A different Valentine's Gift!

[annew]

Hi Brian,
   I too wonder about the other stories that ‘fell’ along the way. At least one other person thought an un-named snowdrop bulb was worth over a thousand pounds!
   Tom has certainly found an interesting way of giving his new cultivars a back story.. I wonder what next Valentines Day will bring! We might not even have to wait that long!!.....   Anyone got an un-named Christmas flowering bulb?

Tim DH

Will a blue daffodil do?  Or maybe one of my red snowdrops?

[Maggi Young]

Will a blue daffodil do?  Or maybe one of my red snowdrops?

I can think of a few folks who might pay you NOT to introduce those, Anne! ( My fiver is in the post.......)

[Alan_b]

Here's the Telegraph's version of the news story published earlier by the Mirror.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/plants/10647220/Woman-pays-1602-to-name-snowdrop.html
We now learn that Mr Gooding will be introducing 'tight security measures for his snowdrop'.  Somebody should tell the poor guy that he has a snowdrop worth £50 on a good day for which his daughter paid a hefty premium for the privilege of naming.  Or maybe not a hefty premium, compared to the cost of naming a rose?     

[Tim Ingram]

It's curious isn't it - you can't steal a garden like you might a painting, but you can steal the plants in it, but only if people put a value on them! No wonder it's so hard to run a specialist nursery - it would be simpler just to give the plants away like you do to your friends. So far we don't have barbed wire and security cameras around our garden, and if we get to that point I think we will just walk away from it.

[Brian Ellis]

Somebody should tell the poor guy that he has a snowdrop worth £50 on a good day for which his daughter paid a hefty premium for the privilege of naming.  Or maybe not a hefty premium, compared to the cost of naming a rose?     

I think maybe if someone did that they would totally spoil the gift for him.

[Alan_b]

Do you think so, Brian?  What will happen when Evolution Plants start selling the thing?  I know there are a few 'completists' who would pay a high price for a snowdrop they do not have but I don't see the rest of us paying a lot of money.  But I could be wrong.  I have yet to see a good photograph of this particular snowdrop so it is perfectly possible it looks better in life than as an image or better as a clump than as an individual plant.   

[Brian Ellis]

Do you think so, Brian?  What will happen when Evolution Plants start selling the thing?  I know there are a few 'completists' who would pay a high price for a snowdrop they do not have but I don't see the rest of us paying a lot of money.  But I could be wrong.  I have yet to see a good photograph of this particular snowdrop so it is perfectly possible it looks better in life than as an image or better as a clump than as an individual plant.   

Yes I do, he is an elderly gentleman with fond memories of a father he hardly knew, his daughters gesture may be interpreted in all sorts of ways, but it was done for love.  The price was not for a snowdrop but for the right to name it so the 'worth' of the bulb is totally immaterial - after all it is only a bulb.  I am sure Evolution Plants will not be remembered for the snowdrop (if indeed they do sell it) but for the quality of their goods.  I really don't know why everyone is making such a fuss, the lady has spent her money on what she wanted to spend it on as is her right.  If anyone criticized me for the amount I spend I would tell them where to go in no uncertain terms.

[Alan_b]

I'm not disputing the fact that it is a lovely story and whilst I initially thought that the price paid to name a snowdrop was very high, Maggi provided a context of named roses that suggested it was actually not so.  I just felt that it would be better if Peter Gooding could now relax and enjoy his snowdrop without worrying that somebody would want to steal it.  Theft of snowdrops and other plants is a worry but two houses in my street were burgled recently and that seems to me to be worse than losing plants from your garden.     

[Brian Ellis]

I just felt that it would be better if Peter Gooding could now relax and enjoy his snowdrop without worrying that somebody would want to steal it.

I am sure he is quite relaxed and not employing securicor, personally never believe much that the papers tell us anyway as they are well known for bending the facts to fit their purpose.  Besides which they would have to know where the grave was!

[Alan_b]

You are probably right, Brian.  The Telegraph article had very little to add to what was already reported in the Mirror so perhaps the link to the recent spate of 'snowdrop theft' newspaper articles was contrived.  We both agree that the best outcome for Peter Gooding is that he should be that he is left to enjoy his snowdrop free from cares and worries. 

[Maggi Young]

From the PBS lists I discover  from Roy Herold that  : :  The naming rights for a new Moraea species from Jacobs Bay were auctioned off for some $50,000 a couple of years ago.......

From : http://www.straussart.co.za/review-2011/

"We were involved in a number of fundraising initiatives which all proved
to be an enormous success and very rewarding.

Name the Iris: The WWF Table Mountain Fund approached us to sell the
naming rights of a rare newly discovered West Coast iris on the verge of
extinction. It started as a tailor-made online auction hosted on the
Strauss & Co website and culminated in an elegant dinner and auction
conducted by Stephan Welz at The Mount Nelson Hotel. After competitive
bidding it was finally knocked down for R550 000 to Mike and Rose
Hainebach who named the iris after his family, the formal Latin name
being Moraea hainebachiana. This is the first time that a plant species
name has been auctioned in Africa."

[mark smyth]

Gasp £30,793 / US$51,514

[Alan_b]

I wonder how much the Queen of Greece paid for her snowdrop species?

[Alan_b]

Somebody else has now borrowed the "name-your-own-snowdrop" idea.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galanthus-woronowii-NEW-YELLOWISH-COLOUR-FORM-/131133818270?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item1e882f459e

it is as yet unnamed. The purchaser will have the honour of naming it, perhaps after a loved one.

[Gerard Oud]

And its not yellow but green Just wondering whom is willing(read stupid enough) to pay for a ordinary single woronowii