Galanthus

[Hoy]

Michael, I have only about 10-15 different forms but I don't know the names
I plant as many different types I can without buying too expensive ones and let them go as they please. I like my Galanthus population to be variable and hope for some nice seedlings to occur - but not for selling at eBay

Geoffrey,  a nice look!

[Lina Hesseling]

Geoffrey, what a very nice combination! Thank you for showing us.
In my collection I have a few yellow snowdrops, but they are only one or two bulbs. I would love to see them in groups, like you have.

Lina.

[Geo F-W]

Actually Lina, my friend M. Brown, who discovered / breeded 'Angélique', 'Gloria', 'Ecusson d'or, 'Flocon de Neige' etc., gave me a lot of Wendy. You know, he has the largest collection in France with over 400 selections, at Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, in Normandy, not very far from me.

And then, by dint of divisions, good nutrition and a little time...

Otherwise you can try twin scaling, I have tried here with the most common Galanthus, I got good results. But I must admit that the method is not very...glamorous ...^ ^

What kind of yellow in your collection? 'Primrose Warburg'? Sandersi group? Don't you think that 'Wendy's Gold' is more vigorous?

I am not a true collector of Galanthus, I try to collect selections quite remarkable, I didn't need to have 25 "green tipped" selections etc.. ('Green Tear' is very pretty, but when you look the madness that prices of some selections reached, it makes me breath away, even though I know that with some genus, like Clivia, prices go even higher!)
In some woods of Normandy, Mark took me to places where thousands of differents green Tipped Galanthus grew, then some poculiforms too. It was amazing. It's a Norman's form of Galanthus.

I love the selections as 'Mighty Atom', 'John Gray', 'Gerard Parker', 'Bertram Anderson' or chubby 'Diggory', or 'Wasp', 'Godfrey Owen' or some double as 'Richard Ayres'

I learn a lot about Galanthus with Mark, and not only on Galanthus moreover, he is a well of science.

[cohan]

All very pretty and elegant spring flowers! Some nice variations in the forms of the flowers;
 I planted a few in the fall, they are under a mound of about 2-4 feet of snow right now....

So 'yellow' in Galanthus  refers to the bit above the white petals?

[Geo F-W]

Cohan, "yellow" refers to the color of the ovary and yellow marks on the inner sepals (which are usually green).

Some, like 'Ecusson d'Or' ( http://www.gardensillustrated.com/sites/default/files/snowdrop2thumb(1).jpg )also have yellow markings on the outer sepals and others, like 'Blonde Inge' (http://www.snowdropinfo.com/galanthus%20nivalis%20blonde%20inge.html), have green ovary and yellow marks on the inner sepals.

[Lina Hesseling]

In my collection I have G. 'Sandersii Group', G. 'Wendy's Gold' and a finding by a friend which he called
G. 'Blonde Betty'. I was never very fond of the yellows. But since I saw your combination with the yellow Helleborus I like them better.

Mark Brown's collection I have heard of. Two weeks ago I talked to Gert Jan van der Kolk, the breeder of G. 'Greentear', and he spoke very highly of Mark. They helped eachother a lot with there collections.

At the moment I am very fond of the greenish ones. Hagen Engelman showes them on his website, www.gartenindenwiesen.de

Did you visit the snowdropevent in Nettetal? It is a great place to see and also to buy snowdrops. Like you, I don't buy the very expensive snowdrops. I have a girlfriend, who has a garden open to the public, with whom I visit the events, gardens and talks. We always buy diffrent snowdrops and after 1 or 2 years we swap. Our collection is growing faster and we always can have a new one when we have lost one.
You can have a look at her garden: www.tuinfleur.nl

Lina.

[cohan]

Thanks, Geoffrey; I also notice some seem to be more 'open' and some more closed-- is this just the maturity of the flowers, or a part of varietal differences?

[Lina Hesseling]

Today we had very nice sunny weather. It was the ideal day to visit a snowdropgarden in the northern part of Holland.

Lina.

[cohan]

What a delightful place for a stroll! Do you know what is under the trees in summer? Grass?

[Lina Hesseling]

Cohan, in a few weeks it will be partly blue. Lots of bluebells. Later it is just gras. In the front garden is also Erantis and wild tulips. But the tulips don't flower well and show only leaves.
It was a great place to visit. Specially because in my region we do not have many places like that.

Lina.

[cohan]

It wold be nice in blue too! How far is this from your home? Nothing like this at all in my region.. not sure where I'd have to travel to see it in person- maybe someone has such a garden on the west coast? (Already far from here) if not, then maybe eastern North America or Europe...lol

[Lina Hesseling]

It is about 50 km from my town. The people who live in the house, bought the place 40 years ago. The snowdrops were there already. It is an historical house and we were invited to come back to see the rooms in the house, including a talk about the history. We are planning to do this in oktober.

Lina.

[bulborum]

Cohen

you have the beautiful lilies in the summer near the road
and also in the forest

Roland

[cohan]

Lina-- that's nice, quite close!

Roland, you are right, many beautiful wild flowers here We just have nothing in the broad sweeps of flowers like these flowering spring woods! But I have been thinking about extending some of the natural patches of Maianthemum, Cornus etc for my own flowering woods

[Lina Hesseling]

A few pictures from today.

G. 'Desdemona'
G. 'Washfield Warham'
G'. 'John Long'

Lina.