Yellowish G. elwesii in Canada

[Martin Baxendale]

My friend photographed a clump with a lemon which is a lot more
yellow than the snowdrop.

Diane, the snowdrop still looks fairly yellow even by comparison with the bright yellow of the lemon. Have you tried collecting pollen from that one and the one with the solid yellow inner mark? It could be very useful for breeding purposes and no-one could complain about you taking pollen.

[Diane Whitehead]

Yes, we managed to get pollen from some of the yellowish ones yesterday.
  The wind was blowing fairly strongly though, and I didn't end up with as much
pollen as I started with.

I put my lot on any pocs I have open.

[KentGardener]

The wind was blowing fairly strongly though, and I didn't end up with as much
pollen as I started with.

Do you now have some blond yellow highlights in your hair Diane?   

Good luck getting the pocs to develop seed pods this year.  I remember you had problems when using the pollen from Wendy's Gold.  Hopefully the fact that these are the same species as you pocs may mean they are more receptive to it? ? ?

I think they still look yellow even with the lemon too.  When you compare them to Carolyn Elwes which is the only 'yellow' one I have ever seen it looks like your yellow gene pool could be much healthier.  (Steve has helpfully posted some pictures of Carolyn Elwes here here for comparison.

Like Martin has implied - solid marks are my preference on Elwesii too.

Regards

John

[Brian Ellis]

My friend photographed a clump with a lemon which is a lot more
yellow than the snowdrop.

The snowdrop is Sunkist too!

[Diane Whitehead]

The snowdrop is Sunkist too!

Actually, she thinks sunshine has something to do with it.  She noticed the
sides facing the sun are yellower than the shaded sides - not just on this one
clump, but others too.

[Maggi Young]

Actually, she thinks sunshine has something to do with it.  She noticed the
sides facing the sun are yellower than the shaded sides - not just on this one
clump, but others too.

we find this in the yellow  tipped/ ovary Leucojum    .....sunny side is yellower 

[Diane Whitehead]

And it is not as though we get much winter sunshine - we're not like
Japan or Phoenix, and the few sunny days we get are not very bright,
though our days are longer than those of Scotland.

[Diane Whitehead]

I put mixed pollen from the yellowish elwesii on 9 flowers in the pot
of several elwesii pocs and one pod has set.

I put yellow nivalis pollen (frozen since last year) on 4 flowers, but
no pod has set.

[Diane Whitehead]

The sun was out yesterday so a friend and I went to the garden with lots
of yellowish elwesii, to collect pollen and take pictures.

We were dismayed to find no yellows.  One of the best clumps was still
in tight bud, but other clumps that were open weren't yellow.  What could
have happened?  I didn't bother to collect pollen, but did take some photos
so I could compare them with the ones from last year.  I've just done
that, and found to my surprise that I took last year's pictures exactly one
month later than this year's.  Could that make a difference?

Here is a photo from last February 19, to compare to the same clump
yesterday.

[KentGardener]

Hi Diane.  How strange.   

I seem to remember from last year that your friend noticed that the side facing the sun was 'more yellow' on many of the snowdrops.  You do realise that this means we shall be forcing encouraging you to go back there in a months time to see if the colour has changed!  

I have used one of the 'paint cards' you posted to me for comparison next to the plicatus 'Bill Clark' that is in flower here at the moment.  The match that you got with the yellow elwesii for the colour swatch called 'D28 Star Fruit' is almost a perfect match with Bill Clark too.

[Diane Whitehead]

Last year was a bad winter for us.  There were several cold spells,
and this could have made the snowdrops flower later, when the
days are longer.  Perhaps the extra light could have altered the usual
colour, or conversely, this year could be earlier than normal so that
the snowdrops are greener than usual.

If I hadn't been using a digital camera that records the date, I would
not have realized I'm a month early this year.

[Anthony Darby]

My 'Bill Clark' is just above the soil.

[KentGardener]

My 'Bill Clark' is just above the soil.

I have two lots of it Anthony - the ones in the ground is only just above the soil - these are in a pot (and were really close to the others) but are weeks ahead for some reason.   

[Alan_b]

I too often find that pot-grown snowdrops flower ahead of their soil-grown clones.

[Diane Whitehead]

A singleton, growing on a rock.  Is it pale because it is starved?