifts of quite a few varieties like those shown and they look glorious at the moment. The final picture is a slight mystery which maybe someone may be able to expound on? This is a very nice form of elwesii that I had simply labelled caucasicus Late Form from Kath Dryden. The leaves are strikingly glaucous and the flowers elegant to my eyes. In the Snowdrop Book there is a variety 'Robin Hall', which it obviously resembles (if not is). Kath also sold, appropriately, a caucasicus 'Early Form', a nice small plant which I must compare with other selections.
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Ian - You do so extremely well with the yellows. Which would be your top 4-6 choices of yellow nivalis?
johnw
John 4 to 6 top choices I only have a couple of yellow nivalis so no contest and I label them as "sandersii from wherever" the rest I grow are plicatus types. I think Primrose Warburg is one of the best increasers in my garden so will probably outdo the more squinny types. I love the glowing colour of the yellows I know I'm out of fashion ::)
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John - good question - I was just about to ask the same.
Ian - What is the pH of your soil? Do you give them any special treatment?
Hi Arthur
Ph of my soil is about 6.5 and my soil is well drained and fairly open. Funnily my best group of Primrose is in a raised wall where is can get quite dry in summer though I have experimented with it in slightly more moist areas where it seems to do almost as well
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Great pictures Paddy
Stunning yellows Ian
Great clump of Mrs Thompson Tim
Lovely rare finds John and I love Pat Mason - what a substantial snowdrop
Here are a few more half decent photos from the RHS show in London:
1. The Avon stand - lovely as always and I loved the Helleborus foetidus clump which made a great feature
2. Avon again
3. Heucheraholics stand - wish I had bought a few of their new x Heucherellas
4. My first ever Ashwood purchase
5. Lindley Hall
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I don't know if it helps, as even the age of the flower will change the colour (starts off greener), but I took this earlier this year.
Spindlestone Surprise on left, Primrose Warburg on right.
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I don't know if it is my computer but I am having terrible trouble downloading photos - I have to hit the post button at least 30 times and often I have to rewrite the whole thing. Does anyone else have this problem?
Here are a few more mostly non snowdrop photos from RHS Halls:
1. Flocon de Neige - I was not overly impressed with this snowdrop for the money
2. Dibley's Nursery indoor plant stand - lots of lovely Begonias
3. Begonia 'Pink Champagne' - gorgeous
4. Streptocarpus 'Harlequin Blue' - lovely bicolor flower
5. Ashwood Stand
6. A new red from Ashwood with marbled foliage
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Showing my ignorance - who is the chap, apparently holding a fire extinguisher, talking to John :)
Being a bit slow on the uptake I have only just spotted what Arthur meant! That is so funny ;D
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Jennie, I don't know what your computer problem is but before you post always hit Ctrl and C or whatever method you normally use to copy text, then if the post doesn't work you only have to paste the text again. I always do this and it saves a lot extra work. I think if someone is posting on the same topic when you are trying to post it wont work until they are finished. I could be wrong though.
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8)
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I don't know if it is my computer but I am having terrible trouble downloading photos - I have to hit the post button at least 30 times and often I have to rewrite the whole thing. Does anyone else have this problem?
Hi Jennie
I often have problems - I have found that this works for me:
- hit the preview button to check it looks ok
- hit the post button and walk away to start making a cup of tea
- when I come back there is often an mySQL error message on the screen - at this point I hit the refresh button on my browser (and walk away to finish making the cup of tea)
- when I get back it has always worked successfully.
(p.s. As Michael suggests, I always try to remember to copy paste the text to notepad before I start...)
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4. Streptocarpus 'Harlequin Blue' - lovely bicolor flower
We went round Dibley's production greenhouses last year and saw this growing in its thousands. Have been given a leaf and have babies growing in water at the moment. Personally I think its ghastly! I used to have 400 (nearly as bad an affliction as snowdrops) but have whittled them down to 50 now!
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I don't know if it helps, as even the age of the flower will change the colour (starts off greener), but I took this earlier this year.
Spindlestone Surprise on left, Primrose Warburg on right.
Thanks for the picture Anne. I've yet to be that organised.
For now they are in separate beds. But I think I may struggle to tell them apart... ::)
Here it has to be a case of the one that does best in my garden gets to live in my garden - the other gets given away.
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lovely day today but very busy so didn't get around with camera til late, thought I would include some clumps for a change...
Diggory
Double?
Find from the g. Highdown bed
gracilis Highdown
Mighty Atom
Modern Art
r o Vernalis
don't know what this is, but it's very nice, really like the v dark mark.
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And lovely clumps they are, Richard.
I think 'drops are like puppies and kittens.... one is cute but a bunch of 'em are nicer still. But that applies to most flowers, I suppose ::)
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most of my close ups look dirty after they've been pinned down by snow for 10 days, will get the cotton buds out tomorrow and start dusting ::)
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Ground frozen still but Maidwell L and Dionysius are almost out here.
johnw - +5c / -5c tonight. Rain, of course, tomorrow.
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And lovely clumps they are, Richard.
I think 'drops are like puppies and kittens.... one is cute but a bunch of 'em are nicer still. But that applies to most flowers, I suppose ::)
Amorphophallus? No thanks.
johnw
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:D Good point John... .not all flowers then!
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most of my close ups look dirty after they've been pinned down by snow for 10 days, will get the cotton buds out tomorrow and start dusting ::)
You don't have to go to all that trouble just 'cos we're coming Richard ;D
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ok I wont bother ;D
I was worried you wouldn't have much to see but it's not looking too bad considering, at least it'll still be mild tomorrow.
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Richard
Lovely photos.
I like the look of "unknown", does it look like a hybrid or a straight elwesii?
Highdown find looks good to, nice large drift, wish I had some "clumps" like that ;-)
Simon
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don't know what this is, but it's very nice, really like the v dark mark.
Richard, is this a named one that you've lost the label for. It looks very much like 'Benhall Beauty'. Did you ever have that and lose track of it? Also, is the scape prone to flopping over and not standing up again, as that's a characteristic of Benhall Beauty. B.B. is a nice flower but this bad habit spoils it somewhat as a garden plant.
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If it was Benhall Beauty, the leaves would be quite narrow like large nivalis leaves, quite grey, with some slight plication I think.
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Martin your description sounds right, am sure it's not something I've been given over the years but it may have been passed on to me as something else, it is tall but not noticed the scape thing...
I like the look of "unknown", does it look like a hybrid or a straight elwesii?
is a hybrid.
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Lovely clumps Richard - I particularly love the clump of Highdown....beautiful. I am rather partial to gracilis and its hybrids this year and bought Yamanlar at Myddleton House and it looked beautiful today.
Thanks for the tip of copying the post Michael. John - I will try your method next time.....it gives me a good excuse to have yet another cup of tea :)
Here is Yamanlar today:-
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Yamanlar looks great!
You take very nice pictures, Jennie.
Lina.
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Walsingham on a grey day. Lots of snowdrops .... but they're all the same!
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Martin your description sounds right, am sure it's not something I've been given over the years but it may have been passed on to me as something else, it is tall but not noticed the scape thing...
I like the look of "unknown", does it look like a hybrid or a straight elwesii?
is a hybrid.
Benhall Beauty is noted for being tall. I don't want to say for sure, but if you get a chance to see a labelled Benhall Beauty have a close look and compare, or take a photo to compare. I think it might be.
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If it was Benhall Beauty, the leaves would be quite narrow like large nivalis leaves, quite grey, with some slight plication I think.
Good eye Martin. Note the difference in the apical markings in this posted photo of Benhall Beauty that JohnF took at an RHS Show. And to say nothing of the basal ones!
re: Richard's find That mark looks awfully familiar.....
johnw
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it does look right.
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Hello all, back to near normal now, I took a group of German snowdrop lovers to Brechin Castle on Wednesday and despite most of what we saw were just ordinary G. nivalis my heart skipped a beat just magic, a few pictures from the day, cheers Ian the Christie kind
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So glad there was some blue in the sky, Ian... makes all the difference for the visitors, who I am sure had a lovely time.
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Such uplifting scenes Ian, these little 'wee' flowers have such a beneficial effect on our hearts don't they.
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Snowdrops do look so 'right' on mass like that; somehow relaxing after ebay I should think! I rather wait for a snowdrop coming up at Sotherby's but I am not sure the audience would be good gardeners.
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Brian very kindly bought me a flower of Benhall Beauty today and it is a very good match, so think there's enough to say mystery solved.
Brian hope you enjoyed your trip, lovely bunch of people & some nice new swapping contacts ;D
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Ian C have you brought P1020690 in to cultivation?
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Ian C have you brought P1020690 in to cultivation?
It's nice looking isnlt it Mark. And it has had the most views of the photos posted. ;)
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Hi , I found this at the castle on Wed and yes we have something similar here there are so many fantastic variation anyway yes I do have chips. I am adding a few more not all from this year but let me know your views, cheers Ian the Christie kind (will have about 10 pots for Dunblane)
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Ian C have you brought P1020690 in to cultivation?
It's nice looking isnlt it Mark. And it has had the most views of the photos posted. ;)
Since I am a total newbie for Snowdrops (obtained my first pot of 'Flore Pleno' yesterday), is the puckering of the outer segments usual?
Julie
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is the puckering of the outer segments usual?
Yes, it is fairly unusual though a number of the "classic" snowdrop cultivars show this, "Diggory" for example. It tends to be an admired trait.
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So many wonderful pictures and descriptions of Galanthus, but no one really goes on about the scent. These are our Snowdrops in a little wood which we have and today with no breeze the smell was heavenly and they were full of little mining bees too. Magic!
(http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/Owdboggy/February%202012/snowdrops1.jpg)
(http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/Owdboggy/February%202012/Snowdrops2.jpg)
(http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/Owdboggy/February%202012/snowdrops3.jpg)
edit by maggi to give some space btween the pictures :)
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We can tell it was warm by the angle of the petals.... obviously the plants are enjoying some heat... .who could blame them. Still too cold here for them to open up and hardley any scent discernible in the cold. :(
Hope you had a seat and a cuppa in the wood to enjoy them, Eric?
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Brian very kindly bought me a flower of Benhall Beauty today and it is a very good match, so think there's enough to say mystery solved.
Brian hope you enjoyed your trip, lovely bunch of people & some nice new swapping contacts ;D
Thank you Richard we enjoyed the tour, the gardens, the church and the pub! We all had a very nice day and were blessed by such nice weather too. Lots of appreciative murmering on the coach going home from galanthophiles and non-galanthophiles alike. I hope all your groups have as good a time as we did, ;D ;D
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So many wonderful pictures and descriptions of Galanthus, but no one really goes on about the scent. These are our Snowdrops in a little wood which we have and today with no breeze the smell was heavenly and they were full of little mining bees too. Magic!
Cracking display Eric.
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Whoops, how did I get the pics as well???
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Whoops, how did I get the pics as well???
Because Eric's pix were embedded in his post... I fixed it for you... just call me 'Jim' ;D ;)
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Not all snowdrops smell nice. I dug up some G. woronowii today to put on the plant stall for sale and found the scent quite unpleasant. When I took them into the greenhouse they drowned out the very pleasant scent of Cyclamen alpinum which has been delighting me for weeks.
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Whoops, how did I get the pics as well???
Because Eric's pix were embedded in his post... I fixed it for you... just call me 'Jim' ;D ;)
Jim ??? Well, OK then Jim, thanks very much for that. We used to have a lass called Maggi who did that kind of thing for us. Pretty good she was too. Liked chocolate and white dogs. If you see her about remember me to her.
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Jo and I discussed scent while I was at her house. I collected some snowdrop flowers and put them in a small glass. Most had a lovely honey scent, some had none and one smelled of Germolene.
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I gave Jo a pot of Marks Tall. I could have sold them over and over .....
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Sadly on return from England the majority of my snowdrops were over and slugs had eaten my Green Comets.
Here are a few still looking good
Barbara's Double
Dodo Norton
elwesii Comet
elwesii Lord Monostictus
elwesii Michael Meyers Green Tipped - all with an extra petal in the spathe and one with a branched scape
Epiphany (not) - supplied by Avon. A peril of buying dormant bulbs
G71
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Hope you had a seat and a cuppa in the wood to enjoy them, Eric?
The Gazebo in the wood has seats in it. Have to say it is more used by the hens than by us though.
Never thought to see how G. woronowii smells.
The ones in the wood, we think are a form of G. nivalis, but in all our time here we have never found seeds or seedlings. If one cuts open the seed receptacle it is empty. Whatever it is, it makes a good show plant, in that it multiplies quickly and is very uniform in height and flowering so it is very easy to get a good potful.
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..we have never found seeds or seedlings..
You have an excellent display of snowdrops but they form large clumps with some gaps in between. You would not see that in a seeding population because the seeds would spread and the seedlings would fill in the gaps, so after a few years the spread of snowdrops would be much more uniform.
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a few more - photos not very good due to the dull day
G75
Green Pips
Little John
Melanie Broughton
Myddleton Giant - very like other large flowered plicatus
nivalis Flavescens - said to be from the original collection
nivalis Mini Me
Straffan
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Ian - What a superb selection!
I too very much like P1020690 and can only hope it is not as temperamental as Diggory.
Brechin 2010 2 is smashing, lovely ballooning outers and a very dramtic mark with a tad of yellow which accents nicely.
Brechin 2010 6 - what a great and unique mark, so steep and sharp from what I can see.
Brechin hybrid #1 - again great contrast with the yellow eyes against the green mark. I'm sure you will have an entertaining name for that one.
johnw
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Jo Hynes' Emerald Isle
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Here a few favorites blooming in Feb (save one) in Bellevue, WA. Most are named and known, but I enjoy them. If any looked mislabeled please let me know:
'Benton Magnet'
'Bertram Anderson'
Three buddies: 'Bill Bishop' 'Diggory' 'Cedric's Prolific'
'Hallelujah'
'Mrs Macnamara' with - forgive me! - its Adolphe Menjou moustache
'Oluna's Mother'
'Cedric's Prolific'
G. reginae olgae ssp. reginae olgae ex Rosemary Verey - an extremely prolific plant producing about 115 bulbs from 5 bulbs in 8 years - in a pot. (It bloomed in December.) A long arching pedicel I'm told is not out of the ordinary, tho is different from my other 2 forms.
'Rosemary Burnham'
'Zwannenberg'
Jim
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Most of these are foundings from the Pacific Northwest. If any look just like another snowdrop already out there, let me know. I'll give some description as it's very hard to judge a snowdrop from a photo.
"Cby" its profile
"Cby" frontal showing markings - it's an elwesii with flowers the size of a hazelnut, about 6" tall in bloom with shorter leaves. Very arched pedicels
"CMP#1" A tall 9 to 10" elwesii found in a patch of G. e. v. monostictus! Vigorous. I was told by a friend that a nice poculiform would be better so might try watering it with "White Out" . . . or milk . . . .
"LCbs" another small round elwesii pale pea green color in all parts. The flower about the size of a very large pea; the plant about 4.5" tall, flowers well above foliage. Was given to me as 'Lady Beatrix Stanley'!!
'N's XBr' another elwesii which blooms around Christmas/New Years hear. Tall - 1 foot - and once the petals open they stay open day or night.
"PB1" these two photos don't do justice. It's a real sweetheart. Another round flowered elwesii but with a slight green tip and the unopened petal apexes)apexi? form a very sharp protruding point. The flower is the size of a garbanzo bean (chick pea), dark green coloring in all parts. Will probably be named next year as we've nothing like it here.
"Rz#2c" is another elwesii with two tiny fused dots on the inners and a spathe that opens wide with a thin translucent membrane between. This also came as 'Lady Beatrix Stanley'. Perhaps after so many years she had some "work done".
G. woronowii with two dots - original working name, but cute. I suspect there are many of these out there as I discovered this in a flat at a nursery. Several pots had the same clone. The bulbs came from Holland.
Jim
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Finally (see what happens when I get to high speed internet!) some forms with known provenance but no names - and a few named ones.
G. elwesii "R's Casaba". Aware of the previous discussion of the "Casabas" this is passed around here as 'Casaba'. I've not seen a photo or description of 'Casaba Boydii', I think it was. This looks like a small 'S. Arnott' truth be told. Very nice whatever it is.
2 photos of a plant know as "FrankFred Galyon's tetraploid plicatus". Two other different plicatus "tetraploids" from him are known. He was a narcissus and magnolia hybridizer in Tennessee. He may have bred galanthus, too, or simply collected forms and species to find those that did well there. Other species forms attributed to him are also known and grown.
G. plicatus ex Phil Cornish. This came from a friend who got it years ago when working at a English bulb nursery. Very nice, but I can't trace it to any named cultivar. Doesn't matter. I like it.
'Wasp' At first I didn't think much of it, but with each year I like it better and better. Perhaps being stung at least once a year at the nursery caused my earlier prejudice.
'Diggory' in all its seersucker glory. It's fun to watch it pull in the ends of its petals over a period of days as if a root touched a bit of lemon in the soil.
Thanks for looking.
Jim
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Ooops. In my last post of photos it is "Fred Galyon" not Frank. The photo captions are right.
Jim
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Jim - At long last we get to see some American snowdrops! Super. Now you realize all the Galanthophiles are in bed so I got first crack at viewing them all; now doubt there will be a frenzy when they awake.
I don't know Oluna's Mother, can you tell us something about it. Your Rosemary Burnham looks excellent and you're getting great colouration.
Now did Frank Galyon not live in the deep south? I recall his work on magnolias so a bit of a shock that he bred snowdrops and could even grow them in that steamy climate. Do you think this tetraploid might break some barriers in snowdrop breeding? Are there outward signs of its being a tetraploid - i.e thicker outers and inners, thicker leaves and what about fertility both ways? I bet Martin Baxendale would appreciate a bit of pollen from that one! Oops or was it indeed Fred Galyon?
CMP#1 is very very elegant, a great find, selection or hybrid, whatever it is as well as Rz#2c. I love those chunky outers on PB1 - a real brute, it really looks like a winner too.
Lovely post and collection.
So glad you posted, keep them coming. :o
johnw - +3, spitting a bit of snow but mostly rain
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Great shots Mark. That nivalis Flavescens is lovely. :o :o :o
johnw
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Thanks John.
G. elwesii "L Cbs" IMG_5163.jpg could be G. bortkewitchianus http://www.snowdropinfo.com/galanthus%20bortkewitchianus.html (http://www.snowdropinfo.com/galanthus%20bortkewitchianus.html)
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Thanks for joining us Jim, but most of all for increasing our knowledge of what is being grown in America, there are some nice elwesii selections there especially 'Cby' and 'CMP#1', and I too like 'Oluna's Mother'. Lovely to have such a prolific G. reginae olgae ssp. reginae olgae ex Rosemary Verey, I bet the clumps are fantastic to see. I am totally jealous of anyone flowering 'Rosemary Burnham' at the moment as mine increases but is not flowering :-\ Would love to see more when you are able ;)
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Here are a few pictures of our visit to Bennington Lordships yesterday.
1, 2, 3 and 5 general shots
4 - Richard Webb far left, Brian Ellis third from left and Ann Borrill far right
6 Diggory
7 Chickens
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A few more from Bennington Lordships.
1 to 5 general shots.
6 S. Arnott
7 Bertram Anderson
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What a magical place to see snowdrops David, thank you for the photos.
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A great series David; thank you. 'S. Arnott' is a wonderful snowdrop and hard to surpass I think.
Here are a few pictures from Altamont Gardens, Co. Carlow, taken last weekend in the rain. Their Snowdrop Week (http://www.discoverireland.com/us/ireland-things-to-see-and-do/whats-on/listings/?fid=FI_14541) begins next Monday, so perhaps more snowdrops from this fine collection will be shown by Paddy or others more knowledgeable on the subject.
General views from Altamont Gardens
G. elwesii with strikingly waxy grey leaves
G. elwesii 'Skyward' selected here at Altamont by head gardener Paul Cutler
G. nivalis
One of the Greatorex doubles, which I can't remember :-[
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Some more plants and views
Pulmonaria.jpg
Altamont hellebore 1.jpg
Altamont hellebore.jpg
Iris reticulata.jpg
Lichens.jpg
Cladonia.jpg
Altamont lake.jpg
Stone throne.jpg
His lordship.jpg
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cones on my wollemi pine and some findling doubles
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Lovely pictures folks, some nice finds Emma but I particularly like that 'Skyward' at Altamont Ashley. A garden that is on the long list to visit, it's gradually getting shorter, but then another one is added :-X
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What a magical place to see snowdrops David
And a well-behaved cat for a change. :-X
johnw
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Lovely doubles Emma. Has the upward facing one remained upward facing.
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Lovely doubles Emma. Has the upward facing one remained upward facing.
It does eventually drop down , as this picture from last year shows
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G. elwesii with strikingly waxy grey leaves
Ashley, I'm delighted that someone else has been taken by this snowdrop. I have commented to Paul Cutler (Head Gardener at Altamont) that I have always thought this an outstanding snowdrop, great presence in a bed. However, Paul seems never to have been taken by it. It is the form of G. elwesii which has thrived for many years in the garden and so it has come to be taken for granted there. To me, it is an excellent plant. I saw it in another garden today labelled, 'Altamont Giant'. Now, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but, nonetheless, it is a snowdrop worth noting and, perhaps, worth naming. I saw a bulb of G. 'E.A. Bowles' in a garden today also. Nice flower.
Brian, I hope you do make a visit to Altamont at some stage. It's a lovely garden. We have great memories of visiting there over many years and of its former owner, Mrs. North. And, 'Skyward' is fabulous but has broken my heart as I was given it twice and lost it on both occasions. I refused a further bulb from Paul on a recent visit. I'll have to admire it at Altamont and be happy with that.
Paddy
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Is it possible that the silver elwesii is Marjorie Brown?
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I agree, that grey-leaved elwesii would be high on my wants list, it's beautiful.
BIG FUN today - my husband dragged me (honest) into a garden centre to look for snowdrops, and we found a tray of G. nivalis, all of which were elwesii, with a great assortment of shapes, sizes and markings, or lack of. Having beaten him down to only 10 pots, I travelled home with them on my knee enjoying the scent.
Later, he called from the kitchen, "I see you're making pickled onions again!". Puzzled I went through and found him looking at the container full of snowdrops released from their meagre pots of dank peat, soaking in fungicide after needing to have layers of rotten tunic peeled away in some cases.
"Are they edible?" he asked.
"No, they're poisonous. In fact they contain some substance being investigated as a cure for something nasty." I said.
"What, Galanthomania?" he said....
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Is it possible that the silver elwesii is Marjorie Brown?
I don't think so, Mark.
Paddy
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In flower today, White Swan, Fieldgate Superb & Lady Moore and
Benton MagnetMerlin
Richard- re: my comment "re: Richard's find That mark looks awfully familiar..... " I must have been thinking of Lady Moore which is sort of similar and having been looking at it all week long. ???
johnw
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John, Benton Magnet should have a single mark at the apex
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John, Benton Magnet should have a single mark at the apex
Hell. The hazards of copy & paste. The Benton Magnet photo was blurry, deleted and got pasted on Merlin's photo. Now to sort out the other ones I photographed besides those posted.
Thanks
johnw
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Anyone know anything about elwesii Peter Fry or maybe Try?
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Two lost label snowdrops - do you recognise them? The double is probably too difficult
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I don't know Oluna's Mother, can you tell us something about it. Your Rosemary Burnham looks excellent and you're getting great colouration.
Now did Frank Galyon not live in the deep south? I recall his work on magnolias so a bit of a shock that he bred snowdrops and could even grow them in that steamy climate. . . . John W.
Thanks everyone for the encouraging remarks. I've put in a request to the finder of 'Oluna's Mother' for more info.
'Rosemary Burnham' seems very happy in our area, so I just nod and thank her.
FRANK (my error twice!) Galyon lived and gardened in Tennessee which is in the south but also the Appalachian Mts. So can be hot or cool. His plants do well in South Carolina. I don't know if it is truly a tetraploid. Will examine it tomorrow but it is more gray leaved than any other.
There are hybridizers working on galanthus in the US but most are waiting to release after good testing - and the sheer time it takes to bulk up. I was thrilled last week to see seedlings of self-pollinated G. 'Spindlestone Surprise' coming up after two years. Green and yellow checking would be nice.
Jim
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Thanks for joining us Jim, but most of all for increasing our knowledge of what is being grown in America, there are some nice elwesii selections there especially 'Cby' . . . . Brian
Glad you like "Cby", Brian. It's a personal favorite I found a couple years ago. In the pots it shows great poise and self confidence! Attached it is in profile, correctly.
[Thanks, too, Maggie, for fixing my errors. Are you a twin, because I can't imagine any one person working around the clock helping us all along! Have enjoyed your efforts for a year or so - and everyone's.]
Jim
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G. elwesii "L Cbs" IMG_5163.jpg could be G. bortkewitchianus . . . . Mark
That never occurred to me Mark. Thanks. I'll investigate.
The woman it came from traded far and wide. She was moving so invited friends over to dig plants, but the week prior to our dig her computer crashed with all her records - none backed up. A lesson. Several of us worked to key out all sorts of genera and species knowing from whom she bought and traded with. We're about 90% done on some 1000 species and cultivars. Two lovely corydalis confound me, but that's another post.
Enjoyed all of the photos on your previous posts, Mark. So many fascinating and enticing new ones. It's wonderfully overwhelming. Thanks.
Jim
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Later, he called from the kitchen, "I see you're making pickled onions again!". Puzzled I went through and found him looking at the container full of snowdrops released from their meagre pots of dank peat, soaking in fungicide after needing to have layers of rotten tunic peeled away in some cases.
"Are they edible?" he asked.
"No, they're poisonous. In fact they contain some substance being investigated as a cure for something nasty." I said.
"What, Galanthomania?" he said....
LOL - hilarious Anne! Sounds just like a conversation at my house would go.
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Jim - How do you do with the yellows and which do you consider the best?
johnw
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Those are some really nice double snowdrop foundlings, Emma. Are there two different ones or is it it more?
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Glad you like "Cby", Brian. It's a personal favorite I found a couple years ago. In the pots it shows great poise and self confidence! Attached it is in profile, correctly.
...and I have to say I like it even more Jim! A distinctive shape, now it reminds me of someone I know....
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Those are some really nice double snowdrop foundlings, Emma. Are there two different ones or is it it more?
Just the 2 different ones. I have a 3rd findling double but that is much earlier to flower and has now gone over.
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At last some pictures from me,have had to have some help from youngest son,new computer etc
So here we go
Bertram Anderson
Diggory
Margaret Owen
Natalie Garton
Two Eyes
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First post of the year. A few from the garden yesterday.
1. Ray Cobb - a common yellow but one that always seems to be yellow as opposed to a limey green seen some years in varieties such as Wendy's Gold.
2. Fatty Puff - A Joe Sharman introduction and lives up to the name.
3. Trymming - Various spellings abound for this Trym derivative but however it's spelt it still looks great!
4. Vertigo - A small vertically challenged snowdrop but great all the same.
5. Art Nouveau - A beutifully marked introduction purchased from Avon Bulbs.
David
edit by Maggi... flipped the pix, David. They are super!
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Thanks, Maggi. They looked fine on the computer but the posted images don't seem to have retained the flip request!
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Happy to help, David. That "flip" problem sometimes seems to happen and I have no idea why!
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Glad you like "Cby", Brian. It's a personal favorite I found a couple years ago. In the pots it shows great poise and self confidence! Attached it is in profile, correctly.
...and I have to say I like it even more Jim! A distinctive shape, now it reminds me of someone I know....
Lovely profile on CBy Jim, Brian is great at picking at winner.
johnw
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David
Ray Cobb sounds like one to try. Your Fatty Puff is well described. Do we know the parentage?
Did Vertigo gets its name due to its lack of ability to stand straight?
Chas. - Your Bertram looks fine, nice to see one that has withstoood the tests of time.
johnw - -3c & sunny
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John,
Ray Cobb I've struggled with. I've had it twice from one grower and it's failed to live. However this has come from Glen Chantry and done well for me. It looks really great when seen as a clump and that's certainly the case at Glen Chantry. The great yellow colour offset against the dark boarder mulch sets it off to perfection.
I don't know the history of Fatty Puff other than it was introduced by Joe Sharman. Joe told me that it was not named by him but the flamboyant name is certainly something more attributable to him!
Vertigo seems to have been named as it is short. It stands up well and has survived the cold snowy spell seen here in the East of England without any damage. I suspect that it's another one of Alan Street's cleverly named snowdrops.
David
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Thanks David. Perhaps Ray Cobb is worth seeking out as the yellows have not been that yellow here. Maybe better in the ground should they ever decide to bulk up here. They frequently get knocked back in pots.
johnw - 0c
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'Ray Cobb' at Dunblane
Some of the yellows look much more yellow to the naked eye than they appear to the camera, it seems.
'Alexander the Great' .....John W said this about him : Thanks for photographing Galanthus Alexander The Great Maggi. I think this is the first time we have seen it on the forum.
johnw
:D
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First post of the year.
Have to agree with Maggi, David, they are super, nice to have you back with us ;D ;D ;D
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Also, yellows seem to fade to olive as they age. I have noticed this with G. 'Primrose Warburg' in particular.
Paddy
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Also, yellows seem to fade to olive as they age. I have noticed this with G. 'Primrose Warburg' in particular.Paddy
Paddy - Many years - if not most - Primrose Warburg and Wendy's Gold come out olive here. PerhAps I have added too much dolomitic lime or bonemeal in the past.
johnw
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I also find some of the yellows start off greener and get yellower as the flower matures.
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Last year I showed an albino nivalis in a friends garden. It was moved away from the other G. nivalis.
I saw it again today - wow :o
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That's very pretty, Mark.
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I saw it again today - wow :o
Yeegads. :o
johnw
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Martin, I'm sure the garden owner will be happy to read that.
Does anyone know any true albino nivalis? All Sibbertoft Whites I've seen retail some green
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Exactly John.
I'm thinking half the plants should be sent away for twinscaling - David, garden owner, doesnt know yet but he does now
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I was very excited to find an albino snowdrop a few years ago but the next year it came normal. It has managed one albino year since but this only occurs irregularly. I don't think the UK and Ireland can lay claim to any true albino snowdrop (certainly not Sibbertoft White) but I'm not sure about some of the snowdrops cultivated elsewhere in Europe.
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Only Still 9 more days to go, in February. (Sigh...)
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Only 9 more days to go, in February. (Sigh...)
;D ;D ;D
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Alan I checked all flowers and they were true albinos. I suppose the ovaries should be removed to stop seedlings.
Lesley the late flowering snowdrops are just poking through :)
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Only STILL 9 more days to go, in February. (Sigh...)
;D ;D ;D
I've already been reminded from the other side of the Atlantic that the eastern American/Canadian snowdrops are yet to come. (Even deeper, longer sigh...)
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Galanthus nivalis ' Eiskristall' looks all white and so does ' Eisbaer' but I dont know if thats a nivalis
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Loes, are these on the 'net?
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In the book ' Schneeglockchen Zauber in Weiss' by Gunter Waldorf
And the all white nivalis on your picture is a real beauty!
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Jim - How do you do with the yellows and which do you consider the best?
johnw
My experience with yellows is modest, though others in the Pacific NW have longer experience with them. I would say overall we here have mixed success.
I think 'Lady Elpinstone' the best as she just keeps on going, even running - yes running - into a friend's path having to be dug out every so often. Galanthus in her garden do tend to move forming stolons, which we've seen and photographed. I've seen it in plants in my own pots and in another garden. John Grimshaw had a post on his blog a while back about this phenomena.
I grow 'Primrose Warburg', a "Sandersii Group", 'Lady Elphinstone', 'Wendy's Gold' but it's cabbagey wavy foliage overwhelms the consistently small flowers, and 'Spindlestone Surprise' which seems weak. It's original source clump at a friend's up and died last year. Stag? Narcissus fly? Impertinence?
Coloration varies here, too. I find the greenish/olive tint evaporates when the flower is viewed in full sun. Move a picked flower to light shade and the color is no longer yellow but in the greenish tones. A hint to plant where the sun is behind them during visiting hours.
In all, they grow here, but only 'Lady E.' seems robust and reliable so far.
Jim
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I don't know Oluna's Mother, can you tell us something about it. . . . JohnW
Here's what I've just learned about it:
'Oluna’s Mother’s’ aka ‘Oluna’s Early Form' aka ‘Aluna’s Mother’ was given by Oluna Ceska to Rick Wagner in Portland, Oregon. It's been passed around with those names attached to it, though the first one seems to be sticking.
Oluna Ceska got it from her mother, hence the name, who lived in the village of Vraz near Prague, Czech Republic. "Mother" got the plants from two men who were her neighbors in the village and are now deceased. It's unknown if it was a named Czech galanthus or just something special the two gentlemen had. Inquiries to a Czech person who might know have never been answered.
Perhaps a Czech member reading this will recognize it.
Rick said it's a good doer, makes a nice clump, and looks great every year. I agree.
Jim
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I suppose the ovaries should be removed to stop seedlings.
Why would you do that? Collect the seeds and sow them. Save the genes!
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Some Snowdrops in flower here now.
Galanthus 'Magnet'
Galanthus 'Straffan'
Galanthus 'Barbara's double'
Galanthus nivalis 'Maximus'
Galanthus nivalis 'Melanie S.'
Galanthus nivalis 'Flore pleno'
Galanthus 'White Cloud'
Galanthus x valentinei
Galanthus plicatus 'Augustus'
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Jim - I haven't tried Spindlestone Surprise here but otherwise your experience with the yellows is pretty much duplicated here.
Good to hear the story of Oluna's Mother. Every snowdrop story is interesting and seems to end with an important unanswered question eh?
johnw
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Some Snowdrops in flower here now.
Hello Wim,
Lovely pictures, really like Gal Maximus.
Looking at the pictures I see you are also a fan of Epimedium ;D
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Hallo Rick,
een beetje laat, maar toch nog welkom op dit leuke forum. ;)
(a bit late, but still: welcome to this nice forum. ;))
I'm an Epie-fan indeed, as you can see here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6992.0
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=630.0
http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=346.0
;D :D ;D
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I'm quite new to growing snowdrops seriously, so need some help please. My G. Jonathan is somewhat floppy, leaves not as turgid as the others and flower stem drooping. Could this be a sign of dryness at the roots? I have received this one only quite recently 'in the green' so have been careful with watering.
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Wim - I 've had my eye on Melanie S. for quite some time. It's a lovely chunky nivalis. Is it commonly available in Belgium?
johnw
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Wim - I 've had my eye on Melanie S. for quite some time. It's a lovely chunky nivalis. Is it commonly available in Belgium?
johnw
It's not yet very common. I bought it from Valentin Wijnen (who selected this form)! You can find his profile on this forum!
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Wim - I 've had my eye on Melanie S. for quite some time. It's a lovely chunky nivalis. Is it commonly available in Belgium?
johnw
It's not yet very common. I bought it from Valentin Wijnen (who selected this form)! You can find his profile on this forum!
Wim - I think I saw his photo of Melanie S. some time ago whilst struggling through the Vlaamse Rotsplanten Vereniging. Does he have a nursery?
johnw
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My G. Jonathan is somewhat floppy, leaves not as turgid as the others and flower stem drooping. Could this be a sign of dryness at the roots?
It is probably a sign that water is lacking but it could also indicate that the roots have been damaged or have succumbed to pest or disease.
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I agree with Alan get some water round the roots. Your bulb needs to stay healthy until it goes dormant.
Anyone got any ideas about a foliar feed for new aquisitions?
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Wim - I 've had my eye on Melanie S. for quite some time. It's a lovely chunky nivalis. Is it commonly available in Belgium?
johnw
It's not yet very common. I bought it from Valentin Wijnen (who selected this form)! You can find his profile on this forum!
Wim - I think I saw his photo of Melanie S. some time ago whilst struggling through the Vlaamse Rotsplanten Vereniging. Does he have a nursery?
johnw
John,
he doesn't have a nursery but he sells at snowdrop events and he sends dormant bulbs in Summer.
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You can also find him in de list of suppliers in Snowdrops. Look for Grakes Heredij.
Lina.
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I agree with Alan get some water round the roots. Your bulb needs to stay healthy until it goes dormant.
Anyone got any ideas about a foliar feed for new aquisitions?
Mark i am using a mineral spray that farmers use round these parts,i can find out the name for you.
Can i just add a pic of one off my finds from 2010 had to take the flower off as i have just spilt the clump into individual bulbs and was to windy to take a pic outside.
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0084.jpg)
Brian what do you think ;D
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Nobody can accuse you of walking round with your eyes shut Davey, lovely snowdrop, well done. 8)
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Snowdrops in garden today
(http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/3788/galan1.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/843/galan1.jpg/)
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8124/galan2u.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/galan2u.jpg/)
(http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/1914/galan3.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/galan3.jpg/)
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4258/galan4.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/84/galan4.jpg/)
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A couple of pics of a Poc i found in 2010 just for you Brian(i have sent you a pm)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0001-3.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0002-2.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0004-3.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0005-3.jpg)
Galanthus nivalis sandersii group ex Lowick
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0006-3.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0007-3.jpg)
Galanthus nivalis viridapice
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0009-3.jpg)
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Well done, Davey. Your poc is a stunner!
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Indeed it is and so is the Lowick form of sandersii!
A quick whizz round the garden in this lovely sunshine this morning, how nice not to be trussed up like a dog’s dinner just to be warm as we were yesterday with our visitors! I must get out there soon and do some work
These caught my eye:
‘Cider with Rosie’ which has an inverted chevron at the tip of it’s outer segments.
‘Maidwell C’ - just for Mark
‘Anglesey Abbey’ a great green leaved poculiform
‘Viradipice’ a good green tip
Colour from Crocus ‘Pickwick’
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Some more:
‘Lodestar’ another Anglesey Abbey selected snowdrop, our visitors reminded me how good it looks in a clump
‘Lady Elphinstone’ sorry about the sun in the picture but I’m not complaining!
‘St Pancras’ this has three aberrant inners which lengthen as the flower ages, but I like it.
‘Mill House’ green tipped, long pedicel, split spathe, super selection by Cliff Curtis.
Colour from Eranthis ‘Orange Glow
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I must go and do some tidying up ;)
‘Josie’ another difficult one to photograph, but she is a good one - some of these are flowering from the smallest of last year’s offsets - one bulb bought last year and this is the result (and I gave a large offset away).
‘Alan’s Treat’ they laughed at the name, but isn’t he lovely?
‘Floccon de Neige’ flowering for the first time for me, perfection, a gift from an extremely generous forumist, many, many thanks.
‘Aurelia’ named for a tune by Samuel Wesley and Ray Cobb’s house in Nottingham, a fine, large-flowered snowdrop.
Colour from Crocus flavum?
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Well perhaps I'll have lunch first ;)
No apologies for another picture of ‘Corrin’, she is rapidly becoming one of my favourites.
As is ‘Swanton’ a gift from a new lurker on the forum a few years ago, what a stunner!
‘Gloucester Old Spot’ is just (?) a neat little snowdrop with a small mark - another gift from a forum member, I hope it’s not raining in Madeira.
Aldgate - which one I am not sure yet, thanks Davey I think it’s a lovely plant.
This snowdrop comes from a friend’s garden where it is labelled as double devastation. Visiting a garden on their route home from the Gala one year, a group of friends liked the look of two of the snowdrops in the garden. The owner said "Would you like one?" (a fatal question I have always found). She dug up the first clump and gave them some of that snowdrop, replacing the few that were left. They decided it ought to have a name and one of them said ‘Devastation’ as they had really decimated the clump. They couldn't think of another name for the other apart from 'Double Devastation' as that clump too had been decimated!
Colour from Crocus tommasinianus
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No apologies for another picture of ‘Corrin’, she is rapidly becoming one of my favourites.
I think "she" is a "he", Brian :)
edit : My mistake !
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My G. Jonathan is somewhat floppy, leaves not as turgid as the others and flower stem drooping. Could this be a sign of dryness at the roots?
It is probably a sign that water is lacking but it could also indicate that the roots have been damaged or have succumbed to pest or disease.
Hi Alan_B, I would hope not as it came from Glen Chantry. I'll give it a drop to drink. Thanks for the advice. :)
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What an amazing shape of flower on Swanton, Brian, very distinctive.
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I can fully understand your love for Corrin! She/he is great.
But Swanton is a beauty too.
Nice that you added some colour in your messages. :D
Lina.
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Brian, that was a great whizz around the garden; lovely selection of snowdrops and little bits of colour also.
Paddy
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Well done, Davey. Your poc is a stunner!
Thank you Anne and Brian she is a little cutie.
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Glad you enjoyed the whizz, I had thought 'Corrin' was 'Megan''s sister, and now I am thoroughly confused as it appears as both a boy's and girl's name and is also Corrine, Corin, Corine....someone will have to ask Rannveig :D
Yes Lina, I think 'Swanton' is a beauty too, but some disagree.
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Does anybody have photos of G. Colossus and Warham? I have one I bought as Warham, which is identical to the one on Potterton's website:
http://www.pottertons.co.uk/pott/view_product.php?pid=2871
However it doesn't look like the other Warhams I can find pictures of on Google, and although there is a long text on it in the Snowdrop book, there are no photos of it. Mine does, however look like what I have as Colossus from Colesbourne.
The 2 photos below are of my Warhams in different years.
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Glad you enjoyed the whizz, I had thought 'Corrin' was 'Megan''s sister, and now I am thoroughly confused as it appears as both a boy's and girl's name and is also Corrine, Corin, Corine....someone will have to ask Rannveig :D
Yes Lina, I think 'Swanton' is a beauty too, but some disagree.
I have to agree with you and Lina 'Swanton' is stunning very nice shape to it and Josie WOW.So many there Brian to drool over.
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/drooling_homer_2.gif)
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Anne I believe there are several 'Warham's around. There is also a 'Warham Rectory' and there are both plicatus and plicatus x byzantinus from there too. I will try and find a few photos of the Warhams I have but I don't think it will be much help!
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Warham is a plicatus isnt it?
How does it differ from "normal" plicatus?
I like the look of your photos.
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Lovely photographs Brian. You beat me to a picture of Josie by a few hours. Even so I make no apologies for posting another one as it really is a beauty!
David
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I'm glad you like it and it flowered for you David. Much better picture than mine, you'd better come and photograph the clump ;)
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Anne, Colossus should be over by now
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Just memories for me. :-\
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Still have two or three still in flower here Mark
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Lovely photographs Brian. You beat me to a picture of Josie by a few hours. Even so I make no apologies for posting another one as it really is a beauty!
David
Stunning dark marks on the outers David. :o
johnw
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A few we saw yesterday in friends garden. Rather windy difficult conditions.
1 G Augustus
2 G Fred's Giant
3 and 4 G Little John
5 G Robin Hood
6 G woronowii
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I thought Corrin was Bob & Ran's daughter.
Megan being Corrin's daughter
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A nice big-flowered woronowii there David.
johnw
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Here are some photos from a visit to a friend's garden who has a much larger collection than mine. The first five are all labeled so I won't repeat that here except that I have never seen so many flowers on a clump of snowdrops as there were on G. reginae-olgae subsp. vernalis.
The sixth photo is of a snowdrop cultivar purchased with a name but with the classic lost label. Any ideas?
The seventh and eighth photos are of a snowdrop that reliably over a number of years has produced flowers with four segments even when moved to new locations. The flower is big ('Magnet' size) but the original identity is lost. Quite attractive. I wish I had gotten a shot of the leaves and measured it but the wind was howling so I was concentrating on getting a photo between blasts.
(Edited by maggi to add the file names so they can be found by the search facility. )
G. 'Daphne's Scissors'
G. elwesii 'Zwanenburg'
G. reginae-olgae subsp. vernalis
G. reginae-olgae subsp. vernalis 2
G. 'Sir Herbert Maxwell'
G. unknown
G. unknown, 4 outer segments
G. unknown, 4 outer segments 2
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Carolyn - The classic lost label one could be
Fieldgate Prelude or Fieldgate Superb not - should have gone to bed. Frankly until they settle down and their markings stabilize I can't tell one from thr other. No comments Maggi. ;)
johnw - -1c and clouding over. Rain tomorrow.
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I thought Corrin was Bob & Ran's daughter.
Megan being Corrin's daughter
Thank you Arthur, I'll confirm that with Ann Borrill when she comes over this morning.
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I have a terrible memory for names but Bob Wallis did cover his relationship to Corrin in the talk he gave at the Galanthus Gala 11 days ago. Maybe somebody who was there (with a better memory than mine) can help?
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Does nobody have a photo of Warham? Or Colossus? Or is everybody else as confused as I am?
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Anne
There is a photo on http://www.galanthus-online.de/kultivare-p-z/warham.html :)
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I have grown Galanthus plicatus "Warham" badly for many years (by which I mean it remained a single bulb). I have made two attempts to grow "Colossus" but managed to kill it off after a few years on both occasions.
However irrespective of appearance, "Colossus" flowers very early in January whilst "Warham" (or my version of it) flowers at the normal snowdrop time of February. So there should be no possibility of confusing the two, purely on that basis.
In fact "Colossus" is never colossal at flowering times and is so named because the leaves eventually grow quite large later in the season. In my opinion the main (possibly the only) feature that makes it worthy of cultivation is the early flowering time.
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Does nobody have a photo of Warham? Or Colossus? Or is everybody else as confused as I am?
This is Colossus. I might have Warham too but need to check with the snowdrop man.
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This is Warham Rectory.
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I thought Corrin was Bob & Ran's daughter.
Megan being Corrin's daughter
Thank you Arthur, I'll confirm that with Ann Borrill when she comes over this morning.
Could be a different version I suppose.... the book of baby names my nephew and his wife are studying at the minute gives it as a boy's name. Girl's version is given as Corrine . :-\
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Alan, could I suggest that you correct the 'Wareham' typo in your post, just in case it's seen and noted by people not aware that it should be 'Warham' and might confuse someone. Unlikely, I know, but anything to help avoid naming confusion - you can never tell where simple typographical slips like that can lead.
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Done, and quite right, Martin.
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Girl's version is given as Corrine .
Or indeed (as I should know) Corinne.
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But the Trymlike 'Corrin' from Ranveig is spelt without an 'e' ;). It may be a Welsh thing :)
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Girl's version is given as Corrine .
Or indeed (as I should know) Corinne.
Aha! Yes, indeed! Corinne is even nicer , I think.
Corrie is a Scots name, again for a girl. She said, a propos little!
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from today a 6 petal double with poculoform inners, not complete but its a start!
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Alan, could I suggest that you correct the 'Wareham' typo in your post, just in case it's seen and noted by people not aware that it should be 'Warham' and might confuse someone. Unlikely, I know, but anything to help avoid naming confusion - you can never tell where simple typographical slips like that can lead.
There must be a lot of "Warhams" about. I gather that G Gerard Parker started out in life as Warham from Gerard Parker or was it ex Lady Stern. Gerard Parker is a magnificent snowdrop having huge and elegant flowers. I will try to photograph it but it is in a difficult place to photo without standing on other little treasures :(
A couple from today G Brenda Troyle a good doer and South Hayes just beginning to open
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There must be a lot of "Warhams" about.
I understand that this dates back to when the Gala visited Warham Rectory, some snowdrops were distributed from the garden and they are all referred to as Warham...but I may be mistaken.
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Ian, I like SOUTH HAYES so much, all of mine were destroyed by black frost. But your pics remember me: there is a life after black frost. Wonderful clump.
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I got Galanthus plicatus 'Warham' from Broadleigh many years ago. It has multiplied hugely by division and by seed. I think I would now call it 'Warham Group' if passing any on. It has broad silvery leaves and is very late flowering. The only other plicatus I have flowers early and is almost going over while 'Warham is just through the ground with the first flower beginning to show.
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There must be a lot of "Warhams" about.
I understand that this dates back to when the Gala visited Warham Rectory, some snowdrops were distributed from the garden and they are all referred to as Warham...but I may be mistaken.
I went to the Galanthus Gala when it visited Warham Rectory, which I thin k was in 2002 (or maybe 2001). To commemorate the visit I bought a Galanthus Warham from one of the sales tables, so that one must have been long established by then.
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There must be a lot of "Warhams" about.
I understand that this dates back to when the Gala visited Warham Rectory, some snowdrops were distributed from the garden and they are all referred to as Warham...but I may be mistaken.
Brian nothing more confusing than snowdrop progeny ;D
Ian, I like SOUTH HAYES so much, all of mine were destroyed by black frost. But your pics remember me: there is a life after black frost. Wonderful clump.
Hagen thank you it has taken a few years it is not a fast grower
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Ian, I like SOUTH HAYES so much, all of mine were destroyed by black frost. But your pics remember me: there is a life after black frost. Wonderful clump.
Hagen - I am very surprised that a late hard frost would kill a snowdrop. Do you think snowdrops lose their incredible freeze tolerance as the season progresses? How late was this "black frost"? Hope South Hayes was the only fatality though that is a particularly hard loss to bear.
john w
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Does nobody have a photo of Warham? Or Colossus? Or is everybody else as confused as I am?
Here is a photo of 'Warham' but the flowers aren't open yet here. Hope it helps but you probably want to see the inner mark.
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I gather from a recent comment, that the snowdrop season over there is getting a little long in the tooth, and that it would be appreciated if some more of us on the sunset side of the Atlantic would post pictures from our gardens, for a change. So, after lurking about here for a couple of years, I'm taking the plunge as the newest of newbies. My garden is in Iowa, in what we would call the upper midwest; a region where all the continental air masses collide (sometimes all in the same day)... think tornadoes. One could be forgiven for thinking that Iowa, being a renowned farming state, must be a paradise for flower gardening. Consider this: the agricultural crops for which we are famous (corn, soybeans, oats) are all ANNUALS. Our winters allow little of value in perennial crops. Winter here is a palpable thing; an almost invariable introductory topic in casual conversational encounters on the street. The all-time low in my present garden was -36C, a night where the wind from the Arctic roared in the trees, blowing ice crystals and everything else before it. The next morning when I drove to work, I wondered what the black lumps were that were strewn across the open fields, then realized they were dead birds, frozen where they perched and blown out into the fields. The wind chill that night (a factoring of wind and temperature) was -81C. Our summers then are very hot, usually humid but with frequent dry spells. I always say if the winters don't kill a plant, the summers will. I don't suppose your balmy country even talks about the heat index, a computational temperature based on the actual ambient temperature and the humidity, giving a result of what the day actually feels like; a heat index of 80C is nothing they would interrupt a televised quiz show to broadcast about. Corn, our main farm crop is, after all, a subtropical from Mexico; when it is sown in an Iowa farm field and sprouts into our summers it must think it's died and gone to heaven.The farmers claim that on a warm, humid night you can hear the corn grow. I'm doubtful of that; the heat, humidity and dark can do funny things to your imagination out in the quiet countryside. Snowdrops would seem an odd addition to a garden here, but they grow like rabbits. Availability is the problem; there has only been one real dealer in the whole country (Hitch Lyman). Now, Carolyn Walker who has been recently posting here is starting to offer some surplus snowdrops for sale. I've gradually accumulated 9 species, and one ssp. (the latter being what I've semi-confidently identified as monostictus group hiemale; a single bulb in a planting of elwesii, which popped up and bloomed in late November. It's survived and thrived through our winters; the last couple of years I've popped a translucent plastic ice cream tub over it when the ground freezes solid, and it's really taken off and turned into a good patch.) I also have about ninety named varieties; nothing fancy-doodle, but I thought you'd be interested to see what can be grown in a tough climate. After a uniquely mild early winter, we've been stuck for several weeks in the cold and clouds. This current weather pattern is very common here in very early spring The snowdrops peek up and start to bud up, then just sit there and sulk in the cold for what seems an eternity; I call this time of year "Sprinter". However, today we've had our first real spring day and half the snowdrops in the garden have opened all at once. Here are a few pictures:
Art Nouveau
fosteri
Lady Elphinstone
Lady Elphinstone (front view)
Viridapice
Bertram Anderson
Blewbury Tart
(Edit by Maggi to add file names to allow search facility to find the pictures.)
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Hagen thank you it has taken a few years it is not a fast grower
That's interesting. I was sent 'South Hayes' by a kind Forum member and it more than trebled in number the two seasons I had it.
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Oh Don, how COULD you? Pictures of corn, soybeans and oats would be nice. :D I really love snowdrops but here we have so very few varieties/species and all old ones. I just can't help having a bit of a poke in the ribs at the addicted and obsessed sometimes. They haven't drummed me out of the Forum - yet. ;D
Your climate and conditions are what I can't even imagine. Your Iowan gardeners must be heros, every one. I hope you continue to post in this thread and in others on the Forum. It would be a steep learning curve, for me at least. :) And, belatedly, a warm welcome to the Forum. After lurking for a couple of years I hope you feel comfortable enough with us all, crazies though many of us are. ;D
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Welcome to the Forum Don. ;D
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I thought Corrin was Bob & Ran's daughter.
Megan being Corrin's daughter
Thank you Arthur, I'll confirm that with Ann Borrill when she comes over this morning.
Could be a different version I suppose.... the book of baby names my nephew and his wife are studying at the minute gives it as a boy's name. Girl's version is given as Corrine . :-\
Corrin \c(or)-rin\ as a boy's name (also used as girl's name Corrin), is a variant of Corin (Latin), and the meaning of Corrin is "spear".
Very appropriate for a snowdrop.
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I'm a bit taxed by the identity of this snowdrop. The leaves are supervolute and it's a double so it's very reminiscent of Richard Ayres. [Edit] I have checked my photos, the flower had dropped by 13th January but was still too tightly closed to see the details so I guess although it is lasting well the flowering time is right for Richard Ayres. In principle it is in a mixed pot of "tinies" which I took to be seedlings. So if it's not Richard Ayres than it must be a seedling of which Richard Ayres must surely be the pollen parent , since my clump of Richard Ayres is a few metres away from the original location of this one. Does Richard Ayres produce fertile pollen?
If it is Richard Ayres then it's a squirrel transplant. I would be grateful for the opinions of the sharp-eyed forumists, one way or another. The pot of mixed "seedlings" dates from 2010, this bulb produced leaves but no flower in 2011.
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I thought Corrin was Bob & Ran's daughter.
Megan being Corrin's daughter
Ann couldn't remember the exact relationship but confirmed she is a girl.
Don you are a hero. Welcome to the forum in your official capacity as a contributor ;) I really cannot imagine what gardening in your weather must be like, and I was horrified by the birds being frozen whilst they roosted. What a dreadful thought. It's good to see what you are able to get your hands on over there, not surprising to see 'Lady Elphinstone', but 'Art Nouveau' hasn't been around for that long so amazing to see that you have this one. I hope they all give you an enormous amount of pleasure...and keep posting 8)
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Don, the warmest of welcomes to you. It is so good to have you join us.
I confess I feel terribly guilty about our various moans about our weather conditions when yours are so much more extreme- but you show true gardeners' grit that you are able to persevere and enjoy your garden and its plants - against the odds indeed!
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Dear all, thank you for posting pictures of my favorite flowers. You bring spring to my still cold and snowy world. :-*
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lovely day, bees everywhere! took a few pics before it gets busy.
few pics of the masses & the lake + Red Kite
S Arnott
Seagull
Find
Find
Find
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cont...
Curly
Apple Bank
Mighty Atom
Green leaf nivalis
plicatus Upcher
specials bed
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Alan - Richard Ayres can get up to tricks here.
If I had found the flower in photo #2 in another spot I would be at a total loss. How does 'Grüne Beine' sound, or maybe 'Große Grüne Füße'? Must check if this is a reliable annual event.
Sure looks like it but no shot of the inners, sorry.
johnw
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John
I prefer the aberrant form :)
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Thanks for the help, John. I know that the markings on Richard Ayres can be quite variable and I wouldn't really question that this snowdrop was Richard Ayres were it not growing in what is supposed to be a pot of seedlings. My photos show was there last year, smaller and non-flowering. If it really is Richard Ayres then it must derive from a small loose bulb that I or a squirrel absent-mindedly put in the pot where it now lives. I hope I would remember doing something like that, but I cannot vouch for the squirrel.
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Hello DonB, welcome to the forum. Having read your post I no longer have any sympathy for the many moaning Americans I have contact with who tell me there are no snowdrops in the USA. You have 90+ different snowdrops; this is a very good selection. After that they all just blur together and look alike.
Olga,
Good to hear you are enjoying the spring snowdrops here. Of course, you have your very special treasure to wait for.
Now, must look again at the beautiful photographs above.
Paddy
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John I prefer the aberrant form :)
Don't we all? ;)
johnw
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Thanks for the help, John. I know that the markings on Richard Ayres can be quite variable and I wouldn't really question that this snowdrop was Richard Ayres were it not growing in what is supposed to be a pot of seedlings. My photos show was there last year, smaller and non-flowering. If it really is Richard Ayres then it must derive from a small loose bulb that I or a squirrel absent-mindedly put in the pot where it now lives. I hope I would remember doing something like that, but I cannot vouch for the squirrel.
Alan - If it is a seedling and has, in the F1 cross with a single, virtually replicated the father then we have a very interesting scenario. If the percentages are high interesting doubles could be increased by just performing the cross on many flowers! This is precisely why we need more research on the genetics of snowdrops. It is puzzling that controlled crosses have not been done aside from a few green x yellows and yellow x yellows. Maybe Martin, our sole resident breeder, can respond. I have tried but get no seed set indoors and outdoors it is too difficult to control thyngs.
johnw - +3c and dense fog
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Splendid photos Richard, a magical place there. I love these white nivalis.
johnw
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Don - Wonderful to have you aboard. American galanthophiles are popping up like snowdrops, great. Now if we could just get more Canadian ones to break dormancy.
Nine species of Galanthus is remarkable in your climate. The ones that require a good baking in summer just don't get that on the coast here. I tried fosteri from SRGC seed a very long time ago and it persisted until 1990/91 when we had a not so cold (about -15c) winter with no snowcover and no precipitation of any kind from December till March, that is a very rare event. The cold penetrated the soil badly and killed them outright. At the time I had no idea it was tender as I hadn't bought Stern till a few years later. I'd love to know the ones that can handle your winters. G. ikariae, peshmenii are certainly out of the question here.
Nice collection of pix there. Ninety? We await more shots. By the time your season in winding down we should be in full swing here.
johnw - +4c and fog dissipating.
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Not sure of the ID on this.
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A few photos from the garden today.
1. This is what happens when South Hayes doesn't have the green stripe after chipping. The green inner is retained but the characteristic green outer stripe is missing. I've called it White Hayes for my own method of identification. A nice flower.
2. Mary Ann Gibbs fully open. The warm weather meant that it is flying today. I'd prefer to have photographed it when it was a little less open but nice none-the-less.
3. Moortown with a nice mark on the inner and a big flower.
4 and 5. Priscilla Bacon is another nice large flowered snowdrop that isn't shy in flowering.
David
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1. This is what happens when South Hayes doesn't have the green stripe after chipping. The green inner is retained but the characteristic green outer stripe is missing. I've called it White Hayes for my own method of identification. A nice flower.
is better in my opinion ;)
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I agree - a quite stunning snowdrop.
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David, not sure if I am reading your post correctly... does the green stripe return on more mature bulbs?
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Arnold, I'd say your snowdrops are simply G. elwesii
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A little help, please.
While walking the garden with a friend my eye was caught by a snowdrop with a yellow ovary - where no yellow ovary should be, so to speak. It was beside a clump of G. ikariae.
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Paddy
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David, not sure if I am reading your post correctly... does the green stripe return on more mature bulbs?
Richard, some people report that the green stripe appears over time whereas others haven't seen it. I have only just received the bulb so can't really comment on my experience. I just like it as the green inner is so strong and the overall shape of the flower pleases me. I guess only time will tell. I spoke with a grower earlier this week who said that all of their 'White Hayes' had reverted so there's definitely some evidence that they can revert back to the striped version.
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Managed a few more hours out in the garden today,and what a glorious day we had ,so thought I would take a few more pictures
Angelique
Baylham
Blonde Inge
Chrome Yellow
Ecusson D'or
Imbolc
Mrs Wrightsons Double
(edit by maggi to add photo names to the text so the search facility can find them)
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And a few more
And David,are you using black card as a background? very effective
Priscilla Bacon
Trymlet
Washfield Colesbourne
White Swan
Woodpeckers
(edit by maggi to add photo names to the text so the search facility can find them)......................thank you ;)
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Wonderful collection Chas - particularly like Woodpeckers, not one I had heard of before.
It was 18C here today and I was tempted to do some weeding :o The clumps of snowdrops really do look good when the sun shines
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Arthur I obtained Woodpeckers from Margaret Owen's garden last year,it is one of Lallie Cox's finds
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Mark:
Thanks,
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Nice selection Chas.
No probs, Arnold
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David, not sure if I am reading your post correctly... does the green stripe return on more mature bulbs?
Richard, some people report that the green stripe appears over time whereas others haven't seen it. I have only just received the bulb so can't really comment on my experience. I just like it as the green inner is so strong and the overall shape of the flower pleases me. I guess only time will tell. I spoke with a grower earlier this week who said that all of their 'White Hayes' had reverted so there's definitely some evidence that they can revert back to the striped version.
thanks David, must admit I don't really like S Hayes but without that mark it looks lovely!
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Just catching up having spent most of the day in the garden with a visitor - who could get seriously hooked on snowdrops! Some lovely pics here, in particular David's White form of South Hayes, 'Woodpeckers 8) 8)' and the aberrant Richard Ayres with that lovely mark. 8)
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A little help, please.
While walking the garden with a friend my eye was caught by a snowdrop with a yellow ovary - where no yellow ovary should be, so to speak. It was beside a clump of G. ikariae.
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Paddy
That's exciting, Paddy. The leaves look like they could be ikariae. The flower shape isn't typical ikariae but does have a hint of ikariae-ness about is, and the mark looks like it could be ikariae crossed with something else. I'm guessing the only yellows you have are sandersii and Primrose Warburg, and it'd be very unusual for those to cross with ikariae, though not impossible. I'd certainly keep an eye on it to see if it stays yellow. Could you post some more pics later as the flower ages and the leaves develop?
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I've called it White Hayes for my own method of identification. A nice flower.
David
David - If I were bounding past your White Hayes I might think... nice Cicely Hall there. It will be interesting to see if it has more vigour than South Hayes "itself".
johnw
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Some of you in this thread and in others too, talk of the necessity of snow cover for winter protection of some bulbs and talk about how there are losses if the snow cover is inadequate or doesn't last long enough. This just isn't a factor in gardening in NZ, even the coldest places rarely have snow lying for more than say a week and usually it's a thin cover, say to 6 or 7cms at most. I wondered therefore, if you don't have enough snow, do you use other items as protection? For instance, to retain moisture in summer - after a good watering or rain - or to protect young shoots from the cold we DO have, we would use cut bracken or much better, fresh or semi-rotted peastraw a wonderful mulch which gradually over a few months just becomes part of the soil itself. Piled on to a depth of even 30cms or more, it is loose so not smothering and protects against just about anything. Something like this would do instead of snow I should think. The buds of whatever come through when they're ready and have a crumbly, weed free surrounding. Yes, we have to buy it but it's just about worth its weight in gold. Bracken costs nothing and there's plenty near me but it tends to blow around if there's a strong wind. Ground freezing to depth you describe John, isn't a concept we ever have to face.
Availability of peastraw, the spent vines from commercial pea growing, depends of course on being reasonably near to a commercial grower of peas. The further away from the source, the more expensive it is but I'm thing that in Iowa for instance, soybean vines could be an alternative?
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I've called it White Hayes for my own method of identification. A nice flower.
David
David - If I were bounding past your White Hayes I might think a nice Cicely Hall. It will be interesting to see if it has more vigour than South Hayes "itself".
johnw
I know what you mean, John. It's probably while it appeals to me so much especially as my Cicely Hall was blind this year. Hopefully it will be vigorous.
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my Cicely Hall was blind this year.
David - What is the cause of this? I routinely have a few that are blind. I thought perhaps dry at some stage as the scape extends... ::)
johnw
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my Cicely Hall was blind this year.
David - What is the cause of this? I routinely have a few that are blind. I thought perhaps dry at some stage as the scape extends... ::)
johnw
John, I think that dryness is the cause. We had a dry Spring last year and I fear that I neglected the watering.
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Arthur I obtained Woodpeckers from Margaret Owen's garden last year,it is one of Lallie Cox's finds
Chas
You kindly obtained one for me and it's coloration is as your pic. Incidentally I understand that this plant may also bear the original name "Sandersii ex-Cox"; "Woodpeckers" being Margaret's subsequent naming.
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A little help, please.
While walking the garden with a friend my eye was caught by a snowdrop with a yellow ovary - where no yellow ovary should be, so to speak. It was beside a clump of G. ikariae.
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Paddy
That's exciting, Paddy. The leaves look like they could be ikariae. The flower shape isn't typical ikariae but does have a hint of ikariae-ness about is, and the mark looks like it could be ikariae crossed with something else. I'm guessing the only yellows you have are sandersii and Primrose Warburg, and it'd be very unusual for those to cross with ikariae, though not impossible. I'd certainly keep an eye on it to see if it stays yellow. Could you post some more pics later as the flower ages and the leaves develop?
Martin,
Many thanks for the comments. I posted in haste late this afternoon as we were going out. Re yellow snowdrops: I grow Sandersii, Primrose Warburg, Wendy's Gold, Ray Cobb and Spindlestone Surprise and this latter is closest to the plant shown in the post.
The foliage strikes me as very like G. ikariae. Close to this bulb I have two clumps of bulbs labelled as G. ikariae but one is quite noticeably bigger in all parts that the other, the leaves are bigger, longer and a little paler while the flowers are also obviously bigger also.
I'll put a label beside it and watch for it next year. In the meantime, I'll post a photograph as the plant develops.
Paddy
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Thanks Steve
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Paddy, the old brain was being a bit slow when I commented - of course you have Wendy's Gold too, and I think you've posted photos of Spindlestone Surprise as well. I think the brightness of the yellow ovary was making me think of sandersii and P.W./S.S. rather than the less bright Wendy as possible genetic contributors. Looking forward to more pics.
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Welcome to the forum Don B,
From a galanthophile suffering 'cold turkey' withdrawal symptoms in Madeira.
I hope there are still some snowdrop flowers left in my garden when I get back to the UK!
Thanks for the picturres everyone. No time to comment on my favourites as a levada walk is beckoning.
john
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A few pictures of Flocon de Neige in the garden yesterday.
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David, lovely pictures of a very nice snowdrop!
It is great you show it to us from every angel.
Thank you,
Lina.
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Thank you Lina. Was taken under rather windy conditions and my neighbours cat decided to sit on my back as I took them low on the ground!
Here is G Martha MacLaren.
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A few from me, they all enjoyed the sunshine yesterday (17C :o )
G nivalis just starting - yes, it's always as late as this due to a shady garden. Just noticed all the Eranthis seedlings ;D
Washfield Warham
Cedric's Prolific
Hippolyta
S Arnott
James Backhouse
ditto doing what it does
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And a few from the greenhouse
Trymlet
Robin Hood (what a whopper)
Anne of Geierstein (a big girl)
St Annes (another big girl)
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And the last is Daphne's Scissors, bought as such but sometimes doubted
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I think Robin Hood is one of the best, always looks good to my eyes Diane :D
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Tough, isn't it? One minute you're looking at some dainty little 'drop, tiny and unassuming, thinking how lovely it is, next your eye is taken by a big fat flower that is standing loud and proud in a windy garden and you think... no, I like the chunky ones better..... it's a very common problem isn't it... you love the one you saw last..... able to change your mind more often than your socks! ;D ;D ;D
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very few snowdrops left here now :'( most are over due to the warm weather
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G Hugh Mackenzie in the garden this morning.
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Hi!
Galanthus nivalis from Slovenia:
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_vb8yv0ssUc/T0fPgKRUStI/AAAAAAAAE04/X-qshbHl4-k/s800/DSC00970.JPG)
Best regards! zvone
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This is SA 0902 in our garden today but found at the Greatorex garden during a visit made by Brian Ellis, John Finch, David Quinton and myself.
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Hi!
Galanthus nivalis from Slovenia:
Best regards! zvone
Just emerging from under the snow ?! 8)
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This is SA 0902 in our garden today but found at the Greatorex garden during a visit made by Brian Ellis, John Finch, David Quinton and myself.
Very smart twin flowers. The one we found (in Scotland) with twin flowers is exbiting the same feature this year. Not so far advanced as SA0902 though, which is looking robust and handsome.
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Hugh Mac :o MG
I like the twins also
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Found in the garden yesterday.
I found this snowdrop in the garden yesterday. It is growing beside a clump of G. ikariae. There seems to be two bulbs with the same foliage but only one with a flower. As you will see, the ovary is yellow and the inner segment mark a light green. The nearest yellow snowdrop to this position is G. 'Spindlestone Surprise'. I have posted a photograph of the flower which opened today; another of the foliage; one of it with the group of G. ikariae beside it (the snowdrop in question is in the bottom right of the photograph) and, finally, a flower of one of the G. ikariae in that group. The flowers on this little group of G. ikariae have always struck me as a little larger than normal. There is a group of G. ikariae very close to this position and it is smaller in all parts, foliage and flowers.
Does anybody see a resemblance between this flower and any other named snowdrop?
It might well be something new - imagines e-bay, making my fortune etc. LOL. And, of course, it may never appear again. Such are snowdrops.
Paddy
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I think it's a cow pat G. ikariae cause by the mulch
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That's not entirely impossible, Mark, as the mulch was applied this December. This was before the snowdrops had come over ground and other snowdrops in this bed were not effected in this manner though they had the same treatment. Would the mulch not have made the foliage yellow/pale green also?
Next year may tell a different story.
Paddy
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Here's a really weird snowdrop I saw in the woods today; its a 2x4 or is that a 4x2? What I mean is that it has four outers and two inners arranged symmetrically.
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I had a yellow Mark's Tall a few years ago and also found a group of about 20 olive green nivalis. All came back normal :(
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That's not entirely impossible, Mark, as the mulch was applied this December. This was before the snowdrops had come over ground and other snowdrops in this bed were not effected in this manner though they had the same treatment. Would the mulch not have made the foliage yellow/pale green also?
Next year may tell a different story.
Paddy
it doesn't look like a cow pat job to me, I see plenty here and the foliage/stems are usually showing signs of the same thing, it is lovely & hope it turns out to be stable.
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Here's a really weird snowdrop I saw in the woods today; its a 2x4 or is that a 4x2? What I mean is that it has four outers and two inners arranged symmetrically.
John will like that one when he sees it. It's quite fun :D
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Lovely snowdrop there Alan,hope it does this every year
Put me at the top of the buyers list !
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Put me at the top of the buyers list !
I guess this means I will have to go back and get it! No guarantee that it will ever do the same thing again, of course.
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Yes,please go back!(just one bulb?)
I really like the odd ones :o
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Something new arrived this week and I really like it.
G. Hedgehog
From the Gala - Friar Tuck. It's a plicatus hybrid with big flowers on short scapes. Twin scapes per bulb
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G Hugh Mackenzie in the garden this morning.
Smelling salts please.
johnw
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Something new arrived this week and I really like it.
G. Hedgehog
From the Gala - Friar Tuck. It's a plicatus hybrid with big flowers on short scapes. Twin scapes per bulb
That reminds me I must ask Brian where he's put my my collection including Hedgehog which I acquired a couple of years ago. I've only been collecting now for two years and already I have two!
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I gather from a recent comment, that the snowdrop season over there is getting a little long in the tooth, and that it would be appreciated if some more of us on the sunset side of the Atlantic would post pictures from our gardens, for a change.
Don, It is so wonderful to have another American galanthophile posting on the forum. I was hoping that if I asked enough stupid questions it would inspire some lurkers to come forward. Your photographs are wonderful and you are way ahead of me in collecting. Please post more photos. Your description of gardening in Iowa really gives fellow forumists a feeling for how different the climate is in the US and how what works in the UK might not apply here. Welcome to the forum. Carolyn
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Carolyn, I'll post some more pictures... when the snow melts. We just got dumped on by four inches of pure slush. It was so heavy that I could hardly shovel it off the driveway. Somewhere under there are some snowdrops, I think.
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That's not entirely impossible, Mark, as the mulch was applied this December. This was before the snowdrops had come over ground and other snowdrops in this bed were not effected in this manner though they had the same treatment. Would the mulch not have made the foliage yellow/pale green also?
Next year may tell a different story.
Paddy
it doesn't look like a cow pat job to me, I see plenty here and the foliage/stems are usually showing signs of the same thing, it is lovely & hope it turns out to be stable.
Thank you for the comment, Richard.
I didn't think the yellowing was caused by mulch covering either as no other part of the plant is in any way yellow. Also, adjacent plants are not showing any yellowing.
It would be a delight if it appeared like this next year. I can only keep my fingers crossed and wait in hope.
Paddy
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That will be a joy Paddy, we'll keep everything crossed for you ;D
That reminds me I must ask Brian where he's put my my collection including Hedgehog which I acquired a couple of years ago. I've only been collecting now for two years and already I have two!
Drat I thought he'd forgotten about those :-X
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I am not really a Galantophile, but the white fever has somewhat struck me due to a friend of mine. I bought this 'Fieldgate Fugue' at the Boschhoeve Galanthus event in The Netherlands last week for her. Now that it is fully open I really like this one and I want to share it with you.
Cheers,
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Thanks John.
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That will be a joy Paddy, we'll keep everything crossed for you ;D
That reminds me I must ask Brian where he's put my my collection including Hedgehog which I acquired a couple of years ago. I've only been collecting now for two years and already I have two!
Drat I thought he'd forgotten about those :-X
Thanks, Brian. It's a little excitement in life.
What? E-bay? Champagne? Oh, yeah!
Paddy
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At last Margaret Biddulph has finally opened for me and to celebrate here are a couple of photos of her. I've also included a more 'puffed' up picture of Fatty Puff and Josie as she has opened up a little more since my last posting of her.
1 and 2. Margaret Biddulph
3. Fatty Puff
4. Josie
David
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Wow! Wow! Wow! Gasp! Wow! Corr! Lovely!
I've definitely chosen the worst time to be away!
Mark, please don't tell me how quickly they are going over. I'm not back for another week and fear I will have missed so much. ??? :'(
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Hello,
I was very surprised today when I looked at my G- woronowii plants. Most of them are dead, after a very warm December and January, February greeted us with -19C - the nearly flowering plants of that species could not stand it. Nearby plants of elwesii and plicatus survived without damage as did several named clones. Also the leaves of reginae-olgae showed no damage.
Our native nivalis was not that advanced and also survived without problems!
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A little unusual flower from the inverse poculiforme group
NOBODY IS PERFECT - only a nivalis, but best for the continent
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Hello,
I was very surprised today when I looked at my G- woronowii plants. Most of them are dead, after a very warm December and January, February greeted us with -19C - the nearly flowering plants of that species could not stand it. Nearby plants of elwesii and plicatus survived without damage as did several named clones. Also the leaves of reginae-olgae showed no damage.
Our native nivalis was not that advanced and also survived without problems!
Really hard for the plants when there are such swings in temperatures. Pretty tough for the gardeners, too. :(
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John I dont know about England but it was 12c here today. More tulips are showing colour. Only 2 months early.
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A very pleasant day here, half an hour collecting seaweed and an hour's walk this morning on the strand and all in my shirtsleeves. Very warm. Cut grass in the afternoon.
Paddy
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You cut the grass? ??? :o Merciful heavens.... that's a shock at this time of year. Makes me SO glad I lifted all of our grass long ago ::) :D
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G. elwesii "R's Casaba". Aware of the previous discussion of the "Casabas" this is passed around here as 'Casaba'. I've not seen a photo or description of 'Casaba Boydii', I think it was. This looks like a small 'S. Arnott' truth be told. Very nice whatever it is.
Casaba NOT, alas!
I posted the above on Feb 18th. Yesterday I went to the original garden of origin with the owner. After careful checking the other clumps nearby we determined it was 'Straffan', not any "Casaba", moved about three feet from the parent clump by either moles or the stoloniferous ability of many of her drops.
I dug a wandering 'Pusey Green Tips' clump and found some bulbs with two inch long stolons, at least. (see photo), as some were cut during digging. She now has 4 documented varieties of drops that have moved via stolons. Curiouser and curiouser.
Jim
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G. elwesii "L Cbs" IMG_5163.jpg could be G. bortkewitchianus http://www.snowdropinfo.com/galanthus%20bortkewitchianus.html
Mark Smyth
Thanks for the suggestion, Mark. However, after consulting the monograph and "Snowdrops" it doesn't appear to be that species. Everything indicates elwesii. It was found among flats of G. elwesii in a nursery all of which appeared to be dug wild or semi-domesticated. They were purchased wholesale from Holland as dormant bulbs according to the grower here.
If wild, it's possible it could have G. bortkewitchianus in its ancestry, but without a DNA test, I can't say.
Sorry for the delay in replying. Took longer to get to wifi this time.
Jim
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Also, yellows seem to fade to olive as they age. I have noticed this with G. 'Primrose Warburg' in particular.Paddy
Paddy - Many years - if not most - Primrose Warburg and Wendy's Gold come out olive here. PerhAps I have added too much dolomitic lime or bonemeal in the past.
johnw
Each week I bring in my blooming galanthus to the nursery, put them in a sunny south window for customers to see. We have fluorescent lights inside. By day 3 I've noticed some of the medium green marked flowers lighten towards yellow, while the yellows darken towards green. Perhaps like many yellow variegated leaved shrubs bright light and warmth is needed to intensify the color, while shade and cool temps. push them towards the greener side.
All my G. Edward Whittall Group plants are now back on the patio and are lovely yellows, save the ovaries which didn't change! While poor 'Wendy's Gold' just looks bilious!
Jim
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When you said stolons it was something I have never heard of before. Your photo shows bulbs trying to take themselves deeper. This is very often seen in congested groups.
Looking at your photo again they are very deep so maybe they are coming up.
One of Ian's bulb log shows this - but which one?
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You cut the grass? ??? :o Merciful heavens.... that's a shock at this time of year. Makes me SO glad I lifted all of our grass long ago ::) :D
Third time since Christmas, Maggi.
Paddy
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When you said stolons it was something I have never heard of before. Your photo shows bulbs trying to take themselves deeper. This is very often seen in congested groups.
Looking at your photo again they are very deep so maybe they are coming up.
One of Ian's bulb log shows this - but which one?
Here's the link to John Grimshaw's blog article on the phenomena.
http://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.com/2011/10/self-adjusting-snowdrops.html
Yes, those in my photo were deep, but the angle of the bulb end on top plant is what intrigues me. The odd thing about Barbara Flynn's "running" drops (it was in her garden I photographed the 'Pusey Green Tips' and where others move laterally) is that this lateral movement happens to some very non-congested clumps and cannot all be attributed to mole activity. 'Lady Elphinstone', for instance, has never clumped, but has moved into Barbara's well trod path where moles hadn't dug. They were hard to dig out. Nor were they very deep either. The bottoms of those bulbs were L shaped, pointing towards the original planting. Many of her bulbs show laterally directed bulb parts. Stoloniferous is the wrong word, I agree. John's "Self-adjusting snowdrops" is somewhat better. So apparently galanthus can adjust up or down or side to side, at least in Barbara's garden.
I agree it's some reaction by the bulb to depth and congestion. Perhaps with 'PGT' they were too deep, and with 'LE' the soil was too compact. Our soils are very young glacial soils, in most cases with a top soil that's acidic in nature, made up of eons of coniferous humus - for what that's worth.
Whatever the reasons for this action, I find it fascinating. Nature still many tricks up her sleeves.
Hope you can find Ian's post for us, Mark.
Jim
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I agree with Mark (his second opinion), if a snowdrop is planted too deep it will form a 'stolon' some way up the stem. I imagine next season this becomes the new bulb whilst the old bulb dies away, exhausted from the effort. But bulbs can only move up by this means (unless the original bulb is upside down or sideways so the lower part of the stem projects sideways). I read John Grimshaw's blog and I don't think my opinion on this differs from his.
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Hello JimF
I agree with Mark and Alan too.
I always found only "false" stolon vertical (in to the depth) and never horizontal.
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You cut the grass? ??? :o Merciful heavens.... that's a shock at this time of year. Makes me SO glad I lifted all of our grass long ago ::) :D
Third time since Christmas, Maggi.
Paddy
I would comment.... but I'm lying down in a darkened room....... :P :o
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Hi!
Spring is waking up also in our country.
I am sending today's picture of Leucojum vernum:
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-DJmoR1K8aqE/T0pfrac-77I/AAAAAAAAE1o/6JPL7kdVGSo/s800/IMG_8748.JPG)
Best regards! Zvone
http://zvonem.blogspot.si/
http://zvone.blogspot.si/
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What a lovely sight to welcome Spring
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I know the difficulty of identifying snowdrops from a photo, but I would like you to try with this clump in my garden. I would normally have a label, but this clump has appeared from nowhere
The third photo shows another surprise - twin bells. This is a mini clump of two identical plants
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Beautiful snowflakes, Zvone!
Arthur, I like especially your third one - but cannot help to give a name to any. ::)
Two nice drops in flower actually: 'Jessica' and 'Ferdinand von Rayski'.
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Blow me down Hans, yours is the first Jessica I have seen this year to have green tips - I've obviously not been to the right places!
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Hans
I particularly like 'Ferdinand von Rayski' - not one I had heard of before. Is it a continental selection?
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Hans
I particularly like 'Ferdinand von Rayski' - not one I had heard of before. Is it a continental selection?
The (real) Ferdinand von Rayski sounds like a matinee idol - appropriate enough on the day of the Oscar Ceremony, I suppose! In fact he was an artist.
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A lovely clump of David Baker in my friends garden.
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0043.jpg)
and some more clumps
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0047-2.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0050-1.jpg)
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0053-1.jpg)
Galanthus melanie broughton
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0056-1.jpg)
Galanthus florence baker
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0057-1.jpg)
Galanthus Ballerina
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0060-2.jpg)
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Very nice clumps Davey
Do the Ivy Cottage Greentips have green tips - it is difficult to see in the photo. My new glasses arrive next week :)
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Some more ;D
Galanthus John Long
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0061-1.jpg)
Galanthus South hayes
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0065-1.jpg)
Galanthus the whopper
(http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae121/davep1970/PICT0066.jpg)
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Very nice clumps Davey
Do the Ivy Cottage Greentips have green tips - it is difficult to see in the photo. My new glasses arrive next week :)
Yes Art they do but didn't show up to well on the picture.
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A stunning collection
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Hello everyone.
I bought a Gal Sharman's Late yesterday. After arriving home I tried to find some information about it. I couldn't find anything online except for a photo on Mark's website. There is no information in the book "Galanthus, a monograph of cultivated Galanthus"either.
Maybe I should have bought more than one.
Does anyone know about the background of this snowdrop? Or does anyone also grow this variety?
I presume it has originates from Joe Sharman. The name does give that much away :D
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I've always resisted buying David Baker because on a sales table it doesnt look exciting but in a large group - where's my phone ....
Art I think your unknown is elwesii Cedric's Prolific
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Rick it was named by Carole Smith for Joe Sharman. Joe has a reputation for being late and as the
?Sandersii Group is a bit late it got named
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Mark
I think you are right - I did get Cedric's prolific from Beth Chatto as part of a collection.
It looks good and so far is living up to its name.
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I've always resisted buying David Baker because on a sales table it doesnt look exciting but in a large group - where's my phone ....
Art I think your unknown is elwesii Cedric's Prolific
I bought David Baker this year Mark, after seeing John Finch's potfull earlier on in the year and then i saw this clump, fantastic snowdrop.
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Here's another unknown. Much larger plant.
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Arnold the leaves look like G. elwesii or have elwesii in their genes
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New to this Galanthomania.
The inner marking can vary greatly and still belong to the species?
Thanks,
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New to this Galanthomania.
The inner marking can vary greatly and still belong to the species?
Thanks,
Oh, yes!
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The inner marking can vary greatly and still belong to the species?
It depends on the species but with elwesii there is a huge range of possibilities, even amongst those that you buy at a garden centre.
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Thanks,
Now I get it...
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Blow me down Hans, yours is the first Jessica I have seen this year to have green tips - I've obviously not been to the right places!
Thanks Brian - have not seen it without green tips so far. ::)
I particularly like 'Ferdinand von Rayski' - not one I had heard of before. Is it a continental selection?
Thanks a lot Arthur, yes it is a selection of Klaus Jentsch, growing surprisingly well here.
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Pictures from Carole Smith's garden at Wansford on Sunday.
1 and 2 General shot
3 G 'Broadwell'
4 G 'Cordelia'
5 G 'Doncaster-Double-Charmer'
6 G 'Green-Arrow'
7 Alan_b and Brian Ellis
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More from Sunday at Wansford
1 G 'June-Boardman'
2 G 'Little-Joan'
3 G 'Little-Joan'
4 G 'Richard-Handscombe'
5 G 'Tubby-Merlin'
6 G 'Vertigo'
7 G elwesii 'Comet'
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David - Is that blue bag in Brian's hand coming or going? Definitely not a crocus in there.
johnw
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Just having a late night peek - have not been online for a while due to eye problems....but as soon as I saw the latest beautiful photos...miraculously I could see again quite clearly!!!
Hans - I love your clump of Ferdinand von Rayski - very nice indeed.
Davey - fantastic clump shots! Oh! I just can't wait for some of mine to look like that - they are such a worry as individual bulbs. At least when you have that many you do not miss the odd one succumbing to NF or Swift Moth. Very nice indeed.
I do like the look of Ivy Cottage Green Tips (altho I cannot see tips either) - it is nice shaped flower.
Carole Smith's garden looks full of interest - my sort of garden. Lovely shots David and Brian - what's in that bag?! My, Alan...you are certainly getting around this year! Lucky you.
I like the look of Richard Handscombe & Vertigo...and what a lovely clump of Comet. A sad reminder seeing June Boardman as mine is definitely a gonner....no sign of it still.
Carole Smiths garden - does she grow perennials between the snowdrops the rest of the year? I am intrigued.
This one is for Mark - here are my Lord Monostictus this year :( My markings are like yours - I much preferred it with the two little dots.
Also a photo of lagodechianus with a single flower!
Will be taking more pics tomorrow with my out of focus eyes and will post some.
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The little story of FERDINAND VON RAISKY:
Hans is a German name.
So we have search in Germany.
There is a town in Germany called Dresden.
There is a street in Dresden called Ferdinand von Raisky
There is a nursery near the street with the owner Klaus Jentsch.
And Klaus is a Galanthophile.
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The blue bag is a little treasure, a kind present from Carole of 'Sharman's Late' which creases me up every time I see it/write it/ say it - sad old duffer that I am, also a G.n.poculiformis collected by Joe and Carole from the Jedburgh area which was making a lovely drift in the garden and both will be a nice reminder of a beautiful garden and a very nice afternoon's trip out. Thank you Carole, hope you made pots for the NGS ;D
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Here is the poc ex Jedburgh in the garden, eat your heart out Jennie, but one day you too will have drifts like this. ;)
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Here is the poc ex Jedburgh in the garden, eat your heart out Jennie, but one day you too will have drifts like this. ;)
WOW i have nothing more to say. :o :o
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Here is the poc ex Jedburgh in the garden, eat your heart out Jennie, but one day you too will have drifts like this. ;)
What a beautiful flower.... they look so pretty in clumps.
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As I am a technophobe and my brain is completely addled at the moment I will not even try and bring up the quotes and hope you can work out what is relevant.
Mark, I am pleading the fifth amendment on the naming of Sharman's Late, suffice to say it is a tall, late gold.
Brian and David it was lovely to see you on Sunday and my apologies to Alan B. I knew you were familiar but it was late in the day and I just could not work out why. Thanks for your support. We raised over £900 for the NGS.
Jennie, all the usual dry shade, woodland plants follow the snowdrops. The show goes on until late June/July. When the Lime trees come into leaf the garden goes into dense shade and being East Anglia it is very dry. I am married to a scotsman who is not impressed with me watering the garden. Things like foxgloves (white - pink is only allowed in the "red bed") and cardiocrinum (grown in a pot but placed up the back) will continue some colour.
I have herbaceous at the front of the garden around the seating area which is still in sun, and if I have time I put my hammock up between the trees. Fruit and veg. are grown in the south facing front garden.
I sell for a friend at places like Harrogate and Malvern Flower Shows and am away from home quite a lot in the summer so the back area going to sleep suits me very well.
Our thanks for everyone who supported us on Sunday and apologies to those I did not recognise or speak to. I am really looking forward to Harlow Show on Saturday so may see some of you there.
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Here is the poc ex Jedburgh in the garden, eat your heart out Jennie, but one day you too will have drifts like this. ;)
Whose garden? :)
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More from Sunday at Wansford
1 G 'June-Boardman'
2 G 'Little-Joan'
3 G 'Little-Joan'
4 G 'Richard-Handscombe'
5 G 'Tubby-Martin'
6 G 'Vertigo'
7 G elwesii 'Comet'
I think no. 5 is 'Tubby Merlin'
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I visited an interesting garden yesterday whose owner was a student with Martyn Rix and had a range of snowdrops Martyn had given her some 25 years ago. Mostly elwesii and plicatus, but very likely arising from wild collections. Amongst them were some rather nice seedlings, which I think will be selected out and grown on. So some examples - a number of these are mixed seedling clumps.
1. A group with particularly fresh green foliage
2. A single plant in the front with very long outer tepals
3. A form with particularly fine glaucous leaves
4. These were very attractive delicate flowers with a long pedicel
5. A robust elwesii with notably dark markings
And finally a couple of great clumps of hellebores. The garden is warm and dry, situated high on the North Downs escarpment and well suited to Galanthus elwesii in particular. There are fantastic clumps of both this and plicatus that have not been touched for 15 years or more; really remarkable to see.
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Pressed the post button too quickly! Have also added a nice plicatus form with long outer tepals.
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Well the last two have arrived first (!), otherwise in the order listed.
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Also a photo of lagodechianus with a single flower!
Jenny - Well done. That's one flower more than I've ever seen on the many bulbs here. I'm starting a new batch from seed as I fear mine is a non-flowering form, it increases at an alarming rate.
johnw
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This one is in my garden.
G. 'Kersen' Kersen means cherries.
Lina.
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This one is in my garden.G. 'Kersen' Kersen means cherries. Lina.
Lina - Good to hear you are growing this one, it's lovely. Every time I see the photo of it in the Book I wonder why no one seems to grow it or even it was still around. Alive and well in Winschoten!
johnw
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This one is in my garden.
G. 'Kersen' Kersen means cherries.
Lina.
oo id love to get that one for my Mum , her name is Cherry :)
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Emma, I only have one bulb. But I will try to remember sending you a bulb when it thrives
Lina..
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Here is the poc ex Jedburgh in the garden, eat your heart out Jennie, but one day you too will have drifts like this. ;)
Smashing Brian! You always have a surprise in store for us.
johnw
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things going over fast now, had a nice day planting lots of new things.
only a couple of pics...
Greenish
David Shackleton
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I think no. 5 is 'Tubby Merlin'
Thanks. Has been amended - tired eyes after a long day!
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Here is the poc ex Jedburgh in the garden, eat your heart out Jennie, but one day you too will have drifts like this. ;)
Whose garden? :)
Art you may have gathered from the other posts that it was Carole Smith's garden at Wansford.
Good that you did so well for the open day Carole :D
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Rick it was named by Carole Smith for Joe Sharman. Joe has a reputation for being late and as the
?Sandersii Group is a bit late it got named
Thanks Mark,
Looks like not many people grow this variety.
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Rick it was named by Carole Smith for Joe Sharman. Joe has a reputation for being late and as the
?Sandersii Group is a bit late it got named
Looks like not many people grow this variety.
There are more and more about as Joe has been selling it this year Rick.
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Well the snowdrop season is gradually winding down now, we had our last visit? today to the National Collection of Margaret MacLennan in Essex, and what a treat it was. It's not often I am taken aback, but I was really pleased to see the thought that Margaret and David had put in to their National Collection; we have seen a fair few National Collections in our time of various genus, and it would be nice to think that more of them were cared for in this manner. They have 100s of varieties (well over 600 and counting), nearly all have been chipped for backups and scrupulous recording and care of the collection is evident.
I should imagine it is a beautiful garden in the Summer, but to be quite honest I was 'blown away' by it all. Some of the collection is displayed in mixed beds, some in raised beds, some in walk through beds many are also planted in drifts in the lawn. Then there are the cold frames. I was pleased to see some that I grow, some that I had heard of and can now put a face to, and even more that I had no inkling even existed and my mind is still racing nearly two hours after we have got home! For once I have not taken a single picture as there was just so much to see, fortunately David did take a few so they will be up later.
I know Margaret is a sometime lurker so I must express our thanks to her for a fantastic end to our season, and to both David and Margaret for their kind hospitality, we had a marvellous visit.
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Here is the poc ex Jedburgh in the garden, eat your heart out Jennie, but one day you too will have drifts like this. ;)
Whose garden? :)
Art you may have gathered from the other posts that it was Carole Smith's garden at Wansford.
Good that you did so well for the open day Carole :D
It was a joke - not very funny - brought on by absolute envy. what a wonderful garden. And then you go and visit another fantastic garden.
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A couple of shots of a poculiform Lagodechianus which has been stable for the last three years.
John (M)
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The poculiform flower looks particularly nice against the dark lagodechianus foliage John, very nice.
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Very nice poc and in a lagodechianus!
From yesterday pics before digging up some Tippy Green at a old farmhouse. One special nivalis with 2 pair of normal petals and the 3d above the ovary and a green stripe on it!
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I have no idea how this picture will turn out as I am using mums iPad and the resize is really not as intuitive as on a windows pc/laptop.
(Maggi, if the size is completely LARGE could you do the honours for me please)?
I have been searching Madeira for a snowdrop fix and failed miserably. But today I almost managed it when I spotted a snowflake growing.
It has made me smile seeing the selection of plants it is growing with! ;D
Failed! I shall go to the internet cafe as I don't seem to be able to an image using the iPad! Will edit this post with a picture later...
edit by maggi - photo added
[attach=1]
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I was given this Galanthus elwesii by Fred Sutherland in 1994. It stayed as one bulb for a long time. There are 3 flowering shoots this year and 1 non flowering. So it's not a fast increaser. I have not seen the little green eyes before. As far as I remember it has always been 'monostictus'.
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A friend came round the garden today with her husband, I was amazed to find that she is yet another lurker!
The reason for her visit was to bring a snowdrop which grows well in her present garden, and has obviously been there some years, we hope it is Galanthus 'Norfolk Small' and I shall grow it on and compare with other known examples (anybody growing it please PM me). I was extremely pleased to be given another present with it - Galanthus 'Denton' which was collected just down the road from here. My friend lives in Alburgh (again only a few miles) so is hoping to obtain a bulb of G.'Alburgh Claw' when it becomes more widely available.
Sadly this lovely weather is hastening the end of the season in our dry garden, she was very amused that I was actually watering some of the snowdrops as we were going round - we were bemoaning the fact that I was having to do so in February when the old rhyme says 'February fill dyke, Be it black, or be it white'. Certainly this February we haven't had vast amounts of either rain or snow so the dykes are nowhere near full.
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A few pictures from our visit to a Norfolk garden on Monday.
1. Welcome
2. General shot
3. From left: Ann Borrill, Esme Bagnall-Oakley, Brian Ellis
4. G Augustus
5 G Lace Wing
6. General shot
7. General shot
8. Crocus ‘Yalta’
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Lovely snowdrop bank.
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More from Monday.
1. Normal galanthophile pose. From left Esme Bagnall-Oakley, Brian Ellis, Jane-Ann Walton
2. Norfolk galanthophiles. from left: Ann Borrill, Brian Ellis, Jane-Ann Walton, Judy Wilson
3. Snowdrops and crocus
4. G. krasnovii
5. Jane-Ann Walton
6. Crocus
7. More snowdrops
8. Horses
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A gift to Brian from a generous forumist.
1 and 2. G Schmalhans-im-Grunen
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G krasnovii :o :o :o It's beautiful!
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Good grief a krasnovii! What a garden! Have you ever seen such well-behaved erect Crtocus?
Another corker David .
johnw
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A tip from another lurker on the forum (thanks RB) if you grow G.krasnovii, grow it near a hosta so it will be bone dry in the summer, as it is a snow-melt plant.
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On the previous page, Kent Gardener was having trouble getting a photo to load... it is now
added.....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=8483.msg235215#msg235215
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My goodness, what fine photos of the winter garden - to have a bank running down to a stream like that is just beautiful. I think some visits to Norfolk must be in the offing! Many thanks for sharing the pictures.
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A tip from another lurker on the forum (thanks RB) if you grow G.krasnovii, grow it near a hosta so it will be bone dry in the summer, as it is a snow-melt plant.
And platyphyllus never too dry?
johnw
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Hello JimF
I agree with Mark and Alan too.
I always found only "false" stolon vertical (in to the depth) and never horizontal.
Mark, Alan, and Hagen.
After an evening examining the second plant from top in the photo (which is angled and doesn't show the horizontal "crook root" well) I believe what I'm seeing is a bulb that was knocked on its side by a mole with its tip pointing more down then to the side. So not only has the bulb righted itself, forming the crook root "stolon", but then went on to raise itself up as you all suggested. So a combo of moles, being sideways and two deep created, in this case, the appearance of sideways motion. One more mole move and we could have a cork screw!
Appreciate the comments, that sent me back to bulb and brain.
Jim