Bulbs > Galanthus

Disappearing galanthus

(1/4) > >>

Mavers:
Hi all please could you offer me any advice??................

I moved home the back end of 2006 & transplanted all of my snowdrop collection to my parents garden during the summer of that year when the bulbs were dormant.

My parents enjoyed the lovely 2007 display & started to appreciate how galanthus varied in growth, blooms, foliage etc.

I intended to move them this summer to their permanent positions in my new garden but there has been a disaster as most of my most precious snowdrops have not emerged this year.

The old stalwarts Magnet & Brenda Troyle have emerged, but to my eye seem a little lack lustre, but my ultra precious ones including Big Boy, Southayes, Dodo Norton, Kildare, Spindlestone Surprise etc have just not appeared this year.

Should I have a dig this weekend to see what has happened to them or leave alone?

If I do find remnants of the bulbs how can I get them to recover?

Personally I feel I should carefully investigate & try to take remedial action.

All your advice would be greatly appreciated, especially how to treat the bulbs if I manage to find any.

I look forward to receiving your expertise..................

Mike

Maggi Young:
Hi, Mike, this is a worry, isn't it?  Could be a lot of factors at work here.... the bulbs may have had enough strength in them to flower well last year but not be enjoying their temporary site enough to have made sufficient growth to survive/flower well a second year.
 Is the area they're in generally good soil with decent drainage?  Is the area of your parents' home more prone to the dreaded narcissus fly than your old garden? 
 Are the snowdrops in neighbouring gardens at an advanced stage/equivalent to those of yours which are flowering? Do they look a bit "off" this year, too?
 Then there's mice, wood pigeon.... oh dear.... this is a worry! 
Yes, I would have a dig around to see what might be there. If you find firm bulbs but not rooting/growing then I'd lift and pot up to put in a "rescue " area where  you can keep an eye on progress, and at leastthen you have checked them to see if they are rotting/ being eaten.
Good luck!

Alan_b:
I have quite often planted clumps of snowdrops that have completely failed to appear or had clumps disappear completely after several years.  I have never found any trace of the bulbs.  I do not think it can be animals because I would have seen a hole or sign of the ground being disturbed.  This has driven me to planting most of my snowdrops in a raised bed, and so far this has been largely successful.  I have also sometimes found bulbs that have been part-eaten - and not from the inside as a narcissus fly would.

My conclusion is that some gardens harbour underground pests that attack and eat snowdrop bulbs but these are absent in other gardens.  You may have been unlucky.

I should add that Wendy's Gold made a full recovery after being so badly eaten that it only managed a little shoot about an inch long one year.  I transferred it to a pot for a few years and this was effective in preventing further attack. 

Mavers:
Thanks for responding Maggi & Alan..................I'm trying to keep things in perspective.........

BUT I AM SO DISAPPOINTED as this has hit my collection for six.  :'(

Maggi Young:
Yes, Mike, it is hard to keep calm when your nice collection has suffered such a big hit, for whatever reason. I was heartbroken when we had to burn our Iris collection because of virus..... and when the combination of hotter summers and a vine weevil "epidemic" hit the Primulas I was so proud of.......it makes me sad still to think of them.
Point is never to give up... either fight back to restore the collection or find something new to take the place.....there's always next year......as Harold Esslemont and Jack Crosland used to say when sowing seeds of things , when they were in their eighties, that would take at least seven years to flower!!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page