BLHEG 2016

[Tim Harberd]

Hi There,
           This thread has gone a bit quiet!
           Any late entries?
           I'm surprised that some of 2015's biggest are not contesting for the title this year!

Tim DH

[scatigaz]

Sibbertoft Manor flower measured today at 42mm.

[Tim Harberd]

Hi Gary,
   Thanks for that... I've updated the list (first post on this thread) and added Anne's amazing Comet (from the March 2016 thread).

   I guess that about winds it up for this year.

   I think its an interesting list... partly because of what's missing!

   Only one cultivar.. Glenorma, is recorded as exceeding 40mm petal length in both 2015 & 2016.

Tim DH

[Josh Nelson]

Hi Tim,
My plicatus byzantinus that topped 45mm on the outers last year hit 44mm this year (it's provisional number is SL1).  I have two others that hit 43mm (including one posted today on the March 2016 thread with a very long pedicel, numbered SL24a), and a few others at 40mm or so.  I'll try and get you details/ photos.
Josh

[Bailey]

Anyone recognise this as a named cultivar? It seems to be too good for it not to be,it has been there for many years, and its growing somewhere where I wouldn't have planted it.                                                                                 This year for the first time, it had two flowers and  the bulb appears to have some new offsets as well.

[Bailey]

Havent figured out how to post multiple pictures

[Alan_b]

Bailey, it looks to be a form of Galanthus elwesii (although a clearer shot of the leaves would help to make that identification more certain).  Some forms of elwesii grow very large, with leaves that dwarf those of a typical daffodil.  There are a few that are renowned for their size but if you have not planted one yourself the chances of you having a named cultivar are, I guess, similar to your chances of winning the lottery. 

If you did not plant it yourself it probably originates from a near-neighbour (or a previous owner of your garden).  And to rain on your parade, if you have had it for many years and it has not become a huge clump then either it does not like the spot where it grows or it isn't very vigorous.     

[Bailey]

Thanks. Your interpretation of what I wrote is interesting.I am pretty sure it has Elwesii leaves,I cropped the photograph,but the base of the bulb wasn't clear anyway.The leaves are very  broad and I think that they,and the flower were bigger last year. You can buy Elwesii bulbs or acquire them as potted snowdrops,and though some can be quite interesting to look at as regards form and markings,the range is quite broad,and so its unlikely,though not impossible,to get a good new variety this way. No,you are not raining on my parade,its probably a pretty generic type,and so unlikely to make my fortune even if it has qualities work preserving. I believe it to be a named cultivar,which is why I said I think its too good for it not to be, not adding a named cultivar, I do not have options for its name.I have searched for candidates so far unsuccessfully. Its not from a previous owner,and unlikely to have come from next door.  The favoured possibility is that it was bought not in the green,but as an named cultivar bulb,and it subsequently fell out of its pot,and successfully buried itself and survived.It flowers very late.but this might be connected to that it is growing in less than ideal conditions,under the privet hedge,and though it has flowered intermittently,it has largely been neglected and ignored,till recently,when I started buying more snowdrops,mostly in the green,so since then,it has had more water and attention,and it has gone from one flower last year,to two this and with un associated leaves from potential offsets,so it may indeed be vigorous.The other less likely possibility is,that it is a seedling,which I think would be an even more remarkable event I also have what I believe to be Comet, purchased around the same time, probably from the same source,it too is in un ideal conditions,it remains as one bulb,the flowers are never spectacular and never with green tips,so was extremely surprised when I purchased two in the green Comet last year and found they had huge flowers and with green tips .

[Alan_b]

As a general rule I believe there are many snowdrops that are not so distinctive that they can be unambiguously identified.  Even if you are somebody like Matt Bishop who sees details the rest of us miss, many snowdrops can vary in their appearance from one year to the next.  So if you have one that you cannot identify and you haven't kept a note of which snowdrops you bought in the past then I think it is frequently wrong to assign a name to a lost-label snowdrop.  The situation is worse if the snowdrop turns up in an unexpected locale because you will never know if it is a nameless seedling (possibly resembling the parent) or an accidental planting by a squirrel or just by chance circumstances.     

[Bailey]

I wouldn't dream of passing it off as something named without being absolutely sure it was.I hoped if it was recognisable as a cultivar it would solve the puzzle as to if it was a purchased bulb or a seedling.I may still have a record somewhere of what I bought and when.The only clues I have are that the two places it most likely came from are still operating.They did not appear to be selling in the green at the time.I recently found an old catalogue,dated 1997,it has a small section of snowdrops.It was most likely if I did purchase it, it would be around this time and possibly earlier.Not much to go on as prices vary but I remember buying Comet,and also Wendy's Gold around the same time, I probably saw an article in a gardening magazine,and it was probably around £20 at the time and anything else I ordered would have been less expensive .One fly in the whole supposition is that Wendy's Gold isn't in the mentioned catalogue. I eventually found last years picture, I thought it was strange that I didn't appear to have one.Its a better picture and it seems to suggest the marks are stable.People have varying tastes as to what makes a good snowdrop,I like it, it has huge flowers and worth saving.As to whether its worth naming and passing on,when there are probably already too many named snowdrops is debatable, and depends on whether you are an expert or a nurseryman, a fan or just an ordinary gardener.

[Alan_b]

I wouldn't dream of passing it off as something named without being absolutely sure it was.

I wasn't suggesting that you would.  However mistakes in cultivar identification do arise over time and I bet this is frequently due to lost labels.

I hoped if it was recognisable as a cultivar it would solve the puzzle as to if it was a purchased bulb or a seedling.

I don't think it would.  Snowdrop cultivars do not generally come true from seed but that does not mean that all seedlings are readily identifiable as different from the parent.

...As to whether its worth naming and passing on... is debatable

Any vigorous snowdrop with huge flowers has to be worth passing-on.  The shadow of doubt hanging over your snowdrop is that it seemingly has barely increased in two decades.

[Alan_b]

Another thought, Bailey.  You bought 'Comet' about 20 years ago.  'Comet' is an elwesii with huge flowers (when happy).  You now have an unidentified elwesii, origin unknown, location accidental, with huge flowers but differently marked to Comet.  The most probable explanation, to my mind, is that it has arisen as a seedling from Comet.

[Bailey]

When first  I bought named snowdrop cultivars,I was no where near as interested in them,as I am presently.I saw no real need for labels,apart from being able to test what grew against expectations,much as I do now.Mixing things up was much less likely,there was very little to choose from in the catalogues that offered snowdrops.I seem to recall they were expensive,it would be interesting to know the equivalent cost today.Here is what I thought for many years was Comet, now having just searched for pictures I am not so certain.The possibility of the other mystery flower being a seedling from this"Comet", hadn't really occurred to me.I cannot discount the possibility,but can not recall anything apart from some kind of  Nivalis in the immediate vicinity ever having seed pods with viable seeds,one of which produced,after only 3 years,the flowering bulb the picture in my first posting.I may have missed seeds being formed.but any seed would have to have been transported by some means quite a long distance.Most local gardens seem to be lacking in snowdrops and apart from one garden in the neighbourhood I have seen nothing except Nivalis types.

[Alan_b]

Part of my garden is adjacent to some uncultivated land.  In the last few years this has gained a population of winter aconites and at least one snowdrop.  Neither grow locally other than in my garden.  I haven't examined the snowdrop carefully but it looks to be one of the plicatus snowdrops that are the bulk snowdrop in my garden (beginning from 5 bulbs in 2003).  This snowdrop is 2-3 metres from the boundary so there no obvious mechanism by which it could get there but it did so just the same.

[Leena]

In my garden I believe ants transport snowdrop seeds and I can find seedlings quite a long way from mother plants.