Galanthus March 2011

[Gerard Oud]

Do you use Virescens as a parent Martin?

[Martin Baxendale]

Do you use Virescens as a parent Martin?

I have crossed plicatus with Virescens, but all I get is small hybrids with no green on the outers.

[Martin Baxendale]

I will have to back-cross them with Virescens or other virescent or green-tip snowdrops.

[Martin Baxendale]

I should have mentioned that I have also tried using Virescens as a seed parent but it doesn't set seed for me. Some green-tip and virescent snowdrops are said to be sterile triploids, so that may be the problem.

[Martin Baxendale]

I've also recently used Green Mile pollen in crosses, but those seedlings are still very small and won't flower for some years yet. I wish I'd saved some of the Green Mile pollen to use for pollinating the plicatus x Virescens seedlings. Getting pollen of the best green snowdrops is always a problem, especially when they're not yet available commercially. The woes of a snowdrop breeder - sterile triploids and unavailable selected cultivars! 

[Martin Baxendale]

Hagen, you may have missed my question about your green-outers-marked snowdrops. I was interested to know if any of them are garden-raised hybrids or if they are all pure nivalis. And if any are hybrids, then whether you know anything about what the parents were? My own attempts at raising seedlings with green outers have not yet been very successful.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Hello Martin, I believe I cannot give a real answer to your problem. My green galanthus stand side by side in the garden. So wind and bees can work very easy. I never crossed the flowers by myself. A few of the younger seedlings have also green marks. I believe you will find "greens" easier in the second generation. The parents could be only G. nivalis, especially G. nivalis virescens, GREENISH, GRÜNER SPLITTER, GRÜNE WALDFEE, HUGH MACKENZIE,  and a few nameless discoveries of myself. Plicatus and elwesii are standing in another part of the garden.

[Martin Baxendale]

Thank you Hagen. Your answer is very helpful. If you have all your "greens" close together and away from other snowdrops,and you are getting green seedlings from them, then it's most likely (as you say) that they are inter-crossing, nivalis "greens" with nivalis "greens". This suggests that it may be necessary to cross "green" with "green" to get green seedlings. And I think you are right - with my hybrid crosses I will get more greens in the second generation when I back-cross with greens. You are obviously lucky in having some fertile "greens" that set seed!

[Hagen Engelmann]

Paddy, Brian, JohnW, yes I love the greens so much. But I`m only a green boy in all the important things of galanthus and never a green Zauberer.
Like I told to Martin, in my long time of Galanthophilie, now I found  the one or other green seedling in my garden.
Here is a small but heavy green seedling, blooming the first time. He could have a good future.

[Ru]

Paddy, Brian, JohnW, yes I love the greens so much. But I`m only a green boy in all the important things of galanthus and never a green Zauberer.
Like I told to Martin, in my long time of Galanthophilie, now I found  the one or other green seedling in my garden.
Here is a small but heavy green seedling, blooming the first time. He could have a good future.

Remarkable Galanthus!!!

[KentGardener]

Lovely greens as always Hagan 

Nice to see that Canada is keeping us entertained - and other parts of Europe are yet to start.   

[Lesley Cox]

Don't know what's happening here. My remark about April Fool's Day (now vanished) was because there was a picture just before or just after KentGardener'spost, in which the two main flowers were distinctly pink. That picture has vanished too, as have all the Galanthus posts in my Inbox, and the new April thread as well!

[Maggi Young]

Your April Fool's Day remark, and the pink 'drops all moved to the new Galanthus Apiril thread, :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7018.0

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi. Everything to do with Galanthus has gone (perhaps a subconscious wish on my part) so I've gone back to the main Forum Index to start over.