Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: mark smyth on February 01, 2008, 01:05:56 PM
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13,598 visits to the January thread is amazing
I'm just back from a quick visit to the local garden centre to buy some fresh Sulphate of Potash. Anyone know how long it keeps once opened? I could keep it in a Kilner jar. They have snowdrops for sale that are all labelled Galanthus nivalis but in the pots are all nivalis, all woronowii, a mix of nivalis and woronowii, an elwesii and plicatus here and there. 3 pots for £5 with about 6 bulbs per pot.
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Provided you keep it dry, Mark, it'll last indefinitely. A Kilner jar should be fine.
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Provided you keep it dry, Mark, it'll last indefinitely. A Kilner jar should be fine.
I 'borrowed' a Tupperware box from the kitchen and it keeps very well in that.
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I use the green plastic jars that Tescos liquid tablets for washing machines come in.
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I found a very curious snowdrop today, growing in a local churchyard. Don't know what ot make of it. It almost looks like a fake but, if so, it was not done by me. It was growing on the edge of a clump of normal snowdrops in a quiet country location. Any thoughts?
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It looks like it's about to go over
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For lovers of big and globular drops. It`s only a normal Galanthus nivalis
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not just normal but very nicely shaped
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I just thought I'd relate how to collect pollen for those who want to try their hand at hybridising, as I've been asked a couple of times how I do it.
If your snowdrop (or other flower) is still in a pot, bring it into the house for a couple of hours, then around lunchtime, get a piece of foil about 4 x 3cm. The next bit you won't like - I then strip off the petals (all!) to reveal the naughty bits, then lean the stalk over so the flower is just above the foil and gently stroke along the anthers with the point of a small knife or forceps. If the pollen is running you should be able to see it on the foil, which you can then fold around the pollen and store in the fridge in a screw top jar. You can pick flowers off ones in the open ground and do the same.
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Last weekend's sunny days allowed me take some photographs but I am only now getting round to posting a few of them. Hope you enjoy this sunny day from an otherwise wet, cold - very cold - south of Ireland.
Paddy
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OK, warming up now.
Paddy
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The sun is still shining.
Paddy
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A few more,
Paddy
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Last few,
Paddy
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Lovely pics Paddy!!
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gently stroke along the anthers with the point of a small knife or forceps. If the pollen is running you should be able to see it on the foil,
With snowdrops, I find that the anthers don't open up along their length, so that you can't stroke the pollen off, but only open at the very end, so that pollen can only fall out of this 'hole' in the anther. The anthers also appear to have little pointy 'vibration triggers' on the end, which would encourage pollen fall when vibrated by a bee. These are the reasons I use tapping (as I've described in another thread) to free the pollen (tapping the flower gently over a receptacle to catch the pollen). I've tried cutting open the anthers with a scalpel, but the pollen is often not ripe. You only know it's ripe when it falls easily. As Anne says, bringing flowers into a warm room for a few hours helps to get the pollen flowing.
With narcissus, I do just brush the pollen off, usually with a soft small sable artist's paint brush, as Anne suggests.
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Nice pics Paddy. I love Sophie North; she's one of my favourite plicatus forms.
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Nice to see pics of the clumps as well as the individual flowers Paddy. I agree with Martin, Sophie North is a nice plicate.
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Martin & Brian,
I agree with you both completely. G. 'Sophie North' is a beautiful snowdrop.
We seek out snowdrops for many reasons, their beauty, distinctive features, present fashion and so on. I wished for G. 'Sophie North' for many years before a good friend gave me some bulbs. You will know that the bulb was named in memory of one of the unfortunate children who lost her life in the school in Dunblane, Scotland. (Oh how many years ago is it now, Anthony?)
Personally, as a school teacher and a father of young children at that time I felt a tremendous sorrow for the children and their families in Dunblane. Also, in the small rural school where I work, where the front and back door were always left unlocked, indeed wide open when the weather was warm, as were all house doors locally, the parents were very upset by these events in Dunblane and asked that we close the doors during school time as a fear for the safety of their children had come upon them following events in Dunblane, something which had never crossed their minds previously.
As some snowdrops remind us of places others remind us of events and people. G. 'Sophie North' brings the children of Dunblane to my mind and I treasure it for that association. A sad association perhaps but a very precious one also.
Paddy
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I didnt know you were such a collector. Always best to see large groups.
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The Burns supper tonight was organised and run by the families involved, in the Centre built for the young folk of Dunblane. It was a very fitting tribute to their fortitude and organisation. So sad that Sophie and 15 of her friends and her teacher weren't there to enjoy it. The injured children are now in their final (6th) year at Dunblane High School.
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The anthers also appear to have little pointy 'vibration triggers' on the end, which would encourage pollen fall when vibrated by a bee.
Would it be worth trying a tuning fork against the anthers to see if that shakes loads of pollen out?
John
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I found a very curious snowdrop today, growing in a local churchyard. Don't know what ot make of it. It almost looks like a fake but, if so, it was not done by me. It was growing on the edge of a clump of normal snowdrops in a quiet country location. Any thoughts?
Hi Alan
thanks for posting the pictures. The fact that the leaves look like it is the same clone as the rest of the group, and all the others have normal flowers, I would guess it is just a flower that is starting to rot for some reason. (could it have been piddled on my some animal? Or had creosote dripped on it? )
Are you going to keep an eye on it next week - you may have discovered the worlds first Brown Flowered snowdrop (can't see it being a best seller though!!!)
cheers
John
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thanks to Hagen and Paddy for the wonderful photos.
Hagen - great shaped flower, very nice.
Paddy - Good deep colour on the Wendys gold. Sophie North is a nice looking drop (I must look out for that one).
Anthony - thank you for posting about your Burns night supper - I hope people managed to have a nice time.
regards
John
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I went to Klondyke yesterday (a small chain of local garden centres - apparently when the first one opened in Stirling the owner's wife said "we have a little gold mine here" and so the name Klondyke was born), following Mark's suggestion, and bought 3 pots of Galanthus "nivalis" @ £1.49/pot. I will take pics later.
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can I guess woronowii?
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Nope, mostly elwesii.
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Well, we are just back from a 2 hour trawl round 6 different garden centre / nurseries - and not a single snowdrop in sight! :(
John
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Here is one of the plants I bought as nivalis from the only garden centre I visited.
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Here is one for Paul T.
Yvonne Hay
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one from Australia : thanks ;D
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here is one for Martin Baxendale :
I have receive this plant from a friend from USA -it is named :
MAN
this means : Migthy Atom Not
I have sown pics of these plant some big people in snowdropworld ....nobody khows the name ...
Do you have a idea ?
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Here some more from my garden :
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I like 'Beechwood' Hans.
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Oho Hans
some pictures can say much more then a long list. Yvonne Hay is fine (it`s a Herzchen).
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This is not VIRIDAPICE but GRÜNER PAUSBACK
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Hagen :
The earlier name of "Yvonne Hay" was "Maximus"
......a big "Herzchen"
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Can anybody tells a story about G. nivalis Lac de Balcere?
Mark, there`s a pic in your collection!
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Hagen :
I know only it is a Lake in the french part of Pyrenees.....
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Thanks Hans, then I have it. Attention, I`ve a plant with the name MAXIMUS.
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here is one for Martin Baxendale :
I have receive this plant from a friend from USA -it is named :
MAN
this means : Migthy Atom Not
I have sown pics of these plant some big people in snowdropworld ....nobody khows the name ...
Do you have a idea ?
No, but it's a real beauty, Hans!
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Martin ,
-thank you !
I agree it is a beauty - I have it compered with all this old cultivars....always a bit different !
so I will save this name : MAN
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Hagan
I am not surprised that Yvonne Hay was originally called Maximus. I was given a bulb a few years ago by a friend of Harry Hay - and it is the biggest damn bulb I have ever seen in a snowdrop!
regards
John
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Thanks Hans, then I have it. Attention, I`ve a plant with the name MAXIMUS.
Hagen : be carefull :
there exist also plants from the former DDR -they are different
my plants comes also from a friend of Harry Hay
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Hagan
I am not surprised that Yvonne Hay was originally called Maximus. I was given a bulb a few years ago by a friend of Harry Hay - and it is the biggest damn bulb I have ever seen in a snowdrop!
regards
John
John ,
I have seen G. elwesii populations in Turkey with bigger plants !!!
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I have seen G. elwesii populations in Turkey with bigger plants !!!
Dear Hans
is that bigger 'plants' or bigger 'bulbs'. It is the bulb that I find so big with Yvonne Hays. I too, have seen much larger leaves and flowers.
best wishes
John
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John ,
I dont know .....I have not dig out them .....
The nice of "Yvonne Hay" it is a good multiplication ;D
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I've ordered a bulb of 'Yvonne Hay' this year from one of the catalogues, to use in my breeding programme. I hope I get it! Almost certainly a polyploid, either triploid or tetraploid (or perhaps hexaploid).
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Martin - stop this order .....send me a PM
-they have crazy prices in this year !
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Hans: I can`t have Yvonne Hay/Maximux - my plant stands still
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Hagen :
??? ??? ???
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Martin - stop this order .....send me a PM
-they have crazy prices in this year !
It's on an order to North Green Snowdrops, and I don't think they like changing orders - my order may go to the back of the queue if I try to alter it! But don't worry, I'm sure it'll be worth the price (if I get it). Maybe I'll ask you to help me if I'm unlucky and don't get a bulb from my order, as I'd really like to use it for breeding. Thanks for the offer, Hans.
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Hans: (steht still- bewegt sich nicht von der Stelle - sagt man so nicht? :-[ :-[
)
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I turn my back for a few hours and 3 pages pop up. Great photos everyone
Trip to Robin Hall off due to poor weather. I have no more free February days now until 2009 :'( I am however going to Altamont in S. Ireland in two weeks time home to a stunning, I've been told, virescent plicatus
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im off to heale house tommrow .i do hope the weather forcast is wrong.Matt Bishop is meant to be there answering questions.
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Before I went out today I had time for some photos
Falkland house is in the Mighty Group but the authers say it's a finer plant. My lone bulb is taller than the type.
Something new from last year is nivalis Green Pips
A close up of elwesii Cedric's Prolific
elwesii Daphne's Scissors
elwesii late flowering - does it realise it's main season now?
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Hagen:
For lovers of big and globular drops. It`s only a normal Galanthus nivalis
Yes! For lovers of big and globular drops... there are lots of us about!
Paddy, stunning collection (mostly Mary's?)..... looking superb... though that Lavinia is a tall scrawny girl, isn't she?
Here a little unhappy group in my garden today..a mixed clump and all the ones advanced enough to open have fallen down in the cold... how sorry a sight is this?
[attach=1]
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very!
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Falkland House doesn't do as well for me as Mighty Atom, despite chipping it to try to get it going better. It seems more prone to disease. It is a bit taller, though (it'd be difficult to be shorter than Atom!)
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Great run of excellent photographs, Hans, Hagen and Mark.
It is unfortunate, or perhaps it is truly fortunate, that though one might have a selection of nice snowdrops at home someone else can always show a photograph of yet another which excites one's interest. It is a good thing to be able to take interest and delight in such simple pleasures.
Mark,
Yes collecting away those which appeal to me but mostly a recipient of snowdrops from some very kind enthusiasts.
Maggi,
Yes, indeed, the snowdrop collecting was started by Mary but has been in my hands for the past few years as her interest dwindled. However, when I put a small vase of snowdrops on the mantlepiece today she was very taken by them.
Anthony,
Good to hear of positive things from the families of Dunblane. I have no doubt they will never put the experience behind them yet one hopes they can make the best of life. When you relate that the surviving children are now at school-leaving age it puts it all into a mental frame or time reference again and makes it all so very real once more.
Paddy
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Hans,
Great to see that x elcatus is flowering for you at the right time now, obviously settled in after it's trip from down under. I wonder if I should go out and tell my clump of them in the garden that one of their number is now flowering in Germany? ;D
It was apparently called x elcatus as it was a cross between elwesii and plicatus, but the name form is invalid. I don't know whether it should be named 'Elcatus' to make it a "name" instead of a hybrid designation, or whether it should be named something else. I really don't know. Either way it is different to anything else I have come across, and here in my garden it is amongst the first to flower each season. A bit more spidery than I like, but it is distinct enough I don't mind.
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Here is one of the plants I bought as nivalis from the only garden centre I visited.
Anthony,
I'd be pretty impressed with that acquisition. Nice way it holds itself. Looks like a good chunky little flower. :)
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The day of the Dunblane massacre was one of the worst days of my life. I heard the news on the radio and was just shocked rigid.... I knew that Johanna Leven and her friend Laura were at the school and at first I could only fear they might be hurt. I can only imagine how terrifying it was , not only for the children and teachers but for the terror struck parents, waiting for news. When we finally found out the girls were safe, it was a huge relief, which immediately turned to guilt because of the many others who were killed and bereaved. A truly appalling day as was the Beslan massacre, of course.. sadly the world has too many such days.
A note of joy for us,now, however... Johanna is the young lady who has featured elsewhere in this Forum... and in the current Journal.... hale, hearty and showing every sign to be both a gardener and an explorer. Praise be!
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When I went to buy groceries yesterday, there was a rack of
potted G. elwesii in bloom outside the store. I sorted through
them all and chose all the variants - 21 pots, each with three
bulbs.
Here are the variations: (and I know down is up, but I'll just
describe the way they look when they are growing naturally).
Ovary - big and almost spherical, tiny, long, dark, medium, or
olive green
Outer petals - white, sometimes with a few little lines pinched together,
or lines all the way down, or striped with gray, which on closer
inspection looks crinkled like seersucker.
petal shapes - from long and skinny, through oval to almost
round below a narrow claw.
a couple with green tips
one with a pale yellow claw
Inner petals - full range of marks from completely green to
teeny pale dots, but none with no marks.
Different ways of flaring the petals open.
Scented or not. The scent was familiar, so I sniffed around
the garden, and it smells like Viburnum bodnantense. I was
surprised at this, because I thought the Viburnum had a
sweeter scent. Maybe it does when the weather is warmer.
Each flower has different combinations of the above.
Since each plant in each pot is different, I have decided to
tie a differently coloured yarn around the stems for each
attribute. Then when they go dormant, I will be able to unpot
them and plant them in groups that are similar.
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Diane,
Unless you're FAR more organised than me, I'd be unpotting and grouping them while they're in flower. Either that or label the pots with pain pen or something (or put tags into each). Invariably I find that anything which is marked by tying something around the stem ends up having that stem pull out while it is in the process of dying down, so you lose the marking effect. Given that G. don't mind being moved while green, I'd be putting them together while still in growth, rather than waiting until dying down.
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Yes, I think I had better mark the pots. I could stick a self-adhesive
label close to each plant, and just write on a code.
I don't want to unpot now, as I hope that I'll be able to get some
seeds this year.
I spent the morning driving to garden centres and other supermarkets,
but only mine so far has a good selection of snowdrops.
I have instructed my offspring to scan any snowdrops they see for
sale in their cities.
What I should do is find out where the wholesaler is and check
out the whole lot.
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I do so wish we could buy them like that here. We go get elwesii some years, but they're a pretty standard lot, derived from Sam Arnott or something similar. Often come under that name, but we have our doubts when comparing to others we have bought from specialists under that name. Your lot sound wonderful, and I for one would love to see some pics of the various combinations.
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Diane - sounds like you got a good mix of types yesterday - the only thing I would be worried about is what they are potted in at the moment. I have purchased such bulbs and lost them to rot in previous years as they seem to be in a very un-free-draining (what would the word be for that?), they get really wet and rot off.
This year, the ones I purchased (included one with four outers and four inners - fingers crossed for next year) I repotted as soon as I got home - and there was already signs of the bulbs being stressed and starting to rot in their original potting medium.
good luck
John
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will we see photos?
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One of mine has four inners and four outers too.
I hope they won't be rotting. They've all got roots growing out
the bottom holes.
I will set up a little studio and take some pictures tomorrow.
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I turn my back for a few hours and 3 pages pop up. Great photos everyone
Trip to Robin Hall off due to poor weather. I have no more free February days now until 2009 :'( I am however going to Altamont in S. Ireland in two weeks time home to a stunning, I've been told, virescent plicatus
Not going to East Lambrook? Is there another snowie day some where in Dorset the week after East Lambrook??
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Hagen :
Here are pics of my G. Maximus ( DDR) - you see it is different !
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My pale Galanthus
Hans
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ID wanted. I got it as galanthus plicatus flore-pleno. ???
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There's a picture of a snowdrop I found a couple of years ago in the February 2008 issue of the "Gardens Illustrated "magazine. page 53 top right hand corner, gave a bulb to John Grimshaw to id. He thinks it's a nivalis /plicatus hybrid ; it's got no name yet. :)
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Mark, are you going to Altamont next Sunday with the Southern group,or are you going the following week.?
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Re: Galanthus February 2008
« Reply #76 on: Today at 06:09:24 PM
There's a picture of a snowdrop I found a couple of years ago in the February 2008 issue of the "Gardens Illustrated "magazine. page 53 top right hand corner, gave a bulb to John Grimshaw to id. He thinks it's a nivalis /plicatus hybrid ; it's got no name yet.
Anyone able to take a pic of this pic... and post it???
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Here's a sampling of my grocery store elwesii.
1. variation in height.
2. good-looking flowers from two different plants.
3. the one with coloured claws.
4. round petals that open widely
5. two more round petals, one green-tipped
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Diane, they are all lovely! 8) And I assume you could still afford to buy the groceries?? ::)
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Oh yes. They cost $2.50 a pot. Currently 1.28 UK pounds.
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My, that is a good price for so much fun....and we don't even need to send you a food parcel! ::)
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Diane, very fine drops. We don`t need ebay when we can have such a good grocery store!!!
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An excellent selection. Very similar to those I found in the garden centre, but alas, without the benefit of getting some buckshee square pots. :-\
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David I meant no more free days for snowdropping.
Just back from England today, out next Friday in England, ELM next day, out on Sunday, Altamont the following Friday, Our snowdrop day the day after, in England the following Friday, out Saturday, Sunday Margaret Owens MS day except there is a new charity Childline or similar - phew
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Rob havent I already said yes? Or the possibility of yes?
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Re: Galanthus February 2008
« Reply #76 on: Today at 06:09:24 PM
There's a picture of a snowdrop I found a couple of years ago in the February 2008 issue of the "Gardens Illustrated "magazine. page 53 top right hand corner, gave a bulb to John Grimshaw to id. He thinks it's a nivalis /plicatus hybrid ; it's got no name yet.
Anyone able to take a pic of this pic... and post it???
I have a copy of the magazine and have scanned the photo but am not sure how to post it here. If somebody can explain I will have I go. I know that I should be able to work it out but .... :)
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Hi, Anna..... hope I can help with the correct advice..... save the scan as a jpg file in your documents folder and then , make the post... click "Additional Options" ... which is at the lower left hand side of the posting text box, this will bring up a "Browse" button, nexxt to an "Attach" box.... click the Browse button, select the file where t you saved the scan, open the file , click on the scan file , then "post"... that should do it!
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Hi, Anna..... hope I can help with the correct advice..... save the scan as a jpg file in your documents folder and then , make the post... click "Additional Options" ... which is at the lower left hand side of the posting text box, this will bring up a "Browse" button, nexxt to an "Attach" box.... click the Browse button, select the file where t you saved the scan, open the file , click on the scan file , then "post"... that should do it!
Thanks for your help Maggi. Here goes - photo from Gardens Illustrated :
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Bravo, Anna, Excellent! That's a nice 'drop that Sophieetc ( Emma?) found.
I can see why the green markings have been described on this type of 'drop as changing the shape of the petal... it does look like two different textures of "material" working against eachother..... I've looking at 'Trym' types....
I do hope I'm not getting infected...finding these snowies far too interesting.....must keep repeating: I KNOW they are all the same. I KNOW this! I Know this!.......
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Diane,
They are very nice snowies. Wow! Love that round elwesii.... beautiful!!
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Diane - nice drops, and the potting compost looks a lot better than the stuff my garden centre purchases came in - there looks to be some drainage medium in yours.
Sophie's owner - a very nicely marked little 'drop.
John
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Here is one for Paul T.
Yvonne Hay
Hans,
Glad you posted the pic of this recently..... my order from Marcus Harvey arrived today and contained one of these. Excellent!!
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Paul ,
You wrote before some days that you would like a Galanthus named "Yvonne" - so I thinking ......
Glad to hear that you from Marcus received one !
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Hans,
Exactly. It was one I didn't have already (nor did I have 'Maximus', which is a good thing given they're the same! ;D) and it had the bonus of the Yvonne name. I had completely forgotten at the time you posted it that I'd seen that in Marcus' catalogue, so it was nice to be able to go and see a pic of it as soon as I saw it in the package. Nice looking flower too!
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Have you ever seen a cheering snowdrop?
Here is one!
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;D ;DNice one Gerard ;D ;D
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Gerard, great to see the White Fever has still allowed you a sense of humour! 8)
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Yesterday we went to a very good talk on snowdrops by Cliff Curtis...thanks Cliff I know you see the forum sometimes! Needless to say I came away with one of Cliff's findings, the very elegantly shaped Galanthus Peardrop. Much to my delight I also received a present of a green tipped elwesii, sadly past it's best but nonetheless greatly appreciated.
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Needless to say I came away with one of Cliff's findings, the very elegantly shaped Galanthus Peardrop.
Brian, a very apt description - 'Peardrop' increases very well and looks really good in a clump
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I will never loose my sense of humour Maggi, despite the incurable white fever.
Snowdrop waking up after winter's sleep was also possible.
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Snowdrop waking up after winter's sleep was also possible.
Yes, I can see that, too 8).... perhaps it is yawning AND cheering at the same time, pleased to be growing again! :D
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I continued my snowdrop search at grocery stores in a different
area of the city yesterday. My local store is still the best, but
I did find one more with a green claw, so now I have two and can
cross them. I haven't seen any pictures of "green-topped", though
there are lots of "green-tipped". Maybe they don't get noticed
because they are next to the basal marks of the inner petals.
I don't expect to produce something beautiful, but it will be interesting
to see if it is an inheritable trait.
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Diane, 'Modern Art' has green petal bases.
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I now see that. The photo in the snowdrop book shows it
turned so that the inner markings will show.
Fieldgate Forte, a seedling of Modern Art, also has green
marks top and bottom.
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Could anyone help with an ID please from this Galanthus? It is a species or a hybrid. What do think the expert? I would be very grateful for your help.
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Looks like a plicatus X elwesii hybrid, Franz. One leaf is plicate and the other slightly convolute. Very nice. Can you give more info re. its origins?
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Martin,
Sorry, I do not know, I cultivate this Galanthus already 40 years.
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Brian, Chris,
'Peardrop' is indeed a beautiful snowdrop. The snugs and snails in my garden certainly think so as I failed to see the flower open this year, just half a flower.
Paddy
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Martin,
Sorry, I do not know, I cultivate this Galanthus already 40 years.
Was it a seedling in your garden or something you bought 40 years ago? I was just trying to see if there's any way of putting a cultivar name to it. But I guess there isn't.
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Franz, your first photo of the clump is exquisite......I do not know how you always have such perfect pictures... this photo shows all the beauty a snowdrop should have. Even though te single flower is lovely and shows the form well, the clump showing the perfection of all the flowers together, each as perfect as the next, is a joy! Thank you!
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Maggi,
Why do you never say such nice things about me?
(But, the compliments for your flowers and your snowdrops are well deserved, Franz)
Paddy
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Mark,
'Modern Art' is rather special!! 8) Nice!!
Franz,
Lovely snowdrop, whatever it is.
Paddy,
Because it will go to your head and you'll expect compliments from her all the time. ;D She's just saving herself future work!! ;)
;D ;D
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Now, Paddy, you know that you and I have a special bond 8)..... and besides... your snowies get eaten by slugs!! :P
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Paul,
I suppose you are right. She just doesn't understand how vulnerable we males can feel at times, how we long for just a little attention and appreciation of our contribution to the world.
It's a tough furrow to plough...and not an ounce of sympathy.
And now she has to remind me that my snowdrops got eaten by slugs.
Paddy
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Paddy,
Yeah, she did sort of kick you when you were already down, didn't she!! ::) Seems like she's showing a side other than her usual sweetness and light!!?? ;D
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Maggi,
I am very much pleased over your compliment. Thank you very much.
Martin,
Sorry, I cannot remember! I only know that I did not buy this Galanthus.
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Nice suuny morning will say nothing about this afternoon
Primrose Warburg is flowering also Ketton.
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I've just come back from the wholesalers, where a friend and I
spent two hours scrutinizing elwesii. We selected for yellows (my,
they are tiny), marked outers, round petals, and weird. Lots of
weird ones - two petals, four petals, twin flowers, one scrambled,
one that looks like it was in a cyclone. I've only a picture of that
one so far, so I'll post it. I need a cup of tea to thaw my fingers -
we've been having strong winds and hail.
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what a place to be in. Did you find any virescent flowers?
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No virescent, no poculiform, no Trym types, no Walrus.
Just small green marks, and some more yellowish claws.
The bulbs came from a small supplier in Holland. The wholesaler
described what it is like in Holland, where he used to work. Each
person will grow only one thing, and barges go around to collect
ordered plants from the various specialists.
He might have said it was "Gert" or maybe I'm just thinking
that because I got some NARGS seeds today that had been
donated by Gerd Knoche.
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It's getting a bit dim for photos, so I'll add just one more -
it looks like an Erythronium.
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Ian will like that one, Diane... he thinks that all right-minded flowers WANT to be Erythroniums... in their hearts!
Well done on tracking the wholesaler and checking them out. I expect your knees and backs were a bit "gone" by the time you'd finished, never mind your frozen fingers? :P
-
yes, how astute of you, Maggi. I'd never really taken note
of my knees before.
-
It's getting a bit dim for photos, so I'll add just one more -
it looks like an Erythronium.
That is really nice if it lasts, but sometimes snowdrops go that way if the flower is about to go over. So don't be too disappointed if you find the outer petals have dropped off next time you look. On the other hand, if it assumes this form shortly after the flower opens and stays that way for a few weeks then I think you have something really exciting.
-
Today found in my garden near a Ficus :
-
Rob your Sophie looks like Armine but could be elwesii. I would need to see the leaves. Hill Poe doesnt look right either. I'll post some photos after I've eaten
-
Hans, those marks are more yellow than green, aren't they ? Have you other yellow snowdrops around which might have given this sport?
-
Maggi's getting hooked on the white stuff! One more for us!
-
Hans, those marks are more yellow than green, aren't they ? Have you other yellow snowdrops around which might have given this sport?
No Maggi , the marks are green .....I grow some yellow nivalis but in other places .....
-
More grocery store elwesii. I have lots of big olive-green ones,
but here are two little ones that are almost yellow when I look
at them with my eyes, but when I look through the camera, they
look more green. I don't think this is a matter of adjusting the
white balance, as I don't think that would alter the little viewing
screen.
Ah well, here's the best I can manage today, a gloomy day when
the camera keeps wanting to put on its flash.
The smallest one is yellow-green everywhere: leaves, stem, ovary,
and very pale marks on the inner petals.
-
very nice and a lovely spathe
-
almost 1300 views for 6 days!
Here are the photos from my garden today. Some, I think, have been posted already
Alison Hilary
elwesii Comet - it may be surpassed these days but it's a beauty
Magnet - looking great in the slight breeze today
John Gray - what a pedicel!
elwesii Lord Monostictus - special my *&%$. It better be next year!
nivalis Walrus
plicatus Wendy's Gold - not so rich this year
woronowii small pale form
-
un-named but soon to be as far as I know a late, but not this year, short elwesii
-
and lastly
Rosie
Vera Trum
-
Out of interest have you bought the snowdrop book?
-
The stamens glow in Mark's pale woronowii. It's like having a light
inside.
-
Diane I never noticed
-
The stamens glow in Mark's pale woronowii. It's like having a light
inside.
There was another one the other day showing that effect, it is most appealing.
By the way, Diane, I am most impressed that you have only just come to consider your knees...... mine have been making me acutely aware of them for years... they HATE hard ground, for a start!
-
For those snowdrop price watchers amongst you, I noted that Joe Sharman had five examples of 'Diggory' priced at £25 left on his sales table at the end of the Glen Chantry event. Maybe the price of this one has peaked, or maybe it was just too expensive for the 'amateur' and too readily available for the 'professional'?
-
well, what was Wol and Sue's garden like? Any photos? Will it be an annual event? What was Wol selling?
-
Mark,
Lovely set of photographs.
G. 'Rosie' and G. 'Vera Trum' are both nicely marked.
The short late elwesii - it doesn't strike me as particularly distinctive. You? Worth naming at all?
Paddy
-
well, what was Wol and Sue's garden like? Any photos? Will it be an annual event? What was Wol selling?
Mark,
It is a fantastic garden. There were large clumps of very rare snowdrops everywhere. I did take some photos but found that I spent most of my time admiring the plants, the garden and chatting to lurkers and Forum contributors.
I'm not sure that this will be an annual event which is a shame. I did hear conversations that this was to be a one-off. If you ignore the marvellous list available for a moment, the chance just to see the garden again at this time of year would be one that I would find hard to ignore.
I don't have Wol's list with me at work but can post it this evening should you want me to?
-
Well, best advice just now is go buy a copy of Matt et al book
-
Galanthus book by Matt Bishop and John Grimshaw, I thinK he means.... don't have it myself! ::)
Wait till I check the SRGC booklist to see.... there are two books farily recently published on the wee white flowers........
Hmmm... not on the Club booklist.... hang on.......
-
Here we go:
Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus (Hardcover)
by M. Bishop (Author), A. Davis (Author), John Grimshaw (Author)
Meantime out of stock on Amazon (£42.75)
http://www.griffinpress.co.uk/snowdrop.htm
Other book I was thinking of is not that new after all, it is out of print, I think,so second hand is the way to go. It is the botanical monograph ; The Genus Galanthus by Aaron Davis .
See this link for a review of one and opinion of the second:
http://transatlanticplantsman.typepad.com/transatlantic_plantsman/2007/02/snowdrop_galant.html
Cheers,
Maggi
-
Amazon have it. Costs two snowdrops and guaranteed more fun
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Snowdrops-Monograph-Cultivated-Galanthus-Bishop/dp/0954191609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202400545&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Snowdrops-Monograph-Cultivated-Galanthus-Bishop/dp/0954191609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202400545&sr=1-1)
-
No, it is out of stock ! Read the page ! ::)
-
AGS have it at £45 0r £40.50 for members. I have no idea how long it would take to get a reply from them though...... Pershore is something of a black hole, and not just lately when they have been citing email/internet problems!! ???
-
Rob buy it before it goes out of print again
-
Rob
You can have my Aaron Davis book for a swap snowdrop or two. The Matt Bishop book is easy to read and you do not need a degree in botany to understand it - unlike Aaron's book (It was his PHd thesis).
If you are interested then send me an email.
-
Rob
my aunt has various books on Galanthus from the last 30 or so years. I love having nice books on plants to flick through and read - but having seen all the books aunty D has, the only Galanthus one I wanted to buy is the Grimshaw, Davis, Bishop book. It is great and in my opinion the best one you can get!
(but once you have seen the plants in it, and knowing your tendency to frequent ebay - I fear you could soon be on your way to the debtors prison...)
regards
John
-
Here are a few Galanthus I bought in the market last week
-
Rob,
I do see what you are bidding on ebay,
the bookprice should not be the problem!
-
Oops only one loaded will try again
-
Second attempt
-
Michael to upload more than one click on more attachments
-
Did that Mark and made them 640 x480 it won't work says they are too big
-
one at a time
-
A few more
-
Rob Emberson, buy the book! It will blow your mind. It's always being read through by me at snowdrop time. All snowdrop fans will have the book open at this time of year
-
Last lot
-
whos been spying on me on ebay :D
rob
Several of us, I imagine, as your identity is very clear!
unlike some of us who hide our identity ..... ;)
-
Thats a good selection of G. elwesii, Michael. No 18 is a nice flower
-
Rob, Maggi has already said today as have I except my is out of stock
-
Here's a nice green-tipped elwesii that appeared in my mother's garden many years ago as a self-sown seedling in the gravel driveway! It's a bit leafy as a clump in the garden but very nice picked for a small vase indoors. I'm starting to use it in my snowdrop crosses.
Also some seedlings flowering in the garden but not very wide open in the gloomy weather.
-
i will look out for a copy, unless anyone can give me any clues where to find one?
bye
rob
around £40 +p&p will get you one here
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=bishop&sortby=3&sts=t&tn=galanthus&x=48&y=7
(less than the price of certain snowdrops on ebay!) ;)
-
Failing light prevented photography this evening so a written report will have to do until I manage a photograph. Looking around the garden today - at the snowdrops, what else? - I came on a double G. nivalis with green markings on the outer segments, nothing spectacular but interesting to see it happen.
Paddy
-
Well done, Diane, I was just coming on to suggest AbeBooks because we use them a lot... just hadn't got round to it!
Rob, I also posted a link to the publisher's s page for the book... write up etc! page or so back in this thread!!
-
Michael, that's a good selection you have there. Nice photos and I'm glad to see you have cracked the trick of loading more than one at a time, makes life easier, doesn't it?
-
Finally a few photo`s of a drop in my garden.
I like them very much, how about you ?
Loes
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/LoesdG/PICT0068.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/LoesdG/PICT0071.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/LoesdG/PICT0070.jpg)
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Lovely length in the petals, Loes, and a great overall effect.
Paddy
-
unlike some of us who hide our identity .....
Goodness me Diane don't tell me you are palepink127 proud owner of a very expensive snowdrop :o :o :o
-
Move over, Magnet! Here is one that is totally pedicel and the spathe is
also snaky.
-
wow! what does the spathe look like?
-
Mark,
That's the snaky thing not attached to the flower isn't it? Looks like it has developed into what almost looks like another stem without a flower on the end.
-
Diane W, I think you should pass over that wiggly one with a geiger-counter... looks a bit alien to me.... They weren't imported from anywhere near Chernobyl, were they? ::)
-
Goodness me Diane don't tell me you are palepink127 proud owner of a very expensive snowdrop
;D ;D
No, nor am I chrisl1824 the owner of a slightly less expensive snowdrop
;D ;D
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Goodness me Diane don't tell me you are palepink127 proud owner of a very expensive snowdrop
No, nor am I chrisl1824 the owner of a slightly less expensive snowdrop
I have it! It was Miss Scarlet in the dining room with a spanner....... :o
-
I have it! It was Miss Scarlet in the dining room with a spanner....... :o
No, no, no. It was the Reverend Greenfinger in the Conservatory with the twin-scaling knife.
-
No, no, no. It was the Reverend Greenfinger in the Conservatory with the twin-scaling knife.
Damn and drat... I NEVER get whodunnit! >:(
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The snowdrop book is good not only for its pictures, but also
its keys. This only works with named ones, of course, not
seedlings.
A friend had imported quite a few snowdrops from one of the
U.K. specialists. There was a rogue in one group, and I was
able to use the key to figure out what it likely was. We checked
in the catalogue, and the seller did offer that variety, so my
keying was right. That was a very satisfying moment.
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Martin
my favorite is the 4th picture (3189) - to me it looks like balloons full of water!
John
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Hi, Martin
Very fine seedlings. The last looks like a drop over drop, because of its unusual ovarium.
All the flowers look wellproportioned.
We can recognition your expert`s eye.
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Martin
my favorite is the 4th picture (3189) - to me it looks like balloons full of water!
John
That's one I'm keeping a close eye on. It flowered for the first time this year and is very large, tall and strong, especially for a first year flower. It looks better wider open, but it's taking its time opening up wide - was closed tight for ages and is slowly lifting its outers higher as the claws lengthen.
It looked a bit inelegant at first, with those odd outers, but as they lengthen and raise up I think it's going to be a beauty.
Here's a pic I got of it a bit wider open this morning...
-
Very blowsey. :-*
-
I think it's going to be a beauty.
I think it already is Martin. Very pleasing to the eye.
-
A white one I think it is a nivalis
-
Very nice one's Martin, i couldn't find any valve on the photo's so they must be real.
-
the book is very useful. mine is rarely out of my sight this time of year.its a must have.
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Romeo .... is thought to be extinct but i guess not anymore
Rob, be careful with your assumption that this is the original g. "Romeo".
There is indeed a snowdrop circulating under the name of g. "Romeo", or g. plicatus "Romeo", and through the kindness of a Forum member I grow this but, at this time, we retain an open mind as to whether it has any connection with the original snowdrop of that name.
The first mention of "Romeo", that I have been able to find, was on page 207 of the 1891 RHS Journal, where Mr F.W. Burbidge stated "g. plicatus 'Romeo' is a fine seedling variety raised by Mr Allen .."
On March 9th 1907, the following appeared in 'The Gardener's Chronicle' - "Mr Bedford obligingly sends us from Straffan, Kildare, fine samples of galanthus plicatus "Romeo", with very broad (1 1/4 inch) plicate, glaucous leaves. The outer perianth segments are spreading, broadly oblong, fully an inch in length, pure white, the inner ones about half the length, overlapping so as to form a tube, white at the base, notched at the apex and marked in the upper part with a deep green band, edged with white."
At the RHS, Lindley Library, there is a drawing by E.A. Bowles of g. plicatus "Romeo" upon which is annotated "Sent by Frederick Bedford from Straffan, Co Kildare 14/3/1907" which, again, shows a wide leaved plant.
In 1956, in his book "Snowdrops and Snowflakes", Sir Frederick Stern included "Romeo" in his list of varieties of galanthus, quoting Burbidge as his source, and stating it to be a form of plicatus.
In the 1990's, John Morley (North Green Snowdrops) was selling a snowdrop under this name, but he has since lost it - he told me that he obtained his original bulbs from somewhere in Scotland but is presently unable to confirm precise details of source as his records are in store.
Some years ago, Ruby Baker went to the Edinburgh Botanical Garden to examine the snowdrop that they listed as g. "Romeo", but this did not match the above description - their records gave a Mr Robertson as the source of their bulbs, but the trail went cold there as there were several Mr Robertson's recorded in their records and they could not say which had donated this plant.
Promisingly, at the talk that he gave at the 1998 Galanthus Gala, Chris Brickell referred to a snowdrop, called g. "Romeo", that he had got from John Morley, and expressed the view that the modern day "Romeo" checked out favourably against the snowdrop in the 1907 Bowles drawing but Chris has also now lost his plants of "Romeo".
Aaron Davis, the author of 'The Genus Galanthus', published in 1999, considered "Romeo" to be no longer in cultivation and his list of such extinct cultivars was in turn included in the 'Snowdrops' book, published in 2001, where it was stated "We list them here for completeness and to help prevent re-use of their names for future cultivars ...".
The plant that I grow, came from an Irish public garden, but they have no records of how and when it came to be in the garden - it was grown in the garden with a label stating it to be g. 'Romeo', but it is clearly a plicatus.
So, as you can see, the jury is still out on whether or not the modern day "Romeo" has any connection with the original plant of that name.
What would be helpful, is if your friend was able to share with me the source of his bulbs of "Romeo", so that I could see if that trail took us anywhere - could you ask him for me please?
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A white one I think it is a nivalis
Reminds me of a beautiful white nivalis I found last year. But this year is is completely normal! How it temporarily lost its colour is a mystery.
-
My big blousey seedling opened up a bit more this afternoon. I think it gets a bit more elegant as it opens.
Next, something a bit smaller (the pound coin held alonside the flower shows the scale). Not a tiny nivalis, but a dinky nivalis X plicatus hybrid. In the garden it lifted its outer petals right up to the horizonal like propellor blades, which looked really nice. Now it's sulking at being in a pot and won't do it again!
Then some other seedlings open in the garden today.
-
By the way, the big blousey seedling is a plicatus cross, not an elwesii.
-
Hi Martin
more great new flowers. For me,in order of preference are:
3256 - First Prize
3236 - second
3269 - third
3251 - fourth
cheers
John
-
Rob - interesting that your trail leads back to Edinburgh Botanical Gardens - I will be interested to see if your contact can throw any more light on the origins of their g. "Romeo"
-
Martin - small is beautiful - just love your "dinky nivalis X plicatus hybrid" - any chance of getting a bulb?
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Martin,
I'd be happy to grow any of those shown. They are all fantastic.
John,
I agree with your ranking but it seems such a shame to place any one of those above another.
How was Anglesey Abbey? The weather up here was fantastic today and I'm sure that you and Ian must have got some great photos.
David
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Martin - small is beautiful - just love your "dinky nivalis X plicatus hybrid" - any chance of getting a bulb?
Chris, I'll have to chip the bulbs first; there's only one mother bulb and two small offsets still attached but already producing flowers (which makes me think it'll be a very free-flowering plant if it flowers on small offsets before they've even separated from their mother!)
I've potted the bulb so I can feed it and hopefully this year the offsets will be big enough to chip along with the mother bulb. So if you can wait a while, I'll keep you in mind.
That's the trouble with raising seedlings, as opposed to finding clumps of snowdrops in old gardens or churchyards etc. The seedlings are very healthy and new, but when you first see them flower and spot a good one, you've only got one bulb, which then needs to be laboriously bulked up (and you don't see it flowering again while it's being chipped). On the other hand, discovering an existing clump of something new means you don't have to wait while you bulk it up, but it might be decades old and already ageing and prone to disease. Swings and roundabouts, I guess. But it does make seed raising a very long process, especially with snowdrops which tend to be small bulbs, compared to say daffs. You could be talking, from pollination to having a small clump through chipping, as much as eight or nine years, maybe ten or more if the seedlings are slow to mature and flower (which some hybrids are) :-\
-
Martin - thanks for keeping me in mind - it was small snowdrops, like yours, that got me interested in collecting snowdrops in the first place, so always have a soft spot for them!
-
Martin - thanks for keeping me in mind - it was small snowdrops, like yours, that got me interested in collecting snowdrops in the first place, so always have a soft spot for them!
Chris, I love the little ones too. One of my aims (in addition to breeding big strong grow-anywhere snowdrops for gardens, and much more) is to produce a range of dinky little snowdrops with a nice variety of flower shape and markings, ideally suited to pot growing, troughs, and of course showing, perfect for alpine gardeners etc. etc.
-
Some of my grocery store elwesii pots have small plants in them.
I thought at first that they were perhaps just young, and would get
bigger in a couple of years.
Then I saw this one, and decided maybe that is not so. This must
be mature enough to produce a second bulb, of the same size, so
I guess the other small plants might also be small, not young.
The flower tip is 9 cm high, and the leaves 5 cm, though I think they
will continue to grow.
-
How about a plicate flower? I hope someone is not going to tell
me that it is just getting old.
I have two such flowers, from the same bulb, each with the
rims of its petals folded up.
-
And your small elwesii has twisted leaves and a gracilis-like mark, plus outer segments which look more gracilis-like than typical elwesii. Fascinating! Are the leaves convolute or applanate? They look convolute-ish in the pic but I can't see clearly. If the leaves were applanate, I'd say you had a very broad-leaved gracilis. But if convolute, then a very gracilis-like elwesii. Whichever it is, it's a nice-looking plant.
-
One leaf is definitely wrapped around the other.
-
Martin,
Given all the wonderful seedlings you are finding amongst your own sowings..... if you're hard up for money at any point I think you'll be able to raise some just by selling any spare seed you have. Given some of hte beauties you're growing I'm sure a lot of us would be interested in trying, although I guess those with easier quarantine conditions would just hassle you for bulbs of them! (and so would I if I could!! ::) :P).
Thanks for sharing your pics with us. They all look great. I'd be hard pushed to name a favourite.... love the lost of them. That plicatus with the big blowsy flowers is impressive, but so is the tiny one, and 3269, and..... ;D
-
You could be talking, from pollination to having a small clump through chipping, as much as eight or nine years, maybe ten or more
Martin you have proved it is well worth the wait with such wonderful results. :D
-
Chris and Martin,
here is another very small plant, came from austria. Because of it glassgreen leaves, I called it for trial GRÜNER WINZLING.
-
Paul, if I ever manage to raise tetraploids, then larger scale seed production would be one definite plus. At the moment I do thousands of crosses with the existing big triploid cultivars and diploids to get maybe just a hundred or so seeds in a poor year (perhaps double that in a good year) And then they don't always all germinate!
-
Good grief, that few seeds? So what causes the poor fertility in the "modern" hybrids... I'm assuming it is the ploidy problems? What brought this about, or was it just slection for the biggest and best which meant that those happened to be the ones that were expressing the extra polidy? Or perhaps I should be asking this in the hybridisation thread?
-
Yes, many of the biggest and best classic garden snowdrops are triploids with very low fertility, and even those that are diploid and theoretically more fertile often seem reluctant to set much seed even when hand-pollinated. Others are infertile diploid hybrids which set virtually no seed at all. I'm crossing triploids onto diploids and (very long shots, as you get almost no seed) triploids with triploids, plus a few diploid with diploid crosses every year. The crosses involving triploids in particular involve many repeats of the same cross with lots of flowers in the hope of just a few seeds (often none at all). And on top of that, there's the problem of getting enough pollen to do the repat crosses - many of the best snowdrops produce very little pollen (probably as a result of their low fertility). And when you do get a successful pollination, you may only get a dozen or so seeds (sometimes less) from a snowdrop pod, compared to lots more from a narcissus seed pod and hundreds from a lily seed pod.
-
Martin,
Thanks. I must admit that I was surprised to find seedlings around my 'Sibbertoft Manor' as I figured it wouldn't be so fertile. Will be interesting to see it's progeny in the future when they flower.
On the other hand the monotrictus types we have here that were so freely named (and in some cases very hard to tell apart) set seed very healthily. Some types like 'Warburton' have little clumps of seedlings appearing around the clump, and I am guessing they will be very similar. Lovely perfume on that particular one though, so don't mind if that gene carries on happily. Of course this also increases my chances of drifts of snowies in the future..... as the seedlings mature and keept seeding etc. These aren't the big hybrids though, but they're nothing to sneeze at.
-
Paul, I may have been a little too pessimistic about the seeds. I've had a look at my seedling frames, and I guess in a good year I might be getting more like 300 or 400 seeds, but I have had very poor years with less than 100 seeds in the past. As I've increased my stocks of plants to pollinate (by chipping) the results have been getting better. But even when you've grown them on, many turn out to be quite so-so.
I've never had seed from Sibbertoft Manor, despite hand-pollination, but then you can get no joy from crossing a particular cultivar for years and suddenly one year it decides to set seed with exactly the same cross you tried before. That's why I repeat crosses in more than one year, as the little sods can be fickle, refusing to set anything then suddenly giving a bumper crop for no apparent reason!
The elwesii and e. monostictus are an exception. They do generally set lots of seed.
-
Sorry, I meant some bad years with less than 100 seeds, not 100 years.
-
Different leaf types of G. nivalis.
-
Here are some taken in today's sunshine. 11oC today! Firstly 'Angelsey Abbey', then 'The Linns' and finally a three and two half petalled 'Robin Hood'.
-
The garden is always a place of surprises. I saw today this flower the first time. May be it was too green.
-
The garden is always a place of surprises. I saw today this flower the first time. May be it was too green.
If it's too green for you, I'll take it off your hands. I think it is a gorgeous snowdrop!
-
An extraordinary snowdrop Hagen - is this the first year that it has flowered like this?
-
Chris and Martin,
here is another very small plant, came from austria. Because of it glassgreen leaves, I called it for trial GRÜNER WINZLING.
Thanks for posting - can we see another photo when the flower opens?
-
If it's too green for you, I'll take it off your hands. I think it is a gorgeous snowdrop!
[/quote]
Alan, you are also a lucky beggar. You showed us a green G. elwesii some times ago and I was destroyed near the basement.
-
Hi Chris, not only the pics are small.
It really a nice tiny green plant
-
An extraordinary snowdrop Hagen - is this the first year that it has flowered like this?
I had never seen the whole flower before. I only saw a rest of green inner tepales.
-
The garden is always a place of surprises. I saw today this flower the first time. May be it was too green.
Hagen : my congratulation for this found !
My idea for a name would be :
HAGEN -
Hag is the old german word for wood - so I suppose your name mean wood - is Hagen or wood not a nice name ?
-
Hans, sometimes we have the same mother wit. :) :) :)
-
Today not good news from my garden :
by controlling of my meshpots I have found this (sad) result :
destroyed : ikariae 'Butt's Form' , Daphne Scissor's ,Spindlestone Surprise , Robin Hood
near destroyed : St. Anne's , Henry's White Lady
:'( :'( :'(
-
oh, a day of light and shadows.
What are the sources of destroying?
-
Hagen :
in St.Anne's was a big fat larvae of narcissus fly .....maybe I can save this bulb
in Henry's White Lady was only one little bulb which has survived
....in all other was only labels ......bulbs complete destroyed....
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On page 1 of this thread Paddy Tobin showed 'Anglessey Abbey' On page 16 Anthony Darby showed a different snowdrop under this name.
I bought an 'Anglesey Abbey' at Glen Chantry on Wednesday that was like Paddy's plant.
I am not yet a galanthophile, so would like to know which plant is the true 'Anglesey Abbey'.
-
Given the notorious capacity of galanthus to be highly variable, I would suggest that both these plants could pass as Anglesey Abbey...... from my reading on the matter... it seems that the green markings are minimal and the plant has a tendency to be poculiform with the longer inners and no markings......so both Paddy and Anthony's plants seem to fulfill the "rules" ... I use that term loosely... VERY loosely! A search around for photos seems to reveal a slight preponderence of those with tiny marks but a number of poculiform white flowers... so... you pays your money... and you remain utterly confused...... so, that' my rather jaundiced view on the matter...let's see if the experts agree ??!! ???
-
You should have said hello at Glen Chantry! Paddy's picture is the one we hope for, when I bought mine at Ashwoods there were several in pots of which only one was like this (needless to say I bought it). I believe you may have both forms when it clumps up and it is best to select the better ones and remove the others.
-
Brian
I chatted to Penelope, but spent most of my time in the tea room as I had my mother with me. She is 93 and was in a wheelchair so the cold wind was not to her liking. Even helped with the drying of the cups and saucers.
It was a great day.
I do not wish to upset Anthony, but his plant does not appear to have inners nearly the same length as outers, surely a defining feature of Anglesey Abbey. I think it looks a good plant, but do not see how it can be Anglesaey Abbey.
Two plants I greatly admired at Glen Chantry were Bill Bishop & Little Ben, but are they not the same plant? How do they differ?
-
I decided to see what the eBay snowdrop that sold for £123 looks like.
I found a description and photo of Clovis in Snowdrops. It is one
of the lampshade types, like the better-known Trym, where the usual
outer petals are replaced by a second set of inner petals. However,
Clovis does this only occasionally, and the rest of the time has a varied
combination of outers and extra inners.
I may be on my way to an eBay fortune - I just have to monitor my elwesii
with two outers and 4 inners for a few years and see if it is going to do
anything fancy. :D
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Good luck Diane - I was so surprised at the price Clovis got. I think it is an ugly looking plant - and if I purchase a plant for something special, I would expect it to at least behave and do it nearly every year.
I would be interested to hear what your 2 outers and 3 inners does do next year.
I was having a discussing about inners and outers yesterday to a friend. We found various 4 outer petal plants whilst out walking. Some had four inners and four outers, some had only three inners and four outers. I said that I thought the 4 inners and 4 outers would be a more stable plant over the years than the unmatched number of petals, that I thought may be a one off 'mistake'.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?
John
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I also admired Little Ben at Glen Chantry and took a picture. Unfortunately in this close-up you don't quite get the sense of scale. It's a small but chunky snowdrop.
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Alan b
Did you think it closely resembled Bill Bishop?
I liked the short stem in both cases
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Bill Bishop has longer outers and a different mark - more uniformly thick and more of an upright V-shape than Little Ben. I'll take a pic of Bill Bishop this afternoon to post for comparison. My single Little Ben bulb was chipped last year so isn't flowering for me to do a side-by-side comparison.
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Well then I spotted you Art, if you are the chap who parked near the entrance for ease of access? Having lost Bill Bishop and admired Little Ben I bought both! Here then is a comparison shot, as they are both of the Mighty Atom tribe similarities are there, but I wonder if they fit Martin's
Bill Bishop has longer outers and a different mark - more uniformly thick and more of an upright V-shape than Little Ben.
I am hoping that in the ground the one on the left (Bill Bishop) will flower earlier than the one on the right (Little Ben), as they were both Wol's plants I am trusting his judgement.
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Brian
That was me - forgot that galanthophiles had to form an orderly queue, and arrived early.
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Brian, you should find that the outers on Bill Bishop lengthen as the flower ages. Also, the outers tend to get to their longest when the buld is settled in and growing strongly. Ones that have recently been chipped and/or potted or otherwise disturbed don't seem to get so long in the petal.
The marks in your photo look quite distinct to me. Bill bishop has a darker mark, and tends to be the same sort of thickness throughout its length - whereas Litte Ben has a paler mark, which is wider at the ends and narrower in the middle. The V mark of Bill Bishop also sometimes bleeds up a little towards the top half (or basal half) of the inner. I'm sure yours will turn out to be right.
Here's a quick pic of a fully developed flower from my garden.
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I was also going to say that in your pic Little Ben looks like it's fully developed and about to start going over, whereas Bill Bishop appears to be a young flower that is still developing and should still lengthen its outers more (although if it was recently potted then it might not get to its optimum length.
Also, I think it's a bit clearer in my more open flower what I mean about the colour and shape of the mark on Bill Bishop. It's a more uniform thickness and a little more upright than in Little Ben.
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Martin
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Can probably only afford to go for one - which one?
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Arthur, I'd go for Bill Bishop. I think it's a superior flower to Little Ben, and to Mighty Atom and some of the other Atom group. It's also a more recent seedling so seems to be healthier and more vigorous than some of the older Atom-group types.
Here's a pic of a Bill Bishop flower starting to go over, which further shows how long the outers can get as the flower ages.
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Thanks for that Martin, as they are newly obtained I have no doubt that as they mature they will be doing the right thing, you were quite right about Little Ben going over so I look forward to a bit of lengthening in Bill Bishop. I had no doubt that Sue (who is the snowdrop collector rather than Wol I believe) would have got it right.
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I thought the 4 inners and 4 outers would be a more stable plant over the years than the unmatched number of petals, that I thought may be a one off 'mistake'.
I am labelling my oddballs so I can see what they do next year.
I have these combinations of elwesii:
2 outers/4 inners
4 outers/4 inners
4 outers/5 inners
one plant with two flowers: (A) 3 outers/3 inners plus a half inner/half outer effort
and (B) 4 outers/4 inners, also with a half inner/half outer
Since these are all newly imported, shall I assume they will be more
odd or more normal when they have settled in?
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Hello Diane
I asked Richard Hobbs about four outered flowers yesterday and he was of the opinion that if they are growing well they will probably come back as four outers in subsequent years...whether or not we shall see! ;)
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Hi all I'm home. What a weekend! Masses of snowdrops to share. Many will be seen here for the first time on the internet. 15.5C for the East Lambrook day.
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I am a new member. This is a photo of my S. Arnotts. These have been transplanted from 6 bulbs given by a neighbour approx 20 years ago. As I live in Stroud, near Hyde and the original owner of the neigbouring garden was a 'lawn seedsman' I'm presuming my stock may originate from first generation GSC stock. Do you think I may be correct in this assumption?
Well there would have been a photo but I can't find out how to attach it......
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very easy Toft. Click on additional options and then browse and hit post when you're ready
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Thanks Mark - I'll try this one
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wow that is some display of 'S. Arnott'
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Here are a few tasters from the East Lambrook weekend
G. 'Fanny'
G. gracilis with stable green petal bases
G. 'Phils Fancy'
a virescent Galanthus
named pale Eranthis - too tired to think of spelling the name
If any of the forum lurkers/watchers has a photo of Big Boy's baby could I have a copy please.
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If any of the forum lurkers/watchers has a photo of Big Boy's baby could I have a copy please.
Hi Mark
What is (or who is) 'Big boys Baby' please?
cheers
John
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Fine new cultivars, Mark - The eranthis looks like SCHWEFELGLANZ?!
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My email message of KentGardener's reply is longer than the actual
message here on the forum. Yet there is no indication that he has
edited it. How can that be?
Here is what my email said:
The text of the reply is shown below:
Quote from: mark smyth on Today at 12:15:32 AM
G. 'Phils Fancy'
Hi Mark. One of us should contact Phil Cornish to see if he knows that plant is called 'Phils Fancy' - when I was visiting him a few weeks back he was just calling calling it 'trym seedling' (other parent unknown) - I posted a picture on page 57 of the January thread and it looks like the same plant to me.
Quote from: mark smyth link=topic=1289.msg31729#msg31729
If any of the forum lurkers/watchers has a photo of Big Boy's baby could I have a copy please.
What is (or who is) 'Big boys Baby' please?
cheers
John
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Thanks Hagen. I was so tired last night I didnt want to go outside for a look
The seedling was found by Phil in a bed by his back door, if I remember correctly. He rejected the name Galanthus 'Phil Cornish' and decided to go with 'Phil's Fancy'. We were told the story but I cant remember. It was found in 2004 and sent for twinning that year. On Saturday Phil saw it again when he was given a small pot of bulbs that included two flowering bulbs. There are only about 6 in existance.
'Big Boy's' baby is a stunner and unfortunately I have no photo because the sun had set when I saw it. It's bigger than BB in every way with what might be the largest flowers of any Galanthus flower out there. It's beautifully green tipped. My biggest regret is not having a photo to share. I'm hoping one lurker I know of should have it
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is anyone going to the RHS show on Tuesday?
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I am attending the RHS show - will not get there until after midday though.
John
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Did you buy 'Phil's Fancy' Mark? 8)
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Anthony I'm not high ranking enough to get one
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Welcome, "Toft" ! Great to have you... and your lovely 'drops, join us!
Diane, John may have edited his post very soon after posting, then and "edit" isn't shown as such.It will be most interesting to see how your "oddballs" do next year......it has been great fun to participate via the forum with your "collecting expedition" , thank you! 8)
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Anthony I'm not high ranking enough to get one
I didn't realise we were being given ranks now. I think I'll stay a lowly private snowdropman.
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Is this just a good garden snowdrop, or a named selection.
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is anyone going to the RHS show on Tuesday?
Mark,
I'm going to the RHS show tomorrow and hope to meet up with John for the third time this 'season'.
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Is this just a good garden snowdrop, or a named selection.
Arthur, it's Gal. 'Lady Beatrix Stanley', a supposed hybrid double with elwesii monostictus blood in it (or perhaps pure elwesii monostictus). Good healthy clump. But starting to look a bit congested. Maybe time to divide and start new clumps.
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My email message of KentGardener's reply is longer than the actual
message here on the forum. Yet there is no indication that he has
edited it. How can that be?
Hi Diane
it is as Maggi guessed - if you edit a post before it has been read by anyone already, it doesn't show as 'edit'. I guess I was the only one up at 5am today.
I decided to remove the bit about Phil trym seedling as I was unsure if they were the same plant or not.
John
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At the last RHS show there was a pot on display of a beautiful pink Japanese eranthis but I was told this is very difficult to grow. I thought I was told it had to be grown under glass but on reflection I cannot see why as I don't think Japan is renowned for mild winters. Mark', was 'your' eranthis capable of being grown in the garden?
By the by, I hope to make it to the RHS London Show tomorrow.
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Martin
Thanks for identification. No idea where it came from, and I do not remeber it last year - probably a senior moment.
Will happily spread it around the garden.
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Alan I saw that Eranthis in a garden this year and last year. There is another one being bulked for sale and it, 'Pauline', comes true from seeds
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Hello all,
I haven't been on the forum for while, and have just caught up on all the fantastic photos that have been put on! It was particulary nice to see Glen Chantry, one of my favourite gardens!
I have some from my own trip to Colesbourne the other weekend. Hopefully my techno wiz is going to sort them out for me.
I'm off to my first RHS show in London tomorrow! I'm not sure what to expect?
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Found yesterday, 2 spike and a green tipped flore pleno
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Hello all,
I haven't been on the forum for while, and have just caught up on all the fantastic photos that have been put on! It was particulary nice to see Glen Chantry, one of my favourite gardens!
I have some from my own trip to Colesbourne the other weekend. Hopefully my techno wiz is going to sort them out for me.
I'm off to my first RHS show in London tomorrow! I'm not sure what to expect?
Hi Jane
welcome back!
Glad you liked some of the Gardens Visited posts - it is really nice to get a little positive feedback as I sometimes wonder if it is worth spending 2+ hours putting such a post together.
I should be at the RHS halls tomorrow (as should at least 2 other posters that I know of). Do please say hi if you spot me - I will be there from 12.30 onwards - all dressed in black I think tomorrow.
John
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I wish I was attending the show :'( but next year I will be there ;D but dont know how I'm getting there just yet
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Here are a few of the galanthus that we saw on the 2rd Feb at Colesbourne,
Mandarin this really caught my eye,
Vera Trum
and very well hidden Rosemary Burnham! If it hadn't of been for other photos on this forum we'd of walked straight past like everybody else was doing!
and a twin-headed elwesii.
Hope they come out in the right order!
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Gosh - what lovely pics. 8)
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At last a little sunshine to open the snowdrops. At this time of the year my long narrow garden has a great part of it in shadow because it runs east to west.
Galanthus woronowii was bought at the garden centre as G. nivalis.
The other 2 are swaps I made with Mark and are doing quite well.
Magnet and Wendy's gold
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Great to see them John but I wouldnt have remembered sending them to you
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Mandarin this really caught my eye,
Hi Jane
thanks for posting the pictures. Mandarin really does stand out doesn't it. That is one snowdrop I can spot form a distance.
John
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green tipped flore pleno
Is green tipped flore pleno unusual? I wasn't sure. I went to a garden centre a few weeks ago and they had about 20 pots of flore pleno, at £2.50 each pot of 3, that were all green tipped. Perhaps I should have purchased them?
John
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Normally the outer petals on the flore pleno should be white, i would go back and see if there are still some left.
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It was a garden centre about 50 miles away from me, where my parents live - maybe I need some of my mums cooking this weekend? I can then see if there are any green tipped doubles remaining.
thanks
John
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I haven't been on the forums for a while either but can't resist at this time of year! Some wonderful snowdrops on so many of these posts so thanks from me to everyone for sharing your wonderful photos.
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Here's my nivalis 'Mini Me' standing a huge 7cm/3 inches tall. The green inner mark is just about visible so may be on it's way back
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Is that pink or a trick of the light??
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David it's the low sun that caused it. I took the photo at 16:59 according to the original photo
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Here's some I took in this evening fading sun light. Galanthus nivalis 'Hololeucus'; G. n. 'Viridapices'; G. plicatus 'Castlegreen'; G. 'Ginn's Imperati'; G. lagodechianus; G. rizehensis and an unknown double.
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I met Joe Sharman at the RHS show today. He asked me to mention on the forum that in his opinion, the plant currently being sold as 'Trym' on ebay is not the true item. Two years ago I visted a garden where there were a lot of Trym 'seedlings' so I know it must set seed quite readily and give rise to plants with the same basic characteristics but some differences. I could see nothing wrong with the seedlings per se, in fact I did not get to see the true Trym because that was not yet in flower when the seedlings were out. But I guess a general hazard of buying on ebay is that the provenance of your plants may be uncertain.
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The fisrt is a new one just acquired and the second an old friend of more than 30 years. This plant I bought as Mighty Atom and has been identified as both this and Litttle Ben by the cogniscenti. Any opinions?? The tepals are up to 4cm long on this group. The smallest galanthus plant I have with the biggest flowers
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Ian, could you take a close-up of a single flower to show the mark (and the whole of the mark)? It's all to do with the subtleties of the mark with some of these 'Atom' types. ::)
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Also, where you obtained 'Mighty Atom' would help. As Chris said in this or another thread, the provenance of a snowdrop can help imeasurably with ID.
Initially, I'd say that Little Ben wasn't widely grown 30 years ago. In fact, 30 years ago I think virtually the only person who might have had it is Michael Myers. Mighty Atom, on the other hand, was quite widely grown 30 years ago. On balance, unless you got your bulb(s) from Michael Myers, I'd say the chances are you have Mighty Atom.
But a close-up of the whole of the inner mark would help with the ID.
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Martin here is my best effort by enlarging the current photo but it may not show the subtlety of the mark which fades rather than has has lineated finish if this is not good enough I will try to take a new photo tomorrow I dont think
CG Hollett of Sedbergh sadly no longer in business
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Hi All
Anthony - loving the shape of 'Castlegreen', and the colour of the ovary on lagodechianus.
Thanks for posting.
John
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Hi All
I found this plant in the last few weeks and wonder if it is unusual, or a common deformity in Galanthus populations. I found it really interesting because I like 'spikies' and looking at this one it is possible to see how a spikey develops. This plant seems to be midway between a normal double and a spikey. It is a double nivalis but has 4 petal type 'spikes' growing from the base of the pedical where the spathe should be.
I know it won't be to everyones taste - but I wonder what you think of this little oddity? Will it do the same next year I wonder?...
John
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Very wierd, John! I don't grow any spikies so can't comment on how unusual it is or if it'll stay constant.
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I've had dealings with him via his web site. His plants arent up to much but ... bad news travels faster than good. All snowdrops that I've bought from him were like first year twinscales. His Iris were pathetic. I'm sure someone has a good word. Please step forward
Rob you have to be so careful on Ebay. There are only about 5 people on there that I know either in person or email. Save your £s and buy the book
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I need a catchy title for a lecture next year. The lecture will be on the newest cultivars that have yet to reach the general public. I would like the word future in the title. I can only come up with 'What the Future Holds'
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Nothing is going to beat snowdrops, The year of the snowdrop has started, No cure for White fever, These snowdrops are the coming hits for..., White fever is going to conquer the world with new varieties, These are the snowdrops for the next century, Snowdrops with the Xfactor? etc etc
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Handrails to the future not shackles to the past?
or
I can't remember who used to sing it but do know the song that goes 'Liittle Boxes, little boxes, and they're all made out of ticky tacky, and they all look just the same' so you could use '.........and they all look just the same' :P
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they all look just the same' :P
tut tut!
John
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I need a catchy title for a lecture next year
The future's bright, the future's not orange ......?
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Mark,
Perhaps, 'More of the Same'?
Paddy
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Ian,
I've taken a while to look at your snowdrop photographs carefully and am inclined to settle on 'Mighty Ben'...or 'Little Atom'.
Paddy
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'Mighty Ben'...or 'Little Atom'.
[attach=1]
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"Bedazzled" or perhaps "More than/not just a whiter shade of pale"?
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i still would like to know if this is really hill poe he sent me or a imposter :-\
thanks
rob
Doesn't look like my forms of 'Desdemona' or 'Hill Poë'. Perhaps a more professional approach to your dealings give an air of authority to your dealings?
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Rob
Why not write to EBAY and complain. They are very keen to root out the rogue traders. Did you review his feedback before you bought anything - I have bought many things over a long period of time - snowdrops for the first time today - and only dealt with people who had a 100% rating.
I had a problem with a large nursery in Jersey who advertise in the National Press. I did not receive part of my order. When I complained they offered 50% refund. As this was not acceptable I contacted EBAY - result 100 refund. Bad publicity is something nobody selling on EBAY can stand. I think if you write complaining, just simply stating the facts, I believe that EBAY will remove his right to trade. And if you tell all your friends he will find it difficult to con anyone.
Arthur
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Ian, here's a close-up of 'Mighty Atom' taken in the garden today. The little white lines through the ends of the mark are quite distinctive and typical for the true 'Mighty Atom'.
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Cordelia has raised arms so it could be that. Here's a very dark Cordelia taken at East Lambrook and one from my database
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Mark's two pix of 'Cordelia' illustrate exactly the problem I have with snowdrops.... two pix of "same" name of flower but the two look completely different to me :P ??? ??? :P
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Aaaargh! My 2 bulbs of Gal. 'Cicely Hall' which I was so chuffed to get from Paul Christian's Rare Plants last autumn have just started to flower - and are a rather poor form of Gal. gracilis!!!!
Did anyone else buy Cicely Hall from Rare Plants and get the same problem?
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Bet he doesnt care! I hope you tell him! I ordered some but he took them back saying I was too slow to lodge money. I've had enough of that man selling wrong stuff. Maybe he's been ripped off?
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I suspect it's his supplier that's at fault. I've been ordering plants and bulbs from Paul Christian since the early 1980s and this is the first time I've had to complain about something being wrongly named. Still annoying though. I was so looking forward to seeing Cicely Hall flowering - never seen it except in photos.
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I notice that he claims to sell Galanthus platyphyllus, but is it?
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very unlikely Anthony. I know a forum member bought some from him and they were woronowii identified by me
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I need to get to bed - I've been up since 5am.
Here are some snowdrops from the garden today
Clare Blakeway-Phillips
Cool Ballintaggart / O'Mahoney
Deeley Boppers
Dodo Norton - again sorry!
nivalis x plicatus Marks tall - tallest so far 11 inches 27.5 cm
miniature nivalis green tipped
nivalis Sandersii Group
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Lastly, from last year and for the new boys and girls
krasnovii
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I notice that he claims to sell Galanthus platyphyllus, but is it?
I ordered a bulb of platyphyllus from him year before last, hoping to do some hybridising with it. The leaves that came up last year looked right for platyphyllus but no flower. No sign of it this year. It's supposed to be late, but probably not this late, so it may have gone to snowdrop heaven (maybe a casualty of the early die-back in last spring's hot weather and/or the wet summer). :(
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Your Clare Blakeway-Phillips look good Mark - no signs of virus? Almost all of mine turned out to be virused and dwindled away (I think they had virus when I bought them, and it just got worse). I chipped my last healthy looking bulb last year to try to get it going again. It's a lovely snowdrop.
Your sandersii are doing well too - are you on acid soil?
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acid grit!
Clare is badly virused the inner mark is badly streaked
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Poor Clare, are you going to do away with her? Chip to see if it removes the virus?
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Sandersii does well with me.
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Someone called Mark Smyth is giving two lectures in Suffolk next February - 2nd and 3rd
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I notice that he claims to sell Galanthus platyphyllus, but is it?
I ordered a bulb of platyphyllus from him year before last, hoping to do some hybridising with it. The leaves that came up last year looked right for platyphyllus but no flower. No sign of it this year. It's supposed to be late, but probably not this late, so it may have gone to snowdrop heaven (maybe a casualty of the early die-back in last spring's hot weather and/or the wet summer). :(
Martin - I too bought mine from PC the year before last and, like you, it just produced leaves in the first year - by a stroke of good fortune I had to dig mine up in November and discovered that they had stagno - after peeling back the infected scales/cutting out the infected part of the growing tip, soaking in a carbendazim based fungicide and potting up in sharp sand, I am hopeful that I have managed to save at least 2 of my bulbs and strong leaf growth is now evident (the 3rd bulb is again showing signs of stagno on the tip of its leaf & I am going to try repeating the treatment). You have nothing to lose by digging yours up and seeing if anything can be saved!
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Martin here is a close up of the said Mighty Atom showing the 2 white marks. Some of the flowers have a bleeding green affect which varies from flower to flower.
I have read the the Alan Leslie article which attempts to classify and seperate these but who knows now which is the real McCoy and I understand the story is that EB Anderson who found this snowdrop probably gave away seedlings as well as the original hence the extended family. ???
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Martin here is a close up of the said Mighty Atom showing the 2 white marks. Some of the flowers have a bleeding green affect which varies from flower to flower.
I have read the the Alan Leslie article which attempts to classify and seperate these but who knows now which is the real McCoy and I understand the story is that EB Anderson who found this snowdrop probably gave away seedlings as well as the original hence the extended family. ???
Indeed he did! In fact he gave one to my father as Mighty Atom which no-one else has, as well as various others like Imbolc, which he gave to Primrose Warburg as Atom. There must have been unflowered seedlings in the original clump he got from John Gray's garden, which he thought were offsets from Atom and gave away as such.
Mighty Atom's mark shouldn't really bleed upwards a lot, but you can sometimes get a little bleeding (as you can with any snowdrop mark) so I'm not sure it's an absolutely hard and fast rule. I think if you got it 30 years ago as Atom, when Little Ben wasn't even (as far as I'm aware) around or being sold by anyone, or even been identified, then it's much more likely to be Atom than Little Ben.
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I meant to say, the pic I posted is of what is said to be the 'accepted' clone - the one that the experts say was what E.B. Anderson originally distributed as Atom. Anything with a mark that bleeds a lot up the segment is definitely not true Atom. If the bleeding is only slight and only on some flowers, not on others, then it's probably not important enough to worry about.
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Mark, sorry to hear your Clare B-P are also virused, but I think I read that virtually all stock is virused. Shame; it's a very nice snowdrop.
Chris, I think I will get my platyphyllus up and see what's going on and if I can rescue it. Thanks.
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Here are some snowdrops from the garden today ........Deeley Boppers........
Mark - can you give us some more information about g. 'Deeley Boppers' e.g. who bred/named it, when discovered etc?
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I forgot to say that this has come up next to Alison Hilary. All three inners are the same. It's also much taller than Alison. I'll measure the height in a while
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Mark, sorry to hear your Clare B-P are also virused, but I think I read that virtually all stock is virused. Shame; it's a very nice snowdrop.
Yes, this form is virused so, unless it can be grown in isolation from other snowdrops, one to be given a miss.
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The plant beside Alison Hilary is 10 inches while Alison Hilary is just over 7 inches. The book says it should be 7 inches.
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Someone called Mark Smyth is giving two lectures in Suffolk next February - 2nd and 3rd
I would put out a contract on this imposter if I were you Mark. ;)
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Mark
Where in Suffolk will you be giving your talks?
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It's the two RHS days at Harvey's Garden Plants
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Pinching Maggi's idea, your talk should be 'The future's bright, the future's white'
Here are two of my snowies, G. fosteri PD 256830 (unless someone knows better), and Dreycott Greentip.
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G. fosteri PD 256830 is a little stunner Anne ;D
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Hi all,
yesterday I got a "new" g.n. scharlockii. But what is happens??? Is scharlockii on the way to be a monster? Look the right plant. Who has expert knowledge?
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Today i noticed that some of my Barbara's Doubles had additional inner perianths. Does this happen more often or is it unusual??
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Hagen,
Your photograph = G.n.'Sharlockii' + steroids.
Paddy
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Hagen what height is the big one?
Andre I was told last weekend that there is a stable Barbara's double and an unstable one
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Mornig all,
morning Mark,
here`s the crazy scharlockii again.
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Hi Mark,
could you tell me where abouts in your Garden you grow your Augustus and Claire B-P, in relation to your other Galanthus?
With only being a beginner I didn't realise until recently that Augustus was virus infected! You learn something new everyday in the garden!
Many thanks
Jane
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They are among the other snowdrops. I spray weekly to kill aphids
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But Mark, why would you take the risk of infecting the rest of your bulbs?
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Does the virus spread by another means? If Avon can grow 100s of Augustus among their collection without worrying ....
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What's "a old miny"? :(
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I understood that the virus on Augustus seems to be fairly Augustus specific, unlike Clare B-P.
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The virus can also be spread by nematodes in the ground, and you can't see them without a microscope.
Don,t worry they are everywere and there are good one's and bad one's. So the only solution is to throw the infected plants as soon as possible in the bin.
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Re: 'Augustus'....I learned that commercial stocks were likely to be infected and that was enough for me.... unless I were able to source one from clean stock I would not buy it.
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Note to new Forumist in Nova Scotia!!! Welcome, good to have you join us.....we see that you have made a new page - 'Grayswood' but you seem to have deleted it. Presume you had trouble posting picture?? Do have a look at the Help pages from second left at top of page and from Forum pages, also, lots of advice here....http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=41.0
we are waiting eagerly to hear from you again!
Cheers,
Maggi
John from Nova Scotia said :
Greetings. I'm new to the Forum but have been an SRGC members for many years. I garden in two locations in coastal Nova Scotia. My southern garden is much milder (for Canada) than the central southern coastal one. The snowdrops will be up in the south in a few weeks but here we have about a month to wait as the ground is bare and temperatures plummeted to -11c last night. Still the greenhouse here is full of blooming snowdrops, some 60 different cultivars in my collection. These have been collected over the last 23 years, many from nurseries and friends in England and Germany, my first ones from a late friend in British Columbia.
I have several unknown Galanthus from the above mentioned friend in BC. One unknown from 198 marked ex Don's friend on Vancouver Island, I wonder if someone can confirm my i.d. of 'Grayswood'.
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The weekend long I have been riveted to the conversations and wonderful pictures of many snowdrops new to me. I was hoping to find a picture of 'Martha MacLaren' from Colesbourne on the website.
I doubt I can add any expertise to the group but will gladly follow the group.
john - temperature rising to +11c and heavy rain predicted
Come back, John.... we're agog to see Grayswood ! 8)
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I think you mean an old Mini. I've had three in my time, including a 1275 GT.
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Hi everyone, I have also bought from garden centres and found other species labelled as nivalis. I have photos of some here (hope they come through)
I have also found today in a pot of mine labelled 'straffan' several with one or two petals without any green markings and one totally white, with no hint of green either on the outer or inner of the inner segments. Very beautiful
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Sorry only one attached! I'll try again. All these photos labelled nivalis
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I'll get the hang of it eventually!
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Hello, Janette, a warm welcome to you! :D
Interesting snowies.... do I gather from your file names that you took these photos with a mobile phone?????? If so I am very impressed by the quality, well done! 8)
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Hello Maggi, In fact they were with a digital camera (sony) just forgot to change the location in my folder! Glad you liked them and not bad for a garden centre £1.49 pot! I will photo the pure white one when it opens a bit more.
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Hi Janette
welcome to the forum.
I particularly like Telephone_pictures_085-800.jpg. An interesting shape to the flower.
Where are you located (it is well worth adding your rough location to your profile signature so that people like me can dream of what I should have possibly found in my local garden centre).
best wishes
John
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Hi John, sorry I hadn't seen that! You can tell it's my first posting! Essex Suffolk border (just in suffolk) and just local garden centres. regards Janette
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In fact they were with a digital camera (sony)
Thank goodness for that, I was about to lie down in a darkened room at the thought that a phone could produce those pix!
Now, of course, some clever clogs will post some, just to upset me!
As John (Kent Gardener) says, it would be great to have a signature line in your profile, to show where you are gardening. I can pop it in for you.
Also, there is a "let me introduce myself" page if you'd care to do just that ???
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Thanks Maggi, I have just added my area after reading Johns message and will look at the 'let me introduce myself' page.
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Hi John, sorry I hadn't seen that! You can tell it's my first posting! Essex Suffolk border (just in suffolk) and just local garden centres. regards Janette
Hi Janette
DAMN!
I was in your area twice in the last fornight - and I didn't find that nice unusual snowdrop - grrrr!
Do you grow other alpines too - or are your favorites snowdrops? I grow snowdrops and helebores at this time of year and jungle style plants throughout the summer (not really fitting in with the Rock Garden theme - sorry all!).
regards
John
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Hi John, Maybe those snowdrops were already tucked up here in the alpine house when you were in Suffolk! Yes I grow many alpines, hellebores, which I select and cross myself, orchids and a whole host of other things in between! If it grows - Ill try it. regards Janette
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A green tipped woronowii? Did it come from the garden centre also?
There are only two other green tipped woronowii that I know of. One is badly virused. I found some last year but this year they are all normal
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Yes Mark it is woronowii and yes also from the garden centre as nivalis!
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T-shirt weather today with hover flies, drone flies and the odd honey bee buzzing around. Here's
Galanthus elwesii 'Whitalii';
G. nivalis 'Hololeucus';
G. n. 'Viridapice';
G. n. 'Brian Spence' and next to my thumb nail;
G. plicatus 'Castle Green'
G. p. 'Wendy's Gold';
G. 'Tubby Merlin' and
G. 'Little Ben'.
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Day off?
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Hello Janette, welcome here. Very nice pictures. But I belief not one is a G. nivalis. A mix of G. elwesii and G. woronowii. A G. nivalis with whole green inner tepales is very rare.
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Day off?
Yup. Kids got last Monday and Tuesday off. I get today.
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Bit of peace and quiet then ;)
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Bit of peace and quiet then
I doubt it, doesn't he still have the builders in?
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Hagen, I think Janette was saying the plants were wrongly labelled as nivalis in the garden centre, not that they ARE nivalis
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Bit of peace and quiet then
I doubt it, doesn't he still have the builders in?
Curiously the only workman in until 3.30 p.m. was the plasterer. I made him and I (and Vivienne because she popped home) a couple of bacon butties each (or as the kids at my school would say "piece on bacon"). I'd already wandered down to walk the children home at 3. We then had five working until nearly 7.30 p.m.
I spent the day checking cyp pots and generally removing all the dead growth from around the garden. I am going to dig out the border under the front house wall with a view to working it like Mark's: i.e. snowdrops in the spring and a riot of colour in the summer. Will have to get an instruction sheet from Mark though. :)
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Yes indeed all were labelled as nivalis, but are in fact elwesii and woronowii. None were nivalis, which of course I knew when I bought them How I wonder can that happen in so called cultivated stock? janette
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How I wonder can that happen in so called cultivated stock? janette
They say a little knowledge can be dangerous and, clearly, these people have little knowledge. I suspect they don't care either? An extreme case comes to mind. I used to run a pets club at school and once went to a greengrocer's shop not far from the school that also sold dried food and pet food. I needed food for the gerbils and spotted a sack of the mixed seeds etc. marked 'Hamster/gerbil mix'. It was crawling with Australian Spider beetles and their larvae. I pointed this out and the bag was hastily removed. A week later the bag and its lively inhabitants was back in the same place. :P
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A few years ago I bought some early flowering elwesii at an RHS show in London that the vendor insisted were nivalis because "the bulbs weren't big enough to be elwesii".
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Antony
What a wonderful selection.
I am interested to know if you prepared the rock garden in any special way to accomodate the Galanthus. When growing in pots do you have a special mixture - they are obviously thriving.
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Antony
What a wonderful selection.
I am interested to know if you prepared the rock garden in any special way to accomodate the Galanthus. When growing in pots do you have a special mixture - they are obviously thriving.
Plenty of leafmould, but apart from that, nothing special. My potting mix is 50% grit and 50% JI3.
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I am visiting Portland, Oregon, in the U.S. The weather is wonderful
so I've been doing a lot of walking, admiring snow-covered volcanoes
and peering at gardens. I also went to the big park that has the noted
Rose Test Garden. They go in for a scorched earth policy here. Lots
of privet hedges, rhododendrons and camellias, witch hazel in several
shades of yellow, but the earth is covered with pulverized bark. Very
dismal. I saw snowdrops in only one big old garden.
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I have a green-tipped woronowii that I bought about 30 years ago as
'Viridapice'. It has always been common here for local gardeners to
occasionally sell plants to garden centres, or to sell them from a stand
along the sidewalk, with a tin for the money. There was another clone
of woronowii from an old garden, that was passed around to neighbours
and friends. Other than that one year, woronowii was never sold here.
Recently, woronowii has been imported in quantity, and sold at garden
centres as "nivalis", because colourful labels are available for nivalis.
I found some more green-tipped ones, so now I can pollinate them with
each other, and perhaps produce ones with larger green marks.
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Hi Anthony
thanks for the photos - I especially like the 'hololeucus'.
I have no idea what an 'Australian spider beatle' is - but I now feel rather itchy!
My 'stupid nurseryman' story (or perhaps 'crooked nurseryman'!?). We went into a garden centre in Sussex last Saturday to look for any unusual snowdrop flowers. There were 3 trays full of tiny woronowii that were far too small to be flowering size - this I have noticed a lot this year. I asked the nurseryman if he had any other stock of galanthus that I could look at the flowers on. His answer "Those ones haven't flowered yet - I can give you a discount on a trayfull - they will flower for you next month". I pointed out these ones will not be flowering until at least 2009 or 2010!!
John
John
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Special or not I like this foundling with its elongated ovary.
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Special or not I like this foundling with its elongated ovary.
Yes, Arne, it is the same feature that makes Anthony's hololeucus stand out. I like it.
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Arne it is a nice snowdrop, one of those that you would recognize from a distance with such a large ovary.
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Nice to hear that :) . I hope it will show this feature next year, too.
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Nice one, Arne. Well spotted.
Nice overall shape also, nice line to the outer segments.
Paddy
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Here are some pictures from an 1860 churchyard in Victoria B.C.
The snowdrops are all elwesii. I don't know when they were planted.
They are mostly on the hillside behind the graves, as the plots are
family plots that keep getting reopened and added to.
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Aren't graveyards great places for snowdrop spotting in the spring.
My work colleagues must think I am a little mad when every Monday recently I say "we had a great weekend. Walked around another couple of graveyeards!"
John
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Diane, the one you call "yellowish" is a particularly nice shapely monostictus.
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Hi everyone, here at last are some pictures showing the galanthus at Brechin castle, I plan another visit on Monday with Ian the Young kind he has now got the dreaded white fever, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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A few more pictures, I am sure Mr Bulb log will post more after Monday, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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Some very nice selections Ian, I particularly like Castle White and Castle Lady Lorna, what will Maggie do now that
Ian the Young kind he has now got the dreaded white fever
tee hee ;D
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I can usualy say straight away which are my favorites - but that is such a good selection I would be hard pressed to choose between them. A hundred and fifty two years of mother nature doing her thing has certainly produced some rather nice crosses.
Does 4588 always have four petals?
And who could fail to fall for the charms of snoopy!
many thanks
John
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.....Ian the Young kind he has now got the dreaded white fever,........
Oppps - now I have understand from which " Young ones " Cliff Richards and the Shadows is singing :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMtKvTV8LJU&feature=related
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Worry not, Brian, as you will see from Hans' clip, the BD and I are a match made..... in a very fine growing medium :P
It is, of course, a strain for me, after so long together, to have to cope with this sort of trauma in our relationship but I took the "for better for worse, in sickness and in health" part of our marriage vows very seriously so I'm sticking with him.... just wish me luck..... ;)
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No I have not caught WHITE FEVER - I am researching into it.
If I can understand the cause then I can seek a cure.
So do not give up - there is hope for all of you - I am sure that together we can beat it.
;) 8) :)
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but what if I don't want to be cured?...
;D
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Perhaps you are a case beyond redemption.
However my first task is to find out what the problem is and I will do that on my second visit :-\ to see the wee white sna dreeps on Monday.
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more photos please if possible ;D
many thanks
John
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...and don't forget Ian it is contagious ;D
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but what if I don't want to be cured?...
John,
In some cases, there is little hope for these recidivists.... best hope for them is that they find enough love and cake to get them through the season that they fill meantime with jungle plants until they get their next white fix ::) ;)
And of course, with any addiction, you cannot beat it until you have admitted to being an addict.....but, as I said, I'm standing by the BD him..... :-[
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and don't forget Ian it is contagious
Brian, are you suggesting that I am Cleopatra......... the Queen of Denial ;D 8) :o ???
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Would I? ;) ;D ;)
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I like the four petalled one and Snoopy joins that lost list of desirables. Castle Green, I'm pleased to say, is doing well here in sunny D.
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Seems like Galanthus nivalis 'FLOCON DE NEIGE' is setting a new record on Ebay. With less than 4½ hours to go it has already reached £142!!! :o Lovely snowdrop, but wow! 8)
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Seems like Galanthus nivalis 'FLOCON DE NEIGE' is setting a new record on Ebay. With less than 4½ hours to go it has already reached £142!!! :o Lovely snowdrop, but wow! 8)
Is it the usual two millionaire bidders (ruining it for everyone else)? ???
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Not sure as the current high bidder has withheld their ID? Maybe it's mark? ::) We'll see when the fat lady sings. ;D
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I have just looked at the various prices on ebay - totally bizarre! I can't decide if I am stunned; feel sorry for the bidders; shocked that they have not researched things; concerned at them spending so far over the odds; annoyed at their obvious impatience?... oh dear... the list goes on!
::) ::) ::)
John
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I've never seen 'Flocon de Neige' for sale anywhere, so if you want one and have more money than you know what to do with, then heigh ho? :-\
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I Just hope the new owner intends to propagate it and share with their friends.
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5pm and Galanthus 'Flocon de Neige' is up at £236 on ebay..... this is truly extraordinary.
Can't blame the sellers, of course... after all, a few at that price and your heating bills would be paid for the year...perhaps the buyers are hugely wealthy and don't have to consider such things :-X :-\
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Interestingly, I note that the seller quotes £2.50 for postage and also says "Postage is First Class and includes the additional security (and £30 insurance) of Recorded Delivery"
..... not much point in that... at the price it is going to fetch then special recorde delivery will be needed , hope those bidders are taking into account the extra £5 or so the proper post and insurance will cost ::) ::)
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and then Maggi they should insure it against all the dreaded lurgi that we all are subject too. For once I am speechless :-X
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And is it really that different?
Seller says " So far it has increased steadily in well-drained, slightly alkaline soil in light deciduous shade, but this can be a very difficult bulb to grow." That sounds like "On the one hand it is easy, but on the other hand......"
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...it dies ???
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...it grants wishes? ???
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D'you think it a coincidence that the price went ballistic after I flagged it up on the Forum?
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Now £250 and still 2 hours to go
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now 250 pounds and 2 hours to go!
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or was it just to disguise your extravagant bidding Anthony?... ;D :D ;D :D
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Interestingly, I note that the seller quotes £2.50 for postage and also says "Postage is First Class and includes the additional security (and £30 insurance) of Recorded Delivery"
..... not much point in that... at the price it is going to fetch then special recorde delivery will be needed , hope those bidders are taking into account the extra £5 or so the proper post and insurance will cost ::) ::)
Maybe this little galanthus will need its own Securicor van ::)
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or was it just to disguise your extravagant bidding Anthony?... ;D :D ;D :D
Not me. I would have kept quiet. Try explaining that to Vivienne! Just spent £250 on 'Flocon de Neige'! She's got Higher French and would respond: "YOU SPENT 250 QUID ON A SNOWFLAKE! WHAT IF IT MELTS?" >:(
I think this one takes the ultimate biscuit: someone is selling Cypripedium guttatum SEED ("over 200") and the bidding is up to £5.00 with £2.00 postage. :o Calling cyp seeds dust would be flattering them! ::)
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Bringing it back to ground level - almost literally - how would I recognise Tiny Tim and other diminutive snowdrops.
I have 2 clumps that are less than 4 inches tall. This is the third year they have flowered at this height, and as you can see they are multiplying very well.
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Hi to all another set of pics form Brechin and we will see after Monday if Ian the Young kind has been able to resist the white fever, I do not know of any cure, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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Those little chaps are very neat, Arthur... but as to what they might be ..... ::) ??? ???
Mr President, Ian will bring back your trifle bowl on Monday... I hope!
I was wondering about asking if I might come too, but we would need to bring Lily dog and my day boarder, the wee spaniel.... does the other Ian Christie carry a loaded gun at all times?? :-[ :-X :-\
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Bringing it back to ground level - almost literally - how would I recognise Tiny Tim and other diminutive snowdrops.
I have 2 clumps that are less than 4 inches tall. This is the third year they have flowered at this height, and as you can see they are multiplying very well.
I think you would know it if you had bought it? Like the discussion about a snowdrop being advertised as 'Sophie North' on Ebay last year. It may look like the pic but if it didn't originate in Evelyn Stevens' garden in Dunblane it isn't 'Sophie North'. I have a tiny wee snow drop named 'Brian Spence' (it's actually labelled 'Jill Stott' but that was only a nickname and I got it before the name was allocated).
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I was wondering about asking if I might come too
See I told you it was contagious
;D ;D ;D
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Quote
I was wondering about asking if I might come too
See I told you it was contagious
Sticks and stones.... Brian... sticks and stones...... :-*
how would I recognise Tiny Tim and other diminutive snowdrops.
I presume, Arthur, that you have had Tiny Tim in the past and you are now wondering which of these little snowies that you show might BE tiny Tim??
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The driver has just been shown the ebay item! He said "I cannot believe that someone would pay a quarter of a thousand pounds for a bulb!"
John
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Maggi
I am only recently afflicted. I inherited most of the snowdrops in my garden, a superb clump of elwesii, various clumps of nivalis, both single and double. I have added atkinsii in numbers.
I have never seen 'Tiny Tim' except in a photograph, but I wondered if the clumps I have that are anything special. Just started selling some spares on eBay and a few 'Tiny Tim' would help to fund my purchases.
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The driver has just been shown the ebay item! He said "I cannot believe that someone would pay a quarter of a thousand pounds for a bulb!"
John
I wonder if it's an investment? This is where you wish you were the 'third' bidder, but dropped out after it went above £15, and when the second bidder turns down 'second chance offer' you get one for that price!? :)
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I wonder if it's an investment?
I doubt it! There's less risk in cocoa futures and they're bad enough :P
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Cocoa futures are not contagious, but they could be confectious? ;D
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Arthur, good idea to make your snowies work for you.... if I had enough of the damn things and/or could remember what half of them are, I'd do the same!
Perhaps you should arrange a nearby galanthophile forumist to come visit you and see if they can help with naming ?
Cocoa futures are not contagious, but they could be confectious?
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Well would you believe it £266 + P&P
Someone has more money than sense :-\
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Someone has more money than sense
They sure do ......wonder if they could fancy a little fat woman from Scotland? ::)
( I could have said "He".... I just know it will be a man.. :P
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that's more than I have paid for two return airline tickets to Madeira next month!
Ludicrous price!
John
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Ian has commented that " it's a flocon 'ell of a price to pay for a bulb" :-X
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Ian has commented that " it's a flocon 'ell of a price to pay for a bulb" :-X
;D
that's more than I have paid for two return airline tickets to Madeira next month!
Ludicrous price!
John
Don't talk to me about airline prices John. Try booking flights during the school holidays. >:(
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Maggi said "£236....after all, a few at that price and your heating bills would be paid for the year"
What? I wondered how you grew Primula whitei as a houseplant!
johnw
canada!
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Ah, John, if you'd been here in the Forum some time back, you'd have had to read of my garb for sitting here.... sweaters, coats, possum and merino wool socks, fingerless gloves.... ... it's a scary sight and no mistake, though nothing like as frightening as the alternative :o ::)
Fermi came to visit and brought a pashmina out of sympathy, bless him :-*
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:(
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I've just used the fantastic 'SRGC search' facility (easy to use - follow the link at the top of the page) and we had the same discussion last year.
Fortunately Mark quoted the 2007 selling price of 'Floccon de Neige' at £55.00
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=300.msg7640#msg7640 (http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=300.msg7640#msg7640)
And perhaps we should call him 'Mystic Mark' as he predicted that prices would be even higher this year!
regards
John
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Hi Maggie, we would be very happy to see you and if the wee dogs can stay in the back of my 4x4 as the Pheasants are starting to nest (no not the peasants) we can go for walkies on another area later. I think the weather I hope will be sunny look forward to seeing you and see if you look different with the white fever, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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Hi all,
here is a nice plant :
G. 'Bohemia White'
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Nice clump, Hans.
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Lovely Hans, one for the wants list.
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Hans
Google gives no details of this excellent snowdrop. Can you please provide us with some.
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wonder if they could fancy a little fat woman from Scotland? ::)
They could have one from Chorley for that price which is probably nearer ,its almost a weeks supply of wine (I was just trying to sound sophisticated there)
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Arthur you really need the book!
It was found in the Czech republic and selected in 1990 by Wolfgang Kletzing. The difference between this and other albino snowdrops is the length of the green lines on the inner face of the inner segments.
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Hans
Google gives no details of this excellent snowdrop. Can you please provide us with some.
Arthur :
please look in the snowdropbook ( page 97 )
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I'm going to whisper this so the 'galanthophiles' don't hear, but I bought a 'snowie' today from an NCCPRG Pant Sale in Totnes where Monksilver had a stand. Well strictly speaking Maureen bought it on the grounds that we had seen it on our visit to East Lambrook Manor a couple of weeks ago. So Tubby Merlin joins our small collection which includes:-
Lady E, thanks to Anne Wright, which is in my bulb bed and has been in bud for a couple of weeks but on very (very!) short stems but I can't get it to open.
hippolyta, thanks to Sue Gee, also in my bulb bed, again has been in bud for ages but will not open for me.
a small clump of nivalis I have had for years, never seems to multiply but flowers like mad every year.
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David, it's okay, your secret is safe with me. :-X
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Some Galanthus from my garden. Nothing extraordinary - I have only a few.
Hans
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Hans - Very nice pictures and an impressive double yellow. I can't recall seeing one before. What's its background?
regards
johnw
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JohnW,
It is indeed an excellent photograph of G. nivalis 'Lady Elphinstone' which is a gorgeous light yellow. It is a yellow form of the double Galanthus nivalis - G. niv 'Flore Pleno', It has the reputation, borne out in my garden also, that if moved it can take a year or two to settle back into producing this delicate yellow. Well photographed by Hans.
Paddy
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I noticed that one of the elwesii I bought in a garden centre the other week has four outer petals. :-\
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Hi all,
here is a nice plant :
G. 'Bohemia White'
A lovely plant. Very simple but effective. Not one I know.
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I'm home!!! I met the seller of Floccon. Most of his choice snowdrops sold on Ebay have gone to Holland
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How is Eddie? Did you get anything special Mark?
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Eddie is fine and very calm about the whole Ebay situation. I didnt probe too much.
Over the weekend I got more unusal photos than snowdrops. Lost all my camera batteries during the weekend. I was given Amy Doncasters Green tipped which is a tint green tipped nivalis. Anything else was to bulk my own clumps. I did get Narcissus pallidiflorus praecox.
Someone gave MO a gift of a stunning minature nivalis looking just like Trym that was found in Scotland on Friday. At a guess the flower is now more than 1cm from tip to ovary
On Friday I saw some great looking gracilis hybrids looking like South Hayes x Flight of Fancy
Later this year I might be offering some snowdrops but just now dont know how to make them fairly available
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very tired but have time to edit a couple of photos for you all to see
G. gracilis x?
G. Trymlet with twin flowers. Three bulbs in the clump doing this
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Was the weather good in Englandshire, Mark?
If it's good here tomorow, I may be going snowie spotting......but only if it's a nice day, it's not as if they were rhodos or crocus :P :-X
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Paddy - I had better wake up as I got 'Lady Elphinstone' a few years ago. I'll say it hasn't bloom to save face.
john
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Maggi this weekend is the first time in 6 or 7 years that there hasnt been snowd on the ground or a hard frost. Not even a slight frost over night. Max temperatures was 13 n Saturday
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John, in the background you can see a rock and black earth. The Galanthus are growing in my alpinum between Cypripedium, Trillium, Primulas, Crocus and Saxifraga.
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Over the weekend I got more unusal photos than snowdrops. Lost all my camera batteries during the weekend.
Hi Mark
sorry to hear about the camera problems, it must have been really annoying - I hope you have still managed to get some good pictures to share with us.
cheers
John
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very tired but have time to edit a couple of photos for you all to see
G. gracilis x?
G. Trymlet with twin flowers. Three bulbs in the clump doing this
From the looks of those two you have seen some lovely snowies Mark.
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John you should have driven up. Sunday ended up quite cold with a brief period of rain but there was much to see
I'll try and edit some photos tonight but I'm still lagging behind from our snowdrop day on the 16th and trying to update my web site to include all of my Crocus photos
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Hi Mark
the driver said enough was enough. I didn't do too bad on garden visits (and graveyard visits) this year - and I want to save something to look forward to for next year and beyond.
regards
John
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Last year I was asked because the Galanthus with 5 petals. This year they have 5 petals again, only the younger plants have 3 or 4.
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Hans, did you check how many inner petals the flowers have? Looks like it is stable - it's normal for younger flowers of such snowdrops to have the normal number of petals; you should find that they have more petals when they grow larger.
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Hans
picture 1437 looks great. A very nice snowdrop indeed. I do not know the story of last year - could you please give me some more information. Is it a snowdrop you have found yourself?
best wishes
John
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John, last year I was asked if this strong Galanthus have always 5 petals. This year I can show that it is so. I have not found the Galanthus myself.
At the weekend I will check the inner petals.
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Here is a late flowering Galanthus ex Montenegro
Gerd
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Hi to all, here we have evidence that Ian the Young kind has got the White fever, you can see him on his hands and knees worshiping (studying) the wee white flowers with green bits, little wonder its effect is so strong with snowdrops which we have seen today, cheers Ian the Christie kind. P/S Maggie didnt lean on the Giant Redwood for long she said the worry that it might fall over ;D
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The final straw?? Christie
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Maggi, were you there to rescue Ian if he showed signs of going over to the dark (or should that be white) side?
Here are two of my 'drops, which are allowed a little attention after I've fawned over the daffs. Squire Burroughs looks to have gracilis in it, with its flaired inner segments and twisted leaves, while the byzantinus, which no doubt has another name now, has a nice face which I like.
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Maggi,
nice wellies - can we have a close up?...
Johh ;D
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Hi again, I knew you would spot the wellies but did you see the bright orange fork which was worked hard by Maggie and Ian, we re-planted most after splitting the bulbs but a few escaped to sunny (ha ha )Aberdeen. Ian the Christie kind.
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Here are few flowering Galanthus from my meadow and bulb bed.
All Snowdrops grow in full sun.
Galanthus-bed
Galanthus-plicatus self seedling
Galanthus-elwesii.
Galanthus-gracilis
Galanthus-hololeucus
Galanthus-nivalis
Galanthus-elwesii-tw. with twisted leaves
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You have some very good-looking snowdrops there, Franz.
Anne, Squire Burroughs is a beauty - definitely some gracilis blood there, I'd agree.
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He'll probably block my emails for this but here's Galanthus 'Alans Treat'
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He'll probably block my emails for this but here's Galanthus 'Alans Treat'
Why would Alan object? I think it's a very nice photo.
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some people are too shy
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Perhaps he is a famous person but though I have no idea who Mr Street is, he looks a very friendly soul and not too shy.... it is rather a good portrait of him, I'm sure.
John F.: can't believe you galanthophiles... you're so fickle, one minute all you can see is the white mist, the next you've spotted my bright wellies! And there was I thinking you'd be blowing up the pix to spot the individual snowies..... ::)
So, from the acres and acres of very beautiful snowdrops of all shapes and sizes I give you, my wellies!
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Fetching wellie boots, I think, covered in very pretty red tulips 8) Just to show that the BD doesn't have the monopoly on garish foorwear in this household ;)
There were not, as far as I could see, any tulips waitingto flower in the woods but there werecertanily plenty of narcissus growing up fast.... eventually, down a steep bank, I spotted the first one in flower...after the sea of white, to the human eye this lonely yellow flower, plus a couple of buds showing colour , stood out like the proverbial beacon but the camera was not so impressed! I promis you, in the center of this shot there is a BRIGHT yellow daffodil :D
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We were very lucky to visit this remarkable estate, where the snowdrops have found a charming and secure home.... there were so many to look at it was hard to take in the numbers. It was surprisingly easy to spot different ones once you got going.
Just as well I had those wellington boots on, because I felt very much as though I were "tiptoeing through the tulips" to try to avoid standing on any flowers. It wasn't easy, I can tell you!
As President Ian said, we were splitting up some very dense clumps to spread them around and encourage them to multiply even more. It was fun to rummage in the leaf litter to find evidence of thousands of seedlings growing away. It was rather cold for any pollinatoors to be flying today and Ian Y said that he had noted when he was on the SRGC visit to the Castle the other week that, although it was a really lovely day, certainly the sort of day that one would have expected to see flying pollinators, there were none in evidence... Perhaps this huge colony only gets to set seed in occasional years when there are pollinators about.
A very enjoyable day, in the company of nice SRGC friends, and with the help of the charming estate manager who kindly gave us some bulbs as a memento of our visit.
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They're safe until the snowdrop thieves turn up like has happened elsewhere in Scotland
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Quite a lot of chaps with loaded guns around the estate here, though, Mark!
I'm told that a while ago some folk were caught having dug up snowdrops... they were marched back to the spot where they'd lifted the bulbs by Keepers, complete with shotguns, and made to replant the bulbs.... I would think that would A) concentrate the minds of those thieves to be more law-abiding in future and B) that word of it would filter out and deter any other miscreants.
I was happy to be there with the Estate Manager, I can tell you!
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Snazzy wellies, Maggi. Alan Street is the snowdrop expert at Avon Bulbs, a keen collector and propagator.
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Snazzy wellies, Maggi.
Thanks!
quote]snowdrop expert at Avon Bulbs, a keen collector and propagator.[/quote]
Ah, thanks. His name was vaguely familiar but I did not know him at all.
snowdrop expert........ keen collector .....
Amazing, he looks just like a "real" person!
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It was surprisingly easy to spot different ones once you got going.
;D ;D ;) ;D ;D
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Perhaps he is a famous person but though I have no idea who Mr Street is, he looks a very friendly soul and not too shy.... it is rather a good portrait of him, I'm sure.
And there was me thinking you were Street wise Maggi. ::)
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I've had a reply from Rare Plants about the bulbs they supplied which should have been Gal. 'Cicely Hall' but weren't. They've turned out to be a small gracilis-like elwesii. Not hugely distinctive to my eye.
They're saying the bulbs are actually 'Cicely's Tubby'. Has anyone heard of this cultivar?
They're offering money back if the bulbs are returned, or that those who bought them might want to keep them as a "scarce clone" which will eventually, when properly released, be as expensive as 'Cicely Hall'. I guess that's all fair enough, but I've never heard of 'Cicely's Tubby' and I'm not sure I'm impressed enough with it to accept it as an equal-price substitute for the hugely desirable (and long-awaited by me) 'Cicely Hall'.
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any photos?
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Not a very good pic of "Cicely's Tubby" (???) from Rare Plants, but you can see it's not much of a mark. The overall flower isn't up to much either (wasn't even before something decided to have a munch at the petals!) I think I'll be returning the bulbs for a refund after the leaves have died down.
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I suppose the mark on that Cicely's Tubby could improve when the bulbs settle down. But even then I don't think it's going to be up to much, or worth the price paid for Cicely Hall (not to mention the disappointment). Maybe I'm letting the disappintment cloud my judgement...but I don't think so.
Here's a quick snap I took at the same time, of a nice late elwesii monostictus that I had from my mother's garden a couple of years ago. It was a seedling and has a nice shape to it as well as an attractive mark. I'll try to get a better pic tomorrow, to show the flower shape off better.
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Martin,
It appears to me that you have received a very run-of-the-mill snowdrop with a disgusting name. It certainly bears no resemblance to G. 'Cicely Hall' which has a very strong deep green inner segment mark covering the full length of the inner segment except for a white line at the apex running along the sinus. The outer segments of G. 'Cicely Hall' are decidedly long and elegant giving an overall very pleasantly shaped flower. There is no way in the world that the markings on the snowdrop you have been sent could improve to match that of G. 'Cicely Hall'.
The addition of 'Tubby' to a snowdrop name has already been used with G. 'Merlin'. However, G. 'Tubby Merlin' has a strong similarity to G. 'Merlin' while this G. 'Cicely's Tubby' bears no resemblance at all to G. 'Cicely Hall'.
What you have been sent hardly compares favourably with snowdrop photographs of home-found seedlings posted on the forum by many members. Likewise your own G. elw. monostictus appears to me to be a far superior plant. Mr. Christian has spun a tall tale I fear.
I can imagine Mrs. Hall turning in her grave at the sound of that obnoxious name and Robin Hall fuming at its bad taste.
Paddy
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Paddy, I was told there had been a mix-up over labels, that Rare Plants' supplier had a label that was not clear but said Cicely...something, so it was thought to be Cicely Hall, but when the bulbs flowered they were recognised as "Cicely's Tubby". I've never heard of it. And I agree it's no substitute for Cicely Hall, which I was really looking forward to flowering (and using in my breeding programme). :-[
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I heard today that Janet from Judy's Snowdrops has also contacted PC. She also notes that he has removed all reference to the bulb from his web site. I just went for a look for myself and poked around. It is gone.
If he can send obviously dead mouldy bulbs to me that I return and get no refund he is capable of cashing in on Galanthomania
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A friend found these snowdrops yesterday in a Victoria garden
made in 1937. Yes, the 3rd one has two dots on each inner.
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The pocs look great. Does the 3rd one have dots on all three inners?
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Some very interesting ones there Diane. :)
Here's some flowering in today's sunshine.
A four petalled one from Klondyke Garden Centre, Stirling; 'Angelique'; krasnovii; 'Greenish'; 'Sophie North; gracilis and 'James Backhouse'.
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Anthony your four leaved snowdrops shows what might be a plicatus leaf. Is it? Or maybe it's a trick of the light?
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A friend found these snowdrops yesterday in a Victoria garden
made in 1937.
Diane
pic 1 - WOW!
pic 2 - WOW!
pic 3 - WOW!
thank you so much.
I have spent the last two long long days as a student in a class room and these picures have made me remember there is a world out there!
:-* :-* :-*
Jx
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Anthony - you have a lot more snowdrops that I realised! :D
nice 'quadrapetalla'
regards
John
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Not a very good pic of "Cicely's Tubby"
Martin - that is a very disapointing 'drop! I am surprised that they want the bulbs returned for a refund - but a refund is definately what I would be asking for!
regards
John
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Anthony your four leaved snowdrops shows what might be a plicatus leaf. Is it? Or maybe it's a trick of the light?
Mark, just a trick of the light. Are they elwesii? The one nearest the camera is the four petalled plant but the leaves have a definite twist.
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Anthony - you have a lot more snowdrops that I realised! :D
nice 'quadrapetalla'
regards
John
Well over 50 varieties John.
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Are you sure the leaf pointing to 1pm isnt plicate?
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Are they elwesii? The one nearest the camera is the four petalled plant but the leaves have a definite twist.
Anthony, check the leaf bases. If they're at all convolute, it's elwesii; if applanate, gracilis. You can get elwesii with a twist to the leaf. It's the leaf vernation that's the clincher.
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A friend found these snowdrops yesterday in a Victoria garden
made in 1937
Absolutely wonderful Diane, it shows that there are still a lot of marvellous 'drops out there if we only know where to look.
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Martin,
Good sunshine here in Waterford yesterday afternoon and snowdrops obligingly opened for the camera. Here is a photograph of G. 'Cicely Hall', worth comparing with the bulb you received from Paul Christian.
Paddy
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Martin,
Good sunshine here in Waterford yesterday afternoon and snowdrops obligingly opened for the camera. Here is a photograph of G. 'Cicely Hall', worth comparing with the bulb you received from Paul Christian.
Paddy
Don't make me cry, Paddy! :'( (seriously, though - it's a real beauty; thanks for the pic).
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Apologies for the upset Martin,
Robin Hall, justifiably perhaps, says it is undoubtedly the best Irish snowdrop cultivar. Personally, I think it is outstanding but think there are a few which are in the same range as it. Some of those below might be considered, such as G. 'Hill Poe', G. 'David Shackleton' or G. 'Straffan'.
I think the G. 'Lady Elphinstone' posted below is showing its yellow colouration very well though this clump didn't produce many flowes this year.
Also you might note my wife's method of marking her favourite patch of G. 'Hill Poe' - a little twee perhaps but the mushroom does the job for her and keeps her from prodding the bulbs with her fork when freshening up this bed.
Below are a few of other snowdrops from yesterday afternoon.
Paddy
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Paddy, I see (behind 'Curley') you have Cardamine quinquefolia. Is it not a bit of a pest for you? Or have you not had it long? I'm currently weeding it out of my snowdrop beds as it's turned into a real thug here. It runs like crazy, its long white rhizomes getting everywhere. Even strong clumps of snowdrops seem to suffer from its competition as it hides their leaves from the light up to half the snowrops' height. Plus it competes for moisture just when the snowdrops need moisture most. I'm going to confine it to large pots, tubs and the most inhospitable corners of the garden. It's a lovely flower, I just wish it wasn't quite so successful here!
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Cardamine quinquefolia it is indeed, Martin. A beautiful plant, very obliging, grows in even the most difficult situations - here in complete shade - but does run along and seems to have the ability to appear in places in the garden where it was never planted at all. G. 'Curly' is the only snowdrop in its vicinity here and I have it in mind to move that later in the season anyway. There are a few other snowdrops at the other side of a pathway across from this clump and I have no doubt it will make its way across to them at some stage when action and relocation of those snowdrops will be called for. Although this is an area in complete shade it is an area which is very well fed as it is beside my compost area and there is always a good run-off from them to the plants here.
Such a pity that those plants that do so well with such little care can also so quickly become pests.
Paddy
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Paddy ,
nice to see your pics - could you please send a little bigger pics?
special "Emerald ......
Thanks
Hans
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Hans,
I expected you to spot G. ikariae 'Emerald Isle' knowing of your interest in it. Here are some larger photographs.
Paddy
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Hi Paddy - many thanks .....now I see the pics in great !
and Martin and I can now sit together and cry :'( :'( :'(
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Hans,
I sometimes sit and cry also as I would wish this snowdrop would thrive in the garden while it simply exists and grows at a very slow pace.
Paddy
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Paddy ,
here comes the revanche :
look at my last topic ( Gal. from C.R. ) ;D
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Paddy, were did the DAVID SHACKLETON come from? I have the same but also another with much better marks of the inner segments.
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Hagen,
It came from the Beth Chatto Nursery in 2005, 1 bulb @ £7. It has done well in the garden and there are three flowers at present.
Paddy
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Hagen any photos of your snowdrop? Mine look like Paddy's
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Catching up on yesterday's photographs, a few more from the garden.
The first, labelled G. elw. ex Altamont is simply a Galanthus elwesii that I have admired for a few years in Altamont Gardens, Co. Carlow, Ireland where it grows in good drifts and has very impressive glaucous foliage. Hopefully, Mark will add his comments to this as we looked at it recently in Altamont along with a few friends and all seemed to be impressed by it.
Paddy
Gal. elw. ex Altamont 270208
Gal. elw. ex Altamont 270208 (2
Gal. niv. 270208.
Gal. niv. 'Chedworth' 270208
Gal. 'Peg Sharples' 270208 (1)
Gal. 'Pucey Greentips' 270208
Gal. 'Sharlockii' 270208 (1)
Gal. 'St. Anne's' 270208 (1).
Gal. 'Tiny Tim' 270208
Gal. 'Trym' 270208 (3)
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I agree with Martin,Cardamine qunquifolia is an absolute thug and shoud not be planted anywhere near anything that you value.I have almost eradicated it in one spot after treating it with Roundup and I stress ''almost''.I have another patch which will be getting the same treatment and worse still it harly ever produces flowers for me.Nice foliage though.
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Yes, I meant to say that the although the flowers are nice, the proportion of flowers to foliage isn't great. I'm hoping that root-bound in a big pot or under rhodos in tubs, it might produce more flowers. When it can spread, it just keeps moving ever outwards.
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Paddy, your pics are allright. When I saw your PEG SHARPLES, I remembered. And then I looked to my pictures, like Mark asked. Here are my plants.
PEG SHARPLES
DAVID SHACKLETON
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Not much difference Hagen but I will agree that they are variable from one year to the next. My group show between no upper mark to a good deep green linking the two marks
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Going back to my pot with the four petalled plant. Here's a pic of the base, plus a single (no. 1) with a similar arrangement of leaves and another single (2) which must be elwesii? These leaves definitely overlap.
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I know the pics are rubbish but is it possible to confirm whether both the three bulbs in my pot are elwesii or only one, the other two being gracilis.
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I know the pics are rubbish but is it possible to confirm whether both the three bulbs in my pot are elwesii or only one, the other two being gracilis.
I can't say for sure, Anthony. I've looked at your original pics and they all look like they could be convolute but (apart from the one very obviously convolute one) it's hard to see (convolution can be slight to pronounced). The flower with the small split sinus mark looks a bit like a gracilis-type mark. The flower with the two thicker marks looks more elwesii. The 4-petal flower with the big mark certainly looks like elwesii and not gracilis. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
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Anthony how many camera do you own? I wondering how some of your photos are great and some are out of focus eg Angelique compared to the leaf photos
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I was using the same (Olympus) compact but it was fairly dark when I took the leaf pics. I will try to take some better ones at the weekend.
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For the 3rd year Lady Elphinstone has flowered green. Can anything be done or is it just weather conditionds to blame?
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hi John
so far my one has always come up yellow (4 years now) - there is a lot of chalk in my ground as I am on a chalk hill in kent - could this have anything to do with it?
John
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John,
I don't think the chalk has any significant effect. Mine grow in slightly acidic soil, Ph of 6 - 6.5, and have yellow flowers each year - see recently posted photograph.
The general wisdom is that they need to settle to reliably flower yellow but then John's - John Forrest, that is - has his well settled in and they are still not flowering properly.
I wonder if you have the correct plant John? (J. Forrest) Has it ever flowered yellow for you?
Paddy
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Rob
I bought a lot of 3 on eBay this last week and they are all a very good apricot colour. Very strong plants
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::) hi all ::)
we have now March 8)
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Hans
See my new thread
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Rob
The seller was a man.
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Martin, my Galanthus with 5 petals has 5 inner petals.
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Hans
very pretty 5 petal flower - does it do that every year or is it a new aquisition? (sorry - I have been on a course all this week so have not kept up with all the postings that have happened).
I look forward to seeing a picture of it in 2009.
best wishes :)
John
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John,
this Galanthus always has 5 petals, only the younger plants have 3 or 4 petals.
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John, this is a 5-petal elwesii that Hans showed about 4 pages back in this thread. I asked him to check on the number of inner petals out of curiosity.
Hans, it's very nice indeed. And being semi-double, it has all its sexual bits, so can be used in breeding - hopefully to produce more multi-petal snowdrops. I can see its stamen in the photo, and I can feel my pollinating hand twitching! If it was within my reach and not just on the screen, it would have pollen on it by now!
Having that very regular arrangement of 5 outers and inners, it is likely to remain stable. The younger bulbs will tend to come 3-petalled until they get full-size.
Look after it. I'm sure it'll become very desirable and you'll have lots of snowdrop lovers wanting it when you have enough to share.
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on Saturday Jimi Blake and Stephen from Crug were in my garden. Both suffering from white fever went home totally hooked and happy after their 3 grden visit. Stephen has found a stable 5 outer 4 inner Galanthus in a Welsh wood. I dont know the species
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What is this for Galanthus, please?
Flourish in my garden.
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What is this for Galanthus, please?
Flourish in my garden.
It looks like a nivalis.
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Thanks for your comments about Lady Elph. When I first got them they were green then the second year a very good yellow (in fact a lady asked if she could use my Forum pic for advertising her bulbs). I think the next year was also yellow, then since then stubbornly green. I shall try threats on her >:(
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Doesn't work on more than 25% at a time!
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So: threats.... success rate 25 %
chocolate.....success rate 99%
I think I have an answer here!
It quite often happens in our garden that yellow (tips and ovary)Leucojums will spend a year being green.... maybe just one or two in a clump, but can't see any real reason for it... noting we can pin down or change, anyhow ???
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Mine are always greenish yellow but never the rich almost free range colour I see in some gardens
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Mine are always greenish yellow but never the rich almost free range colour I see in some gardens
Your Leucojums?
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actually both. My L. v. 'Podoloje' however it's spelt have never been yellow
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I have several patches comprising hundreds of Lady Elphinstone and they have never reverted even when divided nor have those that I have given to other people.I believe that there are several clones around.My original bulb came from Lady Buchanan who was descended from Lady Beatrix Stanley.
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John, this what she looked like when yellow in 2005