Galanthus 2006

[mark smyth]

After some warmer windowsill treatment here is elwesii 'Haydn' open. It's nothing spectactular but it extends the Galanthus season to pre-Christmas and can be above ground in late November.

Also flowering on this side of Christmas is elwesii 'Broadleigh form' again nothing special but useful to extend the season.

[mark smyth]

last snowdrop for today as the sun dips too low for good light is simply elwesii Hiemalis Group. This group is all the early flowering elwesii

[KentGardener]

Hi Mark

thanks for the pictures - now time for you to go indoors and continue with the important work of updating your website!

Please

John

[mark smyth]

"The computer says nooo!"

Make hay while the sun shines. Weeding finished - for now. Crocus seeds to plant. Lift some R. ficaria that cats dispersed during the summer. Pot some Trilliums and then ... after dark mess wiff da 'puter.

So I'm a Hopeless Galanthophile? Must be Dog's Body up to no good while 'Despot' sleeps. hehe

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,

The Galanthus elwesii hiemalis group is very attractive - I find those cultivars with long slim outer segments are very attractive, are reasonably distinctive and make a fine display in the garden, rather than the many not-too-easy-to-distinguish cultivars for which one needs an eye-piece before identifying. Were it not for good labelling I imagine most galanthus lovers would be quite lost in their attempts to identify many cultivars from each other.

These more distinctive cultivars are of far more value, I believe, than the many almost identical cultivars which are needlessly named and hawked as new.

Paddy

[Brian Ellis]

John

Still waiting for the re-issue of the Snowdrop book, my book-seller next door says that they keep putting it back a week and she'll chase them up again today.  Frustrating!

Brian

[mark smyth]

Brian place an order with Griffen Press so you are able to get a copy a day or two after it's release.

If enough people want it I can post about 12 distinct Galanthus that are available that dont need a label or hand lens to tell them apart. It just takes a while to recognise the differences. It's like knowing how to tell the Corvids (Crows) apart - Raven, Rook, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Chough. The Magpie, Jay and Hooded Crow are very easy

[Diane Whitehead]

Mark,

I think it would be very useful for ordinary gardeners if you put a list of distinctive snowdrops
on your website.  They could be of ones that have been sold widely, and would benefit people
who have lost the label, or have moved into an established garden with clumps of snowdrops
already in place.

However, perhaps there have been too many named snowdrops widely available in the U.K.
for this to be useful.

Diane

[KentGardener]

Hi All

I have just received a phone call from my aunt (another snowdrop fanatic).  She has just taken possession of her new copy of 'the snowdrop book' (rather late in the day for deliveries I know (5.30pm  -  but it is Christmas week)).

She has roughly flicked through and compared this with her present first edition and up to page 343 everything seems the same.

This new release is a great opportunity for people that have missed out on the first edition of such a wonderful book (a second hand copy set me back £80!), but personally, I shall wait to see the third edition in the hope that it will be possible to include some new photographs.

Regards

John

[Paddy Tobin]

Have I witnessed some common sense entering this forum? It really will have to be nipped in the bud.

John very sensibilly suggests he is going to wait until the snowdrop book comes out in its third edition with something new and worthwhile before spending his hard-earned on it. (Actually, he also had a comment about having set himself a limit on what he would spend on an individual bulb - John, you are soaring in my estimation)

And Diane has suggested that there is an oversupply of 'named' snowdrops on the market in the UK. Ah, Diane, you know the old saying 'a fool and his money are soon parted'. Well, for every fool there is someone who is waiting to part him/her from her money and these are the people who are so quick to name another snowdrop - isn't there one now called 'Bend-in-the-wind', apparently it bends over when the wind blows, very distinctive, apparently.

So nice to read the postings of two soulmates on the forum.

Paddy 

[Brian Ellis]

Hello all

Obviously today was D-Day as my neighbour knocked on the door earlier this evening with my present of the book.  It was delivered to the book shop late this afternoon.  I shall now retire with a good book having missed it the first time round!

Mark I think the list would be a great idea for any newbies like me please.

Brian

I think your 'easy to know' list would be a great idea, Mark. Maggi

[mark smyth]

The survey said ....

A couple of years ago Plantsman magazine carried out a survey of people who grow Galanthus. This is the top 20 favourites. Cue TOTP theme tune

  1.   'S. Arnott'
=2.   elwesii 'Comet'
=2.   'Magnet'
  4.   plicatus 'Three Ships'
=5.   'Atkinsii'
=5.   'Bertram Anderson'
=5.   plicatus 'Wendy's Gold'
=8.   'John Gray'
=8.   'Mrs McNamara
=10. plicatus 'Augustus'
=10. 'Bill Bishop'
=12. gracilis
=12. plicatus 'Trym'
=14. ikariae
=14. 'Cicely Hall'
=14. nivalis 'Lady Elphinstone'
=17. elwesii
=17. 'Galatea'
=17. plicatus 'Gerard Parker'

just outside the top 20 are

=17. 'Hippolyta'
=17. 'Mighty Atom'
=17. nivalis
=17. nivalis Sandersii Group
=17. rizehensis
=17. 'Spindlestone Surprise'
=17. nivalis 'Viridapice'

[Maggi Young]

Okay, Mark, but what is the list OF? Is it the most popular or most easily recognisable? I think we are hoping for pix of those you reckon are identifiable by anyone, without recourse to DNA testing!!!

[mark smyth]

most popular. I have photos of them all.

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks for the list Mark.  I first got really interested when we went to Rod Leeds Suffolk garden to look at his fritillaries this year.  Of course as it was a late Spring down here in the East of England very few were even in evidence, let alone flowering.  Instead we were treated to Hepaticas in one glasshouse, Narcissus in another, wonderful cake (oops that shows why I visit gardens) and a marvellous display of snowdrops in all their varying forms and colours.  I won't drone on but I was taken by surprise by huge clumps of Anne of Geirstein, Primrose Warburg and Spindelstone Surprise and pots of South Hayes.  Having already been to John Morleys some years ago I don't know why I was not afflicted then, but certainly this year was the killer.  We also went to Anglesey Abbey and Richard Ayres own garden nearby.  Real treats for the galanthophile.  Anyway what got to me most was the variety of size and form (above the difference in markings), hence I am on the lookout for things like Trymlet, Wasp and Mandarin so that I have a small (but rapidly growing) collection of visually easily distinguishable 'drops.  Not being able to travel large distances easily makes visiting Snowdrop Galas unpracticable so Mail order is my main method of enlarging the collection. 

I know I have said it before but, having not had "The Book" before, I am indebted to yourself and Janet Lecore for your great websites which have been, and continue to be, very edifying.

regards
Brian