Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on July 11, 2011, 02:28:58 AM
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A few Galanthus in our Southern Hemisphere garden now, not drifts as you get in cooler places, but enough to keep up the interest;
Galanthus elwesii
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Galanthus "Comet"
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Galanthus rizehensis
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Galanthus "Lady Beatrix Stanley"
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cheers
fermi
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Ah, the good season has begun. Good shots, Fermi.
Paddy
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I agree with Paddy, nice to see them in flower when ours are still dormant. What a good place this forum is for those for whom there is no hope 8) Cheers Fermi
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Some pics from a bit further south .
Taken in a couple of different spots in the garden they may in fact be the same.....
Cheers Dave
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Some pics from a bit further south .
Taken in a couple of different spots in the garden they may in fact be the same.....
Cheers Dave
Both look like Gal. 'Atkinsii'.
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Fermi
Excellent Comet
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nice to see snowies in our summer!
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My 'Atkinsii' is out now too along with some doubles but a couple are not opening properly as the winds are so bitter. They seem to be having their petals stuck together and when I tried to press 'Lavinia' open, she cracked! Will get some pics when I can bear the day. Two trees down overnight. Pines, so next year's firewood.
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Both look like Gal. 'Atkinsii'.
Thanks a lot Martin
I don't know my snowies at all and because i keep dividing clumps labels go missing .....
Cheers Dave.
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I LOVE handling dormant bulbs, especially snowdrops and particularly when they're a recently chipped selected seedling that's produced beautifully clean and healthy bulbs that suggest it's going to have good disease resistance, like this one. When the old coat rubs off easily to leave this kind of shiny clean coat it's an absolute delight (especially compared to cleaning up bulbs of some of the older snowdrop varieties).
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Gosh, how long to produce that lot? Was it from one bulb.
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I LOVE handling dormant bulbs, especially snowdrops and particularly when they're a recently chipped selected seedling that's produced beautifully clean and healthy bulbs that suggest it's going to have good disease resistance, like this one. When the old coat rubs off easily to leave this kind of shiny clean coat it's an absolute delight (especially compared to cleaning up bulbs of some of the older snowdrop varieties).
Very impressive Martin, I wish mine looked like that. I just emptied a few pots tonight and despite my attempt to dry them off the bottom halves of the pots were still a bit moist. I planted rye seed a month ago in every pot to help dry them and though the rye is growing away it still hasn't died of drought yet. Hoping they will dry in the next week or two and then I will re-pot in a looser mix. Any tips on your magic mix?
johnw
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They do look absolutely beautiful Martin. Almost good enough to eat. ;D Have you though of half-dipping in melted chocolate?
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Lovely healthy bulbs Martin. Shame there's no scaling to the photo, although they look quite large bulbs going from the ridging on the jumper background? You must be very proud :)
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They're bulbs from chips of a single selected seedling bulb, chipped while still quite small in the year of first flowering from seed (which is what I tend to do to be sure I don't lose a good seedling to rot or narcissus fly). They were chipped four years ago and should flower again next year for the first time since they first flowered. So, given probably five years from sowing plus four years from chipping that'll be nine years to get a small clump of eleven bulbs and up till now all I've seen is a single flower. However, if next year I chip six of those and keep just five to enjoy, then in another three or four years I should have well over 50 and can actually start distributing them after a measly twelve or thirteen years of looking after them.
Still, if you sow seed every year then eventually you have new stuff coming along every year and it all seems worthwhile :)
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Sorry, Sean, forgot to say that the largest bulb is 2cm across. So at least some should be flowering size.
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Nearly finished de-potting all the seedlings and chipped bulbs currently in the pipeline and my bedroom is pretty much overflowing with plastic bags full of bulbs airing out. Time soon to start re-potting and planting out :-\
John, I grow seedlings and chipped bulbils to flowering size in soil-based John Innes compost mixed with lots of fince pumice grit (1-3mm) and baked clay granules bought here as 'Moler' (1-3mm). I stop watering the minute leaves start to yellow and try to keep the pots out in direct sun as much as possible (while avoiding rain) to ensure they dry out fast (which means a lot of swapping trays between outdoors and under cover in Spring. That and the pumice and Moler help to ensure fast drying and pots which get very dry, which seems to be the secret to very healthy bulbs (that and growing a lot of new healthy seedlings). With some of the older cultivars even this treatment doesn't guarantee success in pots, as they can rot even when given this kind of treatment and even when watered with fungicide as well! Such older varieties are probably best in the open ground (although you have to have them in pots at first if chipping them of course).
Even with my extra-drained mix, I still sometimes find larger pots that retain moisture at the base, which can be annoying. Small pots are best (7cm square) as they dry out fastest when you stop watering. Roots will come out of the base, but if you liquid feed a lot they seem to do okay.
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Sorry, Sean, forgot to say that the largest bulb is 2cm across. So at least some should be flowering size.
They look very promising Martin!
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I am confused by Martin's post on drying the bulbs which clearly works well for him.
Received advice is that it is not good to buy galanthus bulbs from the garden centre as they will fail because they have been dried,so if buying get them packed damp. Most survive outside in my wet climate and so must be wet all the dormant period.
I grow my 'collection' in pots and try to keep most of them damp (apart from peshmenii, cilcicus and r-o) because of this advice.
Rot has been a bit of a problem in pots this year and I wonder what methods for pot grown bulbs others use?
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I am confused by Martin's post on drying the bulbs which clearly works well for him.
Received advice is that it is not good to buy galanthus bulbs from the garden centre as they will fail because they have been dried,so if buying get them packed damp. Most survive outside in my wet climate and so must be wet all the dormant period.
I grow my 'collection' in pots and try to keep most of them damp (apart from peshmenii, cilcicus and r-o) because of this advice.
Rot has been a bit of a problem in pots this year and I wonder what methods for pot grown bulbs others use?
The snowdrops are fine in pots of tight-packed, hard, bone-dry compost as they would be in a dry situation in nature. What they don't like so much is being in very loose dry compost or being out of soil or compost in the open air for weeks and weeks to dessicate, which is what happens with many bulbs from big bulb merchants. Moist soil seems not to be such a problem in the open garden, where moisture can dissipate away into the mass of surrounding soil, but in a pot Summer moisture has nowhere to go.
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Martin,very helpful,thank you
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I imagine it's also to do with temperature. In the open ground moist soil will also tend to be cooler soil with less variation in temperatures, especially at depth. In pots, the compost temerature is prone to much more wide variation, so moist compost will tend to be warmer. I'd imagine warm moisture in pots (with probably less general aeration as well) would be much more conducive to rots and moulds than cooler moisture (and better general aeration) in the open garden (especially in the sort of summer-shaded spots that suit snowdrops.
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To confound another common saying about snowdrops, I also keep my dry bulbs in plastic bags for a while in summer prior to repotting. If kept moist for long periods in plastic bags they tend to rot (as would pretty much anything) probably for the same reason - a combination of moisture and warmth. But if the bulbs are bone-dry from being in very dry compost and are then de-potted and put in plastic bags bone dry, they're fine for quite long periods (but best to keep checking just in case and dusting with flowers of sulphur if mould appears). I then have them in bags ready and convenient for planting out or repotting. Given the hundreds of pots I deal with each year, this is better than tipping out of old pots as I go along.
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I'm also in the process of depotting etc and all the bulbs from pots in the glasshouses which have been allowed to dry out for the last month or so are beautifully clean and healthy. Those from frames outside, especially those which were in clays plunged in a sand frame without covers suffered badly in the winter. Many have lost the outer layers of the bulb which have turned to mush, although there is healthy tissue beneath. Bulbs in pond baskets in the same frame did rather better. I have yet to investigate those that were in baskets plunged in a raised soil bed. I will make sure to provide all my frames with covers this winter. If I get around to it...
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I've often wondered about the practice of planting Galanthus "in the green" because it's an opportunity that we in NZ and probably Australia, simply don't have, except as potted, growing/flowering bulbs from the occasional salestable or similar, and it applies to Narcissus, Crocus and most small bulbs in fact. Our sources of anything much unusual or different are these little sales, of bulbs potted and in flower. They can then be planted "in the green" I suppose. But most of us plant out our bulbs in the garden and because of the vagaries of our island weather systems, the long, hot resting period that many bulbs have in nature just don't happen here. So my Galanthus, Narcissus, Crocus, frits or whatever, have summer rain, sometimes real downpours, and much cool damp weather when in theory they are resting. As well, we water our rock gardens and raised beds where these bulbs live because they're planted among other, herbaceous plants which need moisture in the dryest times. The bulbs are perhaps never truly dried off under these conditions. Yet I don't believe we have problems with rotting. My patches of various Iris reticulata vars are going from strength to strength and yet were continually watered through last summer as I had planted many small alpines that needed water to establish. So probably it all boils down to good drainage. If the resting bulbs are not sitting in water, they can take plenty moisture while resting.
When I do grow something in a pot on a long term basis, I go to repot mid summer, and find the darned thing has roots 5 cms long so it would have been better in the garden anyway, even though this pot may have been kept quite dry.
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Selling snowdrops in the green is a lazy man's way of having his cake and eating it. The bulbs can be identified as they are in flower and sold once the seller has had the enjoyment of them. The poor purchaser then has to wait a year and if they are wrong, or fail to grow, the seller is in the clear as you will have just put it down to experience, or lack thereof. Buying plants flowering in pots is different as they can be planted without disturbance. In fairness, I have purchased bulbs on Ebay in the green and they have always been fine, but you lose a growing season.
I am curious to see what snowdrops will grow well in Auckland. The garden centres have none and when I ask they seem to have little clue as to what I'm talking about. Leucojum aestivum planted in grass under some trees in a local park has been out for a couple of weeks and some of the Agapanthus spp. are already in bud, with the odd flower out!
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My sister growes G. nivalis in Tauranga, but I don't think they flower very well for her. She is in the warmer, closer to the sea part of the city than Bill, who I think lives a bit out into the countryside, a little cooler and maybe under the hill. Not sure where he is though.
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Is that the sister with the Peter Scott paintings? 8)
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Yes. I only have one (sister).