Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: Martinr on March 12, 2016, 12:33:57 PM
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Those of you who know me will know I have not been smitten by Galanthomania but this has appeared in the garden in a place I have never planted a snowdrop. Doesn't look like G nivalis to me :) Any suggestions on species never mind cultivar greatly appreciated.
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It's not nivalis. Are the leaves bright green or glaucous? If glaucous, are they twisted?
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I hope you don't mind me saying this Martin, but when I read your message about your mystery snowdrop and your comment about not been smitten by galanthomania, I have to admit I was a bit shocked or stunned, I can't decide which, I thought to myself how can a person not be, then just as quickly I laughed at myself for thinking like that, it wouldn't do for everyone to like the same things, to each there own as the saying goes.
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Indeed John, you should see my 228 pots of Lewisias 8) Alan, I'll have a closer look in the depths of the conifer it's growing through in the morning.
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.....this has appeared in the garden in a place I have never planted a snowdrop.
Hmmmm, they do have a tendency towards weediness :-X ;)
;D
Possibly it's come up from a seed transported there by ants?
cheers
fermi
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Alan, the leaves are a little glaucous but not obviously twisted but as they are battling their way up through Alberta Globe it's not easy to tell
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The most common garden snowdrop after nivalis is Galanthus elwesii. Some forms of Galanthus elwesii have flowers marked like yours. The most obvious indicator is glaucous leaves where one of the leaves wraps around the other at the base, like a tulip. Sometimes that remains very obvious as the plant matures but in other instances the leaves separate and the indicator is lost. There is a type of snowdrop that appears intermediate between elwesii and gracilis which has markings similar to yours. These were on sale in my local garden centre this year but that would not explain how one has found its way into your garden. And this type tends to have somewhat twisted leaves.
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Hello!
I continue in this thread instead of making another one, I hope it is ok.
I have a clump of Galanthus that have been together since long time. I bought the house in 1992 and they have been here since then and I do not know from when they are. This clump have been bigger but had to remove a lot of bulbs last year due to moving the Ginko they are growing around, that had to move away for a while but now it is back.
Pictures here https://www.facebook.com/peppestradgard/posts/232541350429928 (https://www.facebook.com/peppestradgard/posts/232541350429928)
Anyone know which specie this could be? If you need different pictures of something, please let me know and I will try to fix it and put them in the link.
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Only Facebook members can see your photos, 'ptallbo' - I have time right now so I copy them here .....
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Thank you!! did not think of that.. :/
/Peter
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Peter, I see that the leaves are supervolute, that is one leaf enfolds the other like the leaves of a tulip. Some of the specimens in image 5 show this particularly clearly. The only supervolute snowdrop with such an extensive mark on the inner petals (that I can think of) is Galanthus elwesii. Galanthus elwesii typically has glaucous leaves and in some of the images the leaves look greener than I would have expected but perhaps that is a trick of the light or the camera. It's certainly a handsome example, free-flowering and with nice lime-green receptacle and markings. There is no reason to suppose it is a named cultivar, only a tiny fraction of garden snowdrops are named.
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Thank you!! :)
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Can anyone help with the name of this Galanthus? Bought as a named cultivar (label lost due to resident squirrel upsetting my pots) so no longer have a clue to what it is. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
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Tongue firmly in cheek
......this forum is well known for a serious number of galanthophiles (judging by the post activity anyway), and indeed this particular thread has been viewed nearly 500 times and yet, and yet........only Alan has stuck his head above the parapet to help us.
So does this imply that the vast majority of the tribe of galanthophiles can only identify a snowdrop from its label?
If so I think it's time to name every snowdrop in my garden, stick a large price tag on it and join ebay....tee hee :-)
(I'd add a lot more emoticons but I've got the windows 10 problem)
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Martin - I've said it before - there's often a clue! ;) ;D
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... So does this imply that the vast majority of the tribe of galanthophiles can only identify a snowdrop from its label?
Personally I'm very poor at identifying those snowdrops I don't actually grow myself. The ones I don't grow form the vast majority of the named cultivars. Moreover, people asking for names often don't show enough of the leaf to make species identification easy although identifying the species is the first step to identifying the snowdrop.
I think from the leaf that SusanH's snowdrop is a plicatus. But there isn't too much of the leaf visible so I'm not completely sure. Plicatus with green marks on the outer petals are vastly less common in cultivation that nivalis or elwesii. Only 3 such feature in 'Snowdrops..' from 2001. The only possibility amongst those is 'Amy Doncaster'. However since 2001 Scotland's own Ian Christie has been coming up with numbers of new plicatus or plicatus hybrid cultivars so could it be one of his?
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Thanks Alan - will try and do a photograph of the leaves - maybe you can identify my Galanthus from them. I cannot remember having an Amy Doncaster. Will post a photo tomorrow. Thank you.
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The three plicatus possibilities in 2001 were:
'Warley Belles' http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10162.msg269551#msg269551 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10162.msg269551#msg269551) (taking time-off from green on the outers when photographed).
'Amy Doncaster' http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10162.msg269921#msg269921 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10162.msg269921#msg269921)
'Walter Fish' http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10162.msg269243#msg269243 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10162.msg269243#msg269243)
Your one is closest to 'Amy Doncaster' but has too much green towards the base of the inners to be a good match. So either I'm wrong that it is a plicatus or it was named after 2001. It is by no means a bad idea to maintain a record of the cultivars you purchase so when labels get lost, as they inevitably do, you can narrow-down the list of suspects.
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Hi Alan - I don't know if these photos will be of any help? Not much of a photographer I'm afraid!!!!
Have taken your advice and will now keep a record of the cultivars I have - I am sure I will misplace more labels in the future. I appreciate all your help.
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I cannot help noticing that the pot does have a label. Notwithstanding, now I have a better look at the leaves I think they are two narrow and too straight to belong to a plicatus so you appear to have a nivalis or possibly a nivalis hybrid. Unfortunately that leaves a much wider field of possible candidates and no names spring immediately to mind.
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Unfortunately the label was one I stuck in in the hope that I remembered what it actually was (living in hope I guess)!!!!! From now on I will keep a record of everything I buy and perhaps put in a couple of labels. Ta muchly for your help.