Visit to Rams Island to looks at snowdrops

[mark smyth]

Such a dull day to visit Rams Island. My photos are very poor.

Rams Island http://www.ramsisland.org/history.htm

There is a 1000 year old Celtic round tower on the island
http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/906/rams-island

No one knows how long the snowdrops have been on the island but records show there was once a garden on the island in the 1800s. All the snowdrops are Galanthus nivalis. No doubles were seen.

I did see poculiforms, semi - pocs, very tall plants, very small ones, some with pales leaves, some with slightly twisted leaves, some like Angelique and some with inner marks not typical of nivalis. I'm going back on Saturday if it's a sunny day.

The snowdrops have never been intentionally divided to move them about but it could happen this year. In two areas they have been divided in the summer by people digging for worms. There are Narcissus and primroses. I dont know if these are pure or hybrids. There are bluebells but they are mainly hybrids with the Spanish bluebell. This year they will be sprayed to kill them. Where can the caretaker buy bluebell seeds?

There are two heronries on the island that have 30ish and 14 nests. There is also a large Jackdaw winter roost, 4 or 5 bats species, chickens that someone dumped there in January, pheasants released for shooting and a lone guineafowl. Rats have been eradicated.

Photos to follow

[mark smyth]

Three snowdrops that caught my eye and two clumps with pale leaves. The first group with pale leaves are over already. They could have been open since early January

Opinions needed. Are any worth bringing in to a garden to see how they do?

[mark smyth]

where did the photos go

[mark smyth]

These have been divided by fishermen

[mark smyth]

This is the original break water before the level of Lough Neagh started to be controlled by flood gates. The level is now 2m lower that it was

These are the original break waters that protected two houses on the island. Snowdrops and Narcissus have seeded in to the gaps

[mark smyth]

These snowdops, and many more, are growing in very wet soil and show no side effects. Water oused from under my feet.

There was no evidence of stagonospora among the snowdrops

[Jo]

Wow Mark, is the island big ?

I liked the poc. but I wonder whether the pale leaves would be stable.

It looks like the bait diggers were doing a good job, I presume unintentionally ?

[Maggi Young]

Where can the caretaker buy bluebell seeds?

http://www.eddieseiggcroft.com/index.asp

[mark smyth]

yes but the snowdrops are concentrated in two areas - around the ruin below the tower and the area the people dig for worms. They probably dont know what the bulbs are

Thanks Maggi

[Neil]

There are bluebells but they are mainly hybrids with the Spanish bluebell. This year they will be sprayed to kill them. Where can the caretaker buy bluebell seeds?

Mark what is he spraying them with to kill them as I have been trying to kill the ones in my garden for the last 3 years.

[mark smyth]

Roundup.

The major weed is himalayan balsam

Jo the island is 1 mile 1.5km north to south and 1/4 mile east to west

[Brian Ellis]

There are bluebells but they are mainly hybrids with the Spanish bluebell. This year they will be sprayed to kill them. Where can the caretaker buy bluebell seeds?

Mark what is he spraying them with to kill them as I have been trying to kill the ones in my garden for the last 3 years.

I have managed to eradicate them from our small front garden, I dug two spits deep and sieved the soil with great care.  Unfortunately I am still digging the odd one up here and there in the back garden where they are bought by birds. Vigilance is the watchword!

[Mavers]

Looks beautiful Mark.

[johnw]

These snowdops, and many more, are growing in very wet soil and show no side effects. Water oused from under my feet.

There was no evidence of stagonospora among the snowdrops

I wonder if these Galanthus growing in such wet soil might be worth propagating in the hope they resist Stag. It occurred to me there are patches of snowdrops in this city growing in very low wet spots and they are very healthy and spreading fast & furiously though they may dry out a tad in August.  I've planted Narcissus cyclamineus in extremely heavy - and I mean heavy, thick, virtually airless - wet soil and they are as happy as clams, that soil stays wet year round with the water table a foot below; in other spots they die out. N. poeticus nearby likes or tolerates the same soil too.   I wonder if these Narcissus spp. are less susceptible to Stag?

Why is there so little research into Stag given the vast quantities of Amaryllidaceae sold in the trade.  Is it not also time for the RHS to do some trials on Galanthus cultivar resistance? (that should provoke a firestorm).

johnw

[Maggi Young]

Why is there so little research into Stag given the vast quantities of Amaryllidaceae sold in the trade?

I venture to suggest that since the majority of such plants sold are sold in the spirit of pot plants or bedding plants, as "thowaways" that are not really expected to be perennial by either the trade or the customer. And planned obsolescence cannot be discounted as a aid to trade on the wider commercial scale and the research would be beyond the scope and pocket of the smaller specialist growers who would likely prefer to sell a longliving bulb to a grower.