Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: scatigaz on April 16, 2010, 09:46:23 PM
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Hi everyone. I am a newbie. I went to the doctors last week and was diagnosed as having the early stages of white fever (lol). I have just started collecting snowdrops and only have about 15 varieties but hope to increase this substantially in the next few years. I work at Wentworth Castle Gardens near Barnsley in South Yorkshire. In the gardens i have noticed one particular variety. In early April a clump of around 12 to 15 plants had two flowers and one in bud with the other flowers well over. Today, {16th April} one flower was over one was almost over but the third was still rather fresh. I think it is some sort of elwesii but dont mind being corrected. The leaf colour is glaucous. My snowdrops (in my own garden} finished around 3 weeks ago. I just thought this was rather unusual. I think this snowdrop will make it until late April or even early May if we get a cold spell. It grows in a partly shaded site at nearly 600 ft above sea level. Is it unusual to have snowdrops flowering so late? Do you think this is a stable plant or maybe a rogue flowerer. This particular clump was planted 2 years ago in the green. I would be interested to know which varieties normally flower late and when.
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Well some of the rarer species snowdrops flower quite late but they are so rare I think we can discount that possibility. If anything, elwesii as a species tends to flower early rather than late. There are a few snowdrop cultivars that have been selected for late flowering but not this late where I am. I went for a walk in a local snowdrop wood on 8th April and found 3 (out of hundreds of thousands) still in flower and I wouldn't expect to find any if I went back now.
So yes, your snowdrop is unusually late. I think it is more likely to be an one-off rogue than a stable plant but the only way to find out is to see what it does next year (and then in other locations if it seems to be stable).
Any chance of a photograph?
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Gary,
Your description of the plants each having two flowers, one going over while the other was still in bud, puts G. 'Straffan' in mind and there is still the odd stray flower on that cultivar here in the garden.
Paddy
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Hi Gary
Interesting to know that there are snowdrops at Wentworth. It's a few years since I have been there so I shall have to try to visit next year.
I had some S.Arnott that started putting up two scapes a few years ago with the second flowering after the first. I potted them all up last year so of course this year they just produced singles :(
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Yes, Paddy makes a good point about 'Straffan' - I had not read your description carefully enough to grasp that what you had was a second, later, flower. Whilst many snowdrops produce two flower scapes, I think Straffan is particularly notable for the delay between the first and the second. That's not to say that you have necessarily found Straffan, just a snowdrop that exhibits similar behaviour perhaps.
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Sorry i appear to have worded it wrong. I meant out of a total of around 12 to i5 plants there were two flowers and one in bud all on single scapes. I will try and get a photo today.
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For some reason i am having difficulty uploading a photo but i am able to send photos via e mail. If anyone could send their e mail address i would gladly post a photo of the snowdrop and they could perhaps put it on this site some time tomorrow. In the meantime i have asked a couple of gardeners at Wentworth Castle Gardens to find out the planting plans of the different varieties of galanthus that were planted in the last 2 to 3 years. Hopefully i will then find out the variety but as Alan said i very much doubt if it is any sort of rarity. Had another look today and one flower is still going strong.
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Gary, I'll send you by email some tips on loading photos ;)
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Thanks Maggi for the info.
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My pleasure, Gary... it worked, eh?!!!! :D
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Sure did but is this photo enough to identify it.
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Sure did but is this photo enough to identify it.
Don't ask ME! :-[It's all I can do to tell you it's snowdrop.... ;)
There'll be a Galanthophile along in a while to give an opinion, I hope........
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Well it has a fairly minimal green mark on the inners - which makes me think of nivalis - and the leaves look to be narrow, which would fit. But then if that leaf in the front centre of the photo belongs to it I would say it is almost certainly elwesii. Second opinion, anybody?
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The leaves are rather broad and definitely glaucous in colour and most have two vertical lines down them.
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G.plicatus?
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If the two vertical lines look a bit like folds then this is characteristic of some elwesii. Here is an example.
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It looks very much like that Alan. Thanks to everyone for their input. I will keep an eye on these snowdrops. It will be very interesting to see when they flower next year.
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Here is the leaf.
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This really looks like Galanthus elwesii var monostictus
but very late flowering for this var.
all my plants (over 500) are sins two weeks out of flower
Roland
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I will be checking on the plant again tomorrow to see if it is still in flower. It was still in flower on 24th.
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It looks to me like an elwesii (and the single leaf next to it is without doubt an elwesii). By definition it is var. monostictus (single mark) but the mark is smaller than a typical var. monostictus, I would have thought. I'd be surprised if the flower manges to hang on into May but you never know.
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Hello Allen
the markings from G.elwesii var monostictus are so variable
I do not even name them I just number them
If you like I can post some pictures
with different markings
It is just very late for a monostictus
normally mine flower from Oct till march
Roland
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Well, Roland, there isn't much snowdrop news now so I'd be happy to see some pictures of your different monostictus markings.
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I looked today. The flower is still there but has lost its shape and has brown tips on the petals so i class this as over.
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Ok Allen
Here the first 10 Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus
Roland
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Ok Allen
Here the second 10 Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus
Roland
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Ok Allen
Here the third 10 Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus
Roland
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Ok Allen
Here the fourth 10 Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus
Roland
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Ok Allen
Here the last Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus
Roland
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Roland, you have shown 41 pictures of elwesii monostictus but I don't think any of them has a mark as small and thin as the one on Gary's late-flowering specimen.
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Hello Allen
Sorry I forgot a few Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus pictures
but you are right it is not typical those small markings
Roland
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Well I think you saved the best until last. I particularly like that almost pure white one. Does that come true every year?
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I don't know Allen
I bought this last year as a leftover in the wholesale
and saw direct they where wild collected so I potted them all
most where monostictus a few dubbel daffodils and some leucojum aestivum
Roland
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Hello Roland,
with a little luck you bought a whole white G.e.m.(pic 015). I wish you, that you never will find green marks on this plant. I never heard about a pure white flower of Galanthus elwesii.
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Sorry Hagen
It is not pure white see 018 its the same
pity no seeds this year although I pollinated it several times
Roland
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Gary,
to answer the title of this thread: Yes! Here's Galanthus peshmenii flowering in Redesdale in May! ;D
[attachthumb=1]
cheers
fermi
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??? ??? ??? ??? ???
Hello Fermi
How comes I am not surprised ;D ;D
but nice picture and a nice pot
by the way
Do you know a supplier or grower from native Australian bulbs
For example the Crinum flaccidum luteolum ??
Roland
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Fermi, is that some sort of coiled wire in the stone chips or a large quantity of funny-looking worms?
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Hi Alan,look like millepede's to me.they are in plague numbers at my place.bye Ray
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Some people like them deep fried ;D ;D ;D ;D
or even raw :o :-[
Roland
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Fermi, is that some sort of coiled wire in the stone chips or a large quantity of funny-looking worms?
Yes, Alan, as Ray says they're millepedes which are atracted to and killed by the blue pellets you see at the back of that bed.
Roland,
I'll send you a PM (no, Ray, not Kevin!..or Gordon!)
cheers
fermi
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I take it the blue pellets are for slugs and the millipedes are just collateral damage? There seem to be dozens of small millipedes around wandering across the pavements on my doggy walk tonight. They are detritivores and don't affect healthy plants in my garden. BTW, very clear night and Venus is very bright in the west.
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Just thought I would pop in and say hi! :D
Harvested the last of my Galanthus seed pods today and parcelled them up ready for their trip to Canada. Leaves are starting to die back on some plants but others are liking this cool damp weather and are continuing to pump goodness back into the bulb. I am hoping for a bumper crop of flowers next year. 8)
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Hello galanthophiles ;D ;D
who knows the best way for collecting drying cleaning
snowdrop bulbs so they look shiny good looking and so on
when I clean my bulbs they look matt sometimes bad looking
Roland
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Roland,
At this time of year I am simply taking away the wilted leaves and freshening up the soil above the bulbs and leaving them alone to flower again next year.
Why dry and polish them?
Paddy
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Hello paddy
because I am selling bulbs too
and if people buy dry bulbs I like they look good
Roland
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That explains it, Roland.
Paddy
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Sometimes you can rub the dirty old tunics off snowdrop bulbs to leave a nice shiny pale brown new tunic underneath, but as often as not you'll find there is no clean shiny tunic, or that the dirty tunic will come off to reveal a white bulb. It often depends how the bulb has been grown - in a very well-drained compost in a pot = nice shiny brown tunic. In moist garden soil = dirty dark tunic that easily rubs off to leave a white bulb.
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Martin
Does this mean I can just grow nice bulbs in in a very well-drained compost in a pot
In my loam based garden soil they look terrible and matt
Roland
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I often grow them (especially seedlings and small bulbs from chipping) in pots of good quality compost with lots of added pumice grit to give very, very good drainage, and you do tend to get very clean, nice-looking bulbs that way, with little disease and very clean-looking healthy coats.
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What is pumice grit and do you collect the bulbs every year?
I harvest my snowdrops in pots every 2 year
but don't let them dry out completely
Roland
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Pumice grit is sold in the UK by one or two specialist horticultural suppliers and is quite widely used to grow high-alpines and orchids, as it has very good drainage qualities. It is grit made from volcanic pumice rock, graded into different sizes. I use 1mm-2mm size and 2mm-3mm mixed together with the compost. I repot every year, especially if the bulbs are young seedlings that I want to mature fast. I do let the pots dry out in mid-summer, as I find that they are less likely to develop rot if in very dry compost, but closely encased in compacted compost, not in loose compost.
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Sorry I missed this question back in the spring.
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I was in a garden yesterday and say snowdrop leaves that havent died back :o
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What did you drink Mark. ;D
Roland
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Only water yesterday :D
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I have been keeping an eye on the very late snowdrop that i reported last year at Wentworth Castle Gardens. The same variety was still in flower this year on 1st April but very nearly over. Not as late as last year but still rather on the late side i think.
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Hi Martin,
could you please tell us who the suppliers are for pumice grit?