Galanthus April 2023

[Leena]

'Mrs Macnamara' in an early spot. For the past week every night it has been flat on the ground when temperatures have been -10 - -15C, and every day it gets up again. It is so tough!
Now the very cold nights should be over, and snow starts to melt.

[Leena]

Yesterday was warm and sunny day, and first butterflies had woken up.
Snowdrops in my earliest spot,
first 'Trumps'. I think the yellow is from cold nights.
'Rosemary Burnham'
'Lady Elphinstone' is very nice.

[Leena]

In woodland beds snow is slowly melting and snowdrops are coming through it.
'Diggory' and Crocus tommasinianus.
'Straffan'
'Green of Hearts'

[Herman Mylemans]

Leena, beautiful pictures!

[Stefan B.]

That's right, great pictures!

[Gabriela]

They are even more beautiful coming through the snow Leena!
Great pictures

[Alan_b]

Here's my garden at the tail end of the season, 'Polar Bear' in the foreground and an unnamed plicatus behind it.

[Stefan B.]

Тhe last snowdrop is overblow.

Galanthus platyphyllus

This spring was very warm and there will be lots of seeds.

Galanthus 'Spindlestone Surprise'

[Leena]

Alan, 'Polar Bear' seems to be very late and extends your snowdrop season nicely.

Stefan, is your G.trojanus a late one?
Mine seems to start flowering quite early, it is always trying to come up through snow, and when it is still too cold.
It suffered in winter 2022, but is now ok, so I hope it will start to increase. I don't know if I should move it to a spot where snow melts later,
right now it is in an early bed. These were grown from Holubeck seeds.

In the same bed grows G.elwesii 'Tuuliku 2', a snowdrop found in Estonia (Taavi Tuulik). It increases and grows well here.
G.trojanus is in the background in the second picture.

[Alan_b]

'Polar Bear' is one of three named snowdrops that have been on sale at every garden centre in the UK that I have visited this year.  The other two are 'Beluga' and 'Snow Fox'.  They're all examples of Galanthus elwesii and 'Polar Bear' is the most distinctive because it is particularly late-flowering.  I presume they have been "mass produced" in Holland.  If so, they're the first named snowdrops to have been propagated in large quantities and they seem to me to be an odd choice if someone has mastered a technique that could be applied to any named snowdrop.       

[Stefan B.]

I'm so sorry, it's my fault! Thanks Leena for reminding me.
The photo is of Galanthus platyphyllus, this snowdrop is the latest to bloom in my garden.
I fixed my mistake!

[Villu]

Leena, your 'Diggory' in the snow is especially beautiful! I can't believe you still had so much snow couple of days ago! Here, some varieties are quite worn out already, like 'Lucy' and 'Trimmer'. At the same time, 'Wessex Titan' is still coming up and there is no sign of G. platophyllus jet (I hope there will be any time soon). However, very warm (+15) and sunny days make the season short.

[Leena]

'Polar Bear' is one of three named snowdrops that have been on sale at every garden centre in the UK that I have visited this year.  The other two are 'Beluga' and 'Snow Fox'.  They're all examples of Galanthus elwesii and 'Polar Bear' is the most distinctive because it is particularly late-flowering.  I presume they have been "mass produced" in Holland.  If so, they're the first named snowdrops to have been propagated in large quantities and they seem to me to be an odd choice if someone has mastered a technique that could be applied to any named snowdrop.       

Alan, thanks for the history of 'Polar Bear'.
Yes, why haven't they propagated any even more distinct and pricier snowdrop?

Leena, your 'Diggory' in the snow is especially beautiful! I can't believe you still had so much snow couple of days ago! Here, some varieties are quite worn out already, like 'Lucy' and 'Trimmer'. At the same time, 'Wessex Titan' is still coming up and there is no sign of G. platophyllus jet (I hope there will be any time soon). However, very warm (+15) and sunny days make the season short.

Thank you Villu. This spring is the second late one in a row, and snowdrop season will be very short here. I hope next spring will be better.
Snow is melting fast, days have been almost as warm as in Estonia, but nights are still below freezing. They should get warmer this week.
Couple more pictures of snowdrops coming through snow from yesterday.
'Treasure Island'
'Phil Davis'

[Leena]

Snow has melted fast, now almost all of it is gone. Days have been warm but nights still below freezing.
Some pictures of snowdrops.

[Leena]

Many snowdrops suffered possibly from winter 2022 and then last years drought, and don't flower this year, but these ones do well.
The last picture is from a clump of garden center elwesii where one is very tall with all green inners.