Disappearing galanthus

[Mavers]

Hi all please could you offer me any advice??................

I moved home the back end of 2006 & transplanted all of my snowdrop collection to my parents garden during the summer of that year when the bulbs were dormant.

My parents enjoyed the lovely 2007 display & started to appreciate how galanthus varied in growth, blooms, foliage etc.

I intended to move them this summer to their permanent positions in my new garden but there has been a disaster as most of my most precious snowdrops have not emerged this year.

The old stalwarts Magnet & Brenda Troyle have emerged, but to my eye seem a little lack lustre, but my ultra precious ones including Big Boy, Southayes, Dodo Norton, Kildare, Spindlestone Surprise etc have just not appeared this year.

Should I have a dig this weekend to see what has happened to them or leave alone?

If I do find remnants of the bulbs how can I get them to recover?

Personally I feel I should carefully investigate & try to take remedial action.

All your advice would be greatly appreciated, especially how to treat the bulbs if I manage to find any.

I look forward to receiving your expertise..................

Mike

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Mike, this is a worry, isn't it?  Could be a lot of factors at work here.... the bulbs may have had enough strength in them to flower well last year but not be enjoying their temporary site enough to have made sufficient growth to survive/flower well a second year.
 Is the area they're in generally good soil with decent drainage?  Is the area of your parents' home more prone to the dreaded narcissus fly than your old garden? 
 Are the snowdrops in neighbouring gardens at an advanced stage/equivalent to those of yours which are flowering? Do they look a bit "off" this year, too?
 Then there's mice, wood pigeon.... oh dear.... this is a worry! 
Yes, I would have a dig around to see what might be there. If you find firm bulbs but not rooting/growing then I'd lift and pot up to put in a "rescue " area where  you can keep an eye on progress, and at leastthen you have checked them to see if they are rotting/ being eaten.
Good luck!

[Alan_b]

I have quite often planted clumps of snowdrops that have completely failed to appear or had clumps disappear completely after several years.  I have never found any trace of the bulbs.  I do not think it can be animals because I would have seen a hole or sign of the ground being disturbed.  This has driven me to planting most of my snowdrops in a raised bed, and so far this has been largely successful.  I have also sometimes found bulbs that have been part-eaten - and not from the inside as a narcissus fly would.

My conclusion is that some gardens harbour underground pests that attack and eat snowdrop bulbs but these are absent in other gardens.  You may have been unlucky.

I should add that Wendy's Gold made a full recovery after being so badly eaten that it only managed a little shoot about an inch long one year.  I transferred it to a pot for a few years and this was effective in preventing further attack. 

[Mavers]

Thanks for responding Maggi & Alan..................I'm trying to keep things in perspective.........

BUT I AM SO DISAPPOINTED as this has hit my collection for six. 

[Maggi Young]

Yes, Mike, it is hard to keep calm when your nice collection has suffered such a big hit, for whatever reason. I was heartbroken when we had to burn our Iris collection because of virus..... and when the combination of hotter summers and a vine weevil "epidemic" hit the Primulas I was so proud of.......it makes me sad still to think of them.
Point is never to give up... either fight back to restore the collection or find something new to take the place.....there's always next year......as Harold Esslemont and Jack Crosland used to say when sowing seeds of things , when they were in their eighties, that would take at least seven years to flower!!

[Martin Baxendale]

Mike, you may have been unlucky with narcissus fly (are there a lot of big trumpet daffs growing in your parents' garden and/or neighbouring gardens?) or with the very wet weather last summer, especially if the soil is heavy and not very well drained (the wet summer in 2007 seems to have encouraged a lot of snowdrop disease - especially the fungus stagonospora which can completely kill off apparently healthy snowdrops within a year in wet ground). The bulbs should be up by now, so they may well have gone completely, but have a dig and see if there are any remnants you can try to save.

[Mavers]

Hi Martin, yes the soil is on the heavy side in my parents garden as it was in my old garden where snowdrops grew very well.

My parent's garden is part of an old orchard & the soil looked good where I planted my collection........however I too think the excessive rain last summer may have been a problem.

If they have gone for good I have mixed feelings about starting all over again....................feeling very disheartened to be honest.

[mark smyth]

Mavers sorry about your losses but it's an ever growing group of people with big let downs.

[Alan_b]

If they have gone for good I have mixed feelings about starting all over again....................feeling very disheartened to be honest.

Snowdrops are finicky things and many people who try to grow them find this out sooner or later.  I have struggled from the outset so the main focus of my snowdrop growing is finding out what not to do.

There was an apposite quote on given the forum last year which was (from memory):  "If you want to keep a plant, give it away".  Hopefully you will have given away some bulbs of your more-treasured snowdrops and now your friends can return the favour. 

[mark smyth]

I know this phrase also. I will soon be knocking at doors because my snowdrop 'Mark's Tall' is doing much better in gardens other than my own

[loes]

like Mike I lost several galanthus this year .some are completely gone,some have a few very short leaves .
I think my losses are due to the wet weather/drainage in my garden.So I plan to move the suffering ones to a drier place and hope for the best.I must admitt that I was disencouraged(?)and I do hope that it will be better next year.otherwise the joy will be almost gone.there is no fun in spending time and money in nice drops and loose them the next year.not all are that bad,some have done quit well and multiply as they should

[Martin Baxendale]

I'm seriously considering going back to growing more of my best snowdrops in pots, so I can keep a closer eye on them and enjoy them more at close quarters (while in the garden in our ever gloomier and wetter winters I barely ever see them looking good - though today was very good; the first good day of the Winter though!)

Unfortunately, I first need a decent glasshouse, as the lean-too is rubbish. And then there's all that repotting every year. I still think if you had a big glasshouse and repotted every year, you could grow most snowdrops perfectly well under glass - and get a lot of close-up enjoyment from them - plus you get the scents much better.

Ah well, when I have more money and more time.

[mark smyth]

Martin B&Q have greenhouse sale just now.

now if this had been yesterday I could have said don't pancake!

I have had snowdrops take a year out. Last year it was Greenfinch. A year is a long time to remember but I dont remember my Dodo Nortons looking so good. My Walter and Margery Fish have been terrible at appearing and not appearing. This is their second year of non appearance so I guess that's it they're gone.

If the problem is Narcissus fly you can be lucky and the remains twinscale themselves. This happened with my Narcissus Fairy Gold. It was almost wiped out so I moved the remaining bulbs to a trough. I now have the bulb in two places. To my surprise the place I originally had the bulbs has a flowering bulb last year. There definitely wasnt a flower in 2005. There could have been leaves but they would have been hidden by the Galanthus leaves

[Ezeiza]

Hi:
 
    Sorry for the loSS. Easy to visualize the disaster.

    Just for the record, there was no manure addition to the soil, was it?

Regards

[Mavers]

Thank you all for your commiserations, I'm feeling the loss greatly at the moment..............however like I said before I must keep it in perspective.

Hi Ezeiza I didn't use any manure in the soil just a light scattering of Blood Fish & Bone.

The bulbs were placed on a layer of sharp sand so at least when I investigate I'll know where they should be.

What secrets do the high priests of the snowdrop world know about growing galanthus. You receive a lovely little bulb of something like Cowhouse Green, obviously well grown, you plant it in what you think is the most sumptious soil..................and the following year it just about summons enough strength to stick two leaf tips up at you.............AND you'd better think yourself lucky it bothered to even do that. Yet the priestly class have enough to sell in their catalogues........what is their secret?