Galanthus

Well if they have that kind of money  :o to throw around and it makes 'em happy,

then I say: more power to 'em!  ;D  (and money well spent!)

Congratulations, Ian!

I would have bid but as there was only one for sale and I prefer several in a pot I did not bother.

I hope who ever bought it (my view is if you have the money and want to spend it on that then it is their choice) lets people see  and enjoy it and does not sit and gloat over it in solitary splendor.

The money has gone to a good cause and well done Ian.

A few slightly less valuable snowdrops to bring us down to earth! After the snow and freezing weather it is remarkable how quickly the flowers perk up again, and some of these (in pots) are destined for our local snowdrop event on Sunday. Larger groups in the garden are looking glorious now.

As I thought
The snowdrop is bought by a large company (Thompson & Morgan)
they will try to put it on tissue
and make a million with it probably

Roland

A few Snowdrops flowering here now:

Galanthus 'Magnet'
Galanthus 'Straffan'
Galanthus 'Barbara's double'
Galanthus nivalis 'Maximus'
Galanthus nivalis 'Melanie S.'
Galanthus nivalis 'Flore pleno'
Galanthus plicatus 'Augustus'
Galanthus 'White Cloud'
Galanthus x valentinei

Couldn't resist putting this on - a display of snowdrops and a snowdrop cake we made to share with the owner of the garden we were sharing. This picture has been viewed 127 times (!) on the SRGC forum and the event was only four days ago! Snowdrops are all the rage here, and it seems cakes even more!!

Tim, what do all the pictures of drumstick alliums do there? Please the Onion man??

Nice to see all the snowdrops! When I left home about 2 weeks ago all my snowdrops were snowcovered and when I had 1 day at home last Saturday the snow had gone but I hadn't time to take a proper look :(
However I noticed quite a few snowdrops in Norfolk gardens though ;)

Now I am very much looking forward to take a stroll in my garden! I have a lot of snowdrops but don't have the names  - and my camera is damaged too :-\

PS. I would love to have a yellow one but I can't compete with T & M :o :o :o
Anyone having some cheaper ones for sale?

Galanthus plicatus Wendy's Gold is a good one
personnel I find it better as Galanthus woronowii Elizabeth Harrison

see: Wendy's Gold

Roland

Trond - I hadn't thought about that; I hope the alliums do please Mark! No, they are actually small cards to advertise our Kent Hardy Plant Society group which organised the event. The reverse has details of the group's activities.

Tim wrote:

Trond - I hadn't thought about that; I hope the alliums do please Mark! No, they are actually small cards to advertise our Kent Hardy Plant Society group which organised the event. The reverse has details of the group's activities.

They had decorated a very nice table anyway  ;)

bulborum wrote:

Galanthus plicatus Wendy's Gold is a good one
personnel I find it better as Galanthus woronowii Elizabeth Harrison

Roland

Wendy's Gold looks very good! Must try to acquire some of those - hope they're not too expensive :-\

Last year I payee £15 / £20 for it (I bought from different suppliers)
Mail me this summer
and I have a look for babies
the plants look good

Roland

bulborum wrote:

Last year I payee £15 / £20 for it (I bought from different suppliers)
Mail me this summer
and I have a look for babies
the plants look good

Roland

Hope you get many babies! Thank you, Roland!

Very fun.  I love me some 'drops.

Truly, I've got about 20 cultivars now.  I have no hopes of keeping up with friend Hitch Lyman.  His collection is delightful and stunning - the sheer number of cultivars!  I am blessed to have him close. As Grishaw said, he has nearly single handedly introduced America to the better selections.

Wendy's Gold is terrific.  I think I've fallen for Mrs. Thompson.  And there's nothing like a fat Walrus, tusking around the garden.

Michael
Interlaken, NY Zone 6

bulborum wrote:

Galanthus plicatus Wendy's Gold is a good one
personnel I find it better as Galanthus woronowii Elizabeth Harrison

see: Wendy's Gold

Roland

I agree with Roland.
'Wendy's Gold' is a very good yellow form, it grows fairly quickly.. G.woronowii's "advantage" is its broad and bright green glossy foliage, but I like the glaucous foliage of Wendy, with its median line.

I think, Hoy, that Wendy is the cheapest of the yellow, here, it's about 20 euros.

I love it with Eranthis or yellow and green Hellebores.

Michael, I have only about 10-15 different forms but I don't know the names :o
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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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

Lina.

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

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.

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

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.

Cohen

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

Roland

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 :)

A few pictures from today.

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

Lina.

A number of Galanthus are out --sorry  :-[ i admit i haven't a clue to their names ...too many have been split and moved around the garden ......

Cheers Dave.

The last one looks as a G. elwesii
can you post a picture from the leaves

Roland

bulborum wrote:

The last one looks as a G. elwesii
can you post a picture from the leaves

Roland

Thanks Roland --i'm having difficulty locating that specific plant in the garden    :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ;D ;D

Cheers Dave.

Almost sure Galanthus elwesii var. elwesii
the leaves are just to confirm my thoughts

Roland

Hi, hopefully this is a good place to post a question on snowdrops... if not please let me know.
I planted a few potfulls of galanthus elwesii (or so I'm told) a little over a week ago.  They were clearance bulbs and most showed about 1/2 inch of sprouting and a few nubbins of roots.  I have them in a cool spot and thought they would take some time to root, but it looks like the top growth is continuing.  Any suggestions for slowing the top growth down so the roots can establish a little bit first?  Or am I over reacting and they'll be fine, and they're just happy to finally be planted?

The temperature must be over 7ºC
otherwise they don't make roots and aren't hardy
what soil do you use

Roland

We are having a mild autumn so the temperatures are well above 7^oC, probably around 15, but that's mostly a guess.  I used a comercial potting soil that seems peat free and mostly ground bark?  After seeing your response I went and dug up one of the sprouting bulbs.  From the tip of the bulb to the sprout tip is now about 10cm, which was even more than I thought (they were planted deeper than I remembered), but to my surprise the roots had also grown to about that same length (10cm).  I didn't think they could have grown this quickly. 
Should I keep them cooler (above freezing) and try and stall the growth, or should I give them more light and see what happens?  I thought they would need more of a cold period before jumping into growth. 
Sorry, but I'm afraid my efforts are much less professional than most of the postings on this board! :-[

Don't worry- many of us are far from professional, though we do have some members with real expertise in some areas! There is always lots to learn about plants and gardening :)

Hi F

Honestly I don't like using potting mixtures for most of my bulbs
best are loam based ones
I mix sand , grit , perlite , clay , and lava stones < 1cm in my potting mixture
I would replant them in a mixture like that with max 30% potting-mixture in it

second part is that snowdrops (and many other bulbs) aren't very hardy in pots
so don't let the temperature drop under -5 to -7ºC
otherwise they probably die
but keep the pot as cold and light as possible

Roland

Thanks for the help and the encouragement.  I will start bringing the pots in and out as weather permits to give them some light and cooler temperatures.  Once hard frosts hit I have some cold windowsills and flourescent lights for them. I suppose I could still plant them outside, but where's the fun in that?

I will work on my soil mix for future plantings.  My past failures in bulb growing have probably had alot to do with too much moisture in the soil.  I just assumed that since they normally grow in similar soils and freeze solid in the garden that a pot would be no different.... I now know better (well at least a little better)

FBitt wrote:

Thanks for the help and the encouragement.  I will start bringing the pots in and out as weather permits to give them some light and cooler temperatures.  Once hard frosts hit I have some cold windowsills and flourescent lights for them. I suppose I could still plant them outside, but where's the fun in that?

I will work on my soil mix for future plantings.  My past failures in bulb growing have probably had alot to do with too much moisture in the soil.  I just assumed that since they normally grow in similar soils and freeze solid in the garden that a pot would be no different.... I now know better (well at least a little better)

For whatever reasons, hardiness in the ground and hardiness in exposed pots are two completely different things-at least here, prob much colder than where you are- anything-even most natives- that will be left outside in a pot over winter is sunk into the soil, and then they are fine. Sitting on the surface is a much less certain prospect..

cohan wrote:

For whatever reasons, hardiness in the ground and hardiness in exposed pots are two completely different things-at least here, prob much colder than where you are- anything-even most natives- that will be left outside in a pot over winter is sunk into the soil, and then they are fine. Sitting on the surface is a much less certain prospect..

Not sure Cohan

I think it has to do with the "fastness" (is this English ?) the temperature changes in a pot
this changes much faster as in the soil

Roland

Yes, I'd guess it could be the more rapid freezing, or more rapid fluctuations between  colder and warmer... I think the best might be to say 'speed' or 'rate' of temperature change..
Oddly, we use fastness in a very different context, it would apply to one of the following uses of the word fast:
8. Resistant, as to destruction or fading: fast colors.
9. Firmly fixed or fastened: a fast grip.
10. Fixed firmly in place; secure: shutters that are fast against the rain.
11. Firm in loyalty: fast friends.
12. Lasting; permanent: fast rules and regulations.
(from this page: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fast) So, for example, we might talk about the colour fastness-i.e. whether a dye, pigment, ink etc will last in clothing, prints etc..
They also mention fastness as you have used it, for 'swiftness/rapidity' ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fastness )but one citation mentions that it is archaic, and certainly not much used in Canada, at least, though anyone would likely know what you meant :)

To avoid the freezing-in-a-pot problem I plant all my bulbs in the ground ;)

I don't permanently grow many outdoor plants in pots, but I usually have a bunch (less this year after I built some new gardens!) of pots of seedlings etc that are still in pots awaiting permanent planting at the end of the year!

I grow all my bulb collection in clay pots (1000+ pots) including over 100 pots of galanthus with the pots plunged in sand in either greenhouses or frames which are not heated. My lowest temperature was two years ago -9c.

I would love to grow them in the garden but that is waterlogged all winter and sodden most of the summer. Great for lots of plants but apart from Fritillaria meleagris not bulbs.

Tony,
My place is great for Fritillaria meleagris too but I can grow several species of Galanthus also. Is your climate wetter than mine?

I made in Normandy (very wet in the winter)
20 cm high raised beds
it works fantastic

If you want I can post some pictures how easy they are to make

Roland

Roland, it is always good to see the technical details of other people's garden solutions!

Tomorrow I fly home from Sardinia
I will try to post before the weekend
sure I have no more drowned bulbs sins 11 years

Roland

Hoy wrote:

Tony,
My place is great for Fritillaria meleagris too but I can grow several species of Galanthus also. Is your climate wetter than mine?

Hoy  I do have some common galanthus planted in my front garden which is better drained. As to rain this year it rained every day from 30th March until now apart from six days.It was the same last year as well with weeks without sunshine. At the moment I am busy raising my sand plunge frames of the ground in an attempt to keep them drier.

Tony, seems you garden a wetter place than I do after all, although this summer has been one of the wetter :-\

Here how I made my raised beds

never sins then with wet soil
here I did it with potting mixture
on an other place I did it with soil
with the same result

Roland