Mysterious Snowdrop Bank

[Alan_b]

I have been trying to grow snowdrops for 11 years now, starting with Galanthus nivalis and then branching out into more exotic cultivars and species.  Whilst eagerly waiting for my nivalis to emerge, each year I was always frustrated by another garden in my village which had a large drift of snowdrops growing on a bank at the front of their drive.  These snowdrops emerge and flower three or four weeks before my nivalis.  In fact, as I now realise, they emerge and flower three or four weeks before any nivalis in the area.  Hence the mystery.

The leaves are certainly applanate and the markings on the flower are nivalis-like as far as I can tell.  I have attached a picture I took yesterday of a clump in flower, although so far the majority are not yet flowering.  And a picture of a typical open flower I took last year on 14th January (of a specimen the owner kingly allowed me to remove).  I tried to photograph the bank yesterday but the snowdrops do not really show up against the leaf-litter.  However it is a large drift with many many thousands of these early snowdrops.  Can anybody help me identify them?  I'll pop back and take more photographs as necessary.

[mark smyth]

That mark looks very like 'Castlegar'

[Alan_b]

I looked up "Castlegar" and found it is a very early flowering nivalis-like snowdrop.  My reading of the description of Castlegar is, to paraphrase, that it would be unremarkable if it appeared later in the season and that also fits my mystery snowdrop.  But it seems as if Castlegar was discovered in the 1990s and there are so many snowdrops on this bank that they must have been there for decades.

So thanks, Mark, good suggestion but it cannot truly be Castlegar unless Castlegar derived from this bank by some as yet unknown connection between my house in Cambridgeshire and the Mahon Estate in Castlegar, Galway.   

[mark smyth]

Oh yes, I didnt think of that.

Is the bank south facing? Do they do the same in your garden? I have a 'Castlegar' lookalike that flowers in late November

[Alan_b]

Is the bank south facing?

It faces south west, curving round to north west at the front.  In summer it is shaded by a large horse chestnut tree above the bank and a row of trees to the south west that border the front of the garden.

Do they do the same in your garden?

Good question.  The answer is that, so far, there is no sign of the three snowdrops I moved from the bank to my garden.  But this was only a year ago and I find many early snowdrops appear late in their first year after a move.  Actually, the majority of the snowdrops in this area of my garden are running late this year. 

[Paddy Tobin]

Alan,

I recall you menioning this snowdrop bank last year, I think, and it must be a wonderful sight. Great to have it so close to you. Have you not asked the owner about the origins of the snowdrops? - though this planting must date back many many years and the present owner may not have been there when they were originally planted.

How wonderful if this had been a complete bank of G. 'Castlegar', that would be a rare treat but, as you say, this cultivar has not been around that long to have formed such large drifts and so far away from its place of origin. G. 'Castlegar' is in flower here at the moment and your photograph is certainly very like it.

Finally, just to tease, could you not have read the label in that last photograph and found out the name for yourself?

Paddy

[Alan_b]

Alan,

....
Finally, just to tease, could you not have read the label in that last photograph and found out the name for yourself?

Paddy

To be sure, I could have, Paddy.  Unfortunately some stick-in-the mud fuddy duddies seem to think that everybody should use the same name for the same snowdrop, so I can only use a name of my own invention if the snowdrop does not already have a name.  And even then I have to make sure that the name has not already been used by somebody else!!!