December 2014 snowdrops

[johnw]

No I don't think they light up, Hagen. (Attachment Link)

They do in Cottbus Maggi.  And green LED bulbs at that. 

[Hagen Engelmann]

Often my eyes light up, John and Maggi.

[Alan_b]

I thought I would look online for the Cottbus snowdrops John mentioned.  Instead I found this very comprehensive web resource on snowdrops created, I think, by Maria Mail-Brandt
http://www.gartenlinksammlung.de/galanthus_schneegloeckchen.html

[Brian Ellis]

Yes It is a good website, it's where I got her booklet 'Schneeglöckchen ABC' (in German).  I expect there are lots of updates since 2010

[Maggi Young]

They do in Cottbus Maggi.  And green LED bulbs at that. 

Don't know about that, John - but I do remember the lovely giant 'drops shown and mentioned by Lina  and Loes in the Snowdrop Events 2012  pages. Not sure if they were lamps or not.

[Maggi Young]

I thought I would look online for the Cottbus snowdrops John mentioned.

Bear in mind that Cottbus is where Hagen- and his green goddesses- live : http://www.garten-in-den-wiesen.de

[loes]

Don't know about that, John - but I do remember the lovely giant 'drops shown and mentioned by Lina  and Loes in the Snowdrop Events 2012  pages. Not sure if they were lamps or not.

No,they are just giant plastic snowdrops
But I do have snowdroplihgts(and a lot of other unnecessary stuff)

[Leena]

No snowdrops here yet and last night it snowed so I have to sow seeds. Holubeck Galanthus seeds arrived last week, I was happy to receive G.trojanus,  G.koenenianus, G.nivalis from Italy and G.elwesii from two locations from Turkey. I hope to see these germinating in spring 2016 (but if some germinate already next spring that is a happy surprise). When I sowed them I noticed differences in the size of the seeds, G.koenenianus seeds were much smaller than others, perhaps also the plant is smaller..
I have sowed once G.plicatus seeds and they were bigger than any of these seeds, but they were fresh so that may be the reason.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Here is AMIGO. Nothing special in shape or color, but a fine moment of flowering.

[johnstephen29]

Hi leena I sowed some Galanthus  Transcaucasia seed in March and they started germinating a few weeks ago so goodluck with your seed. Has the cyclamen seed arrived ok?

[Leena]

Has the cyclamen seed arrived ok?

No, not yet, perhaps Christmas slows the mail.

How did you keep the Galanthus seeds? Warm - cold?

[johnstephen29]

Ok hopefully they won't be long before they arrive, I filled two pots with good draining compost surface sowing and covering with grit, then they went outside in a shelted spot at the back of the house and left to there own devices, all I did was keep an eye on them to make sure they did not dry out too much. They will not have had much cold as it was a very mild winter here, when I noticed the germination starting I brough the pot inside, they look like grass. The germination seemed to coincide with the adult bulbs starting to grow, so I don't know if you want to wait till spring to sow your seeds or sow them and put the pots in a cold frame or greenhouse then put outside in the spring. It took eight months all told.

[Leena]

Thank you John. Here it is now freezing or close to freezing outside and getting colder in January, so I can't put them outside now  . I have sown Galanthus seeds twice earlier, the other ones were fresh seeds sown in summer and they germinated the next spring without a problem, and the others were dry seeds which I got in February. I kept them in moist and warm for six weeks and then placed them in the root cellar in cold for three months and they didn't germinate in the spring. Then the pot was outside all summer and again in the root cellar the next winter and the seeds germinated the following spring. Now that I think that maybe the six weeks warm period was not long enough, in nature the summer is much longer before the weather cools in the autumn.

[johnstephen29]

Hi leena is it frost free in your cellar? From my own experience with the Transcaucasia seeds it seems not to need a cold period to germinate, they just start when the adults start growing.

[RichardW]

Bill Baker's Early  (in the greenhouse)

both of these were showing no green on the outers last year, shame they are so variable.