Big Drops

[Tim Harberd]

It's a couple of years since I last asked the BIG question:

( http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=14967.0 )

But I thought I'd inquire whether anyone has anything to add?

Encouraged by the results from the 2016 season I invested in 'Fred's Giant' from a couple of sources... One of them has settled in, (the less said about the other the better) and is currently showing a petal length of 33mm on its best flower. SO: Either I've not got the right thing OR the original measure was an error!! Unless someone says otherwise, I feel inclined to remove 'Fred's Giant' from the list.



Meanwhile, the 'Glenorma' in the back of this shot has stretched to 47mm of pure petal.

Tim DH

[Maggi Young]

I love the shape on 'Glenorma' - and she is a big girl - not out yet here - but always super large flowers.

[Hannelore]

Since almost one year I'm looking for "Magdeburger Riese", but unfortunately it disappeared from the market. There is also some different information about this giant snowdrop reported: Michael Camphausen has it as G. plicatus in his catalogue (out of stock), Maria Mail-Brandt lists it as G. elwesii selection by Christian Kreß. One seller of snowdrops whom I asked for it warned me, that the labels are all wrong!
So I'm really irritated.

Does somebody have relyable information about that snowdrop which is reported to be the biggest ever?

BW
Hannelore

[Shauney]

Last February I found and posted pics of a very large nivalis flore pleno which measured 60mm across. I don't know what the record is for a double but it's got to be up their! Unfortunately it doesn't look like it is going to have a flower this year so I'll show the pics from last year.

[Mariette]

Since almost one year I'm looking for "Magdeburger Riese", but unfortunately it disappeared from the market. There is also some different information about this giant snowdrop reported: Michael Camphausen has it as G. plicatus in his catalogue (out of stock), Maria Mail-Brandt lists it as G. elwesii selection by Christian Kreß. One seller of snowdrops whom I asked for it warned me, that the labels are all wrong!
So I'm really irritated.

Does somebody have relyable information about that snowdrop which is reported to be the biggest ever?

BW
Hannelore

Erich Pohle distributed 30 years ago a G. elwesii called´Magdeburger Riese´which I´ve got. There are others circulating under this name, but typically they should be G. elwesii with stalks up to 50 cm at the end of the flowering season. Not the flowers are exceptionally big, but the leaves and stalks. Did You get any information from Christian Kreß about his source?

[Hannelore]

Erich Pohle distributed 30 years ago a G. elwesii called´Magdeburger Riese´which I´ve got. There are others circulating under this name, but typically they should be G. elwesii with stalks up to 50 cm at the end of the flowering season. Not the flowers are exceptionally big, but the leaves and stalks. Did You get any information from Christian Kreß about his source?

No, as I wrote above, my information on that comes from the "Schneeglöckchen-ABC" by Maria Mail-Brandt, as I understood also the owner of www.galanthomanie.de.
On p.81 of the book she writes:
"Galanthus 'Magdeburger Riese' - G. elwesii, großwüchsiger Frühblüher, dessen ausgewachsene Blätter auf genügend nährstoffreichem Boden sehr lang (ca. 60 cm) werden; die Blüten haben fasr 5 cm Durchmesser. Auslese von Kreß (s. Literatur)."
Translated:
"Galanthus 'Magdeburger Riese' - G. elwesii, big growing, early flowering, whose mature leaves become very long (about 60 cm) on enough nutrient-rich soil; the flowers have a diameter of almost 5 cm. Selection of Kreß (see literature)."

BW
Hannelore

[Mariette]

As far as the information about species and size of the plant is concerned, the data are correct. It´s unusual to mention the diameter of snowdrop-flowers. Outers of 2,5 cm would mean a diameter of 5 cm; a flower of this size is certainly not large for a snowdrop. You should ask Maria Mail-Brandt and Christian Kreß about the matter, otherwise one may assume that he simply sells a tall-growing G. elwesii under that name, wherever he got it from.

More than 30 years ago, a location was discovered where such tall G. elwesii grew. Several people collected them, one of them living in Magdeburg. Most likely it was him who distributed these under the name ´Magdeburger Riesen´ ( plural) - there were several different ones right from the start.

As to the G. plicatus offered by Michael Camphausen under this name - You have simply to ask him where it comes from and why it got that name. Maybe the Magdeburger collector named a tall G. plicatus, too? As far as I now, this is less likely.

[Hannelore]

In February I'll meet Michael Camphausen in Mannheim - I'll ask him.

BW
Hannelore

[Josh Nelson]

I love the shape on 'Glenorma' - and she is a big girl - not out yet here - but always super large flowers.

yes, a great, shapely and substantial snowdrop

[Leena]

'Big Boy' is another larger flowered (but short) G.elwesii. Picture is from last spring, and unfortunately I didn't measure the petals, but they were big.

[Tim Harberd]

Hi Hannelore,
   Thanks for raising the question about 'Magdeburger Reisen'... I tried to track down  'Magdeburg Giant' a few years ago.. Mariette's suggestion that this is a group of cultivars is helpful.
   I too read that the flower size may have been accidently inflated by the unusual way of measuring it.. (Interestingly Shauney demonstrates the 'diameter' measure above!)
   The only thing I can add is that  'Alanya Yayla' may be a named cultivar from this group.

Tim DH

[Mariette]

In fact ´Alanya Yayla´is one of these, another named by Hagen Engelmann is ´Wolfgang Kletzing´.

[Hannelore]

Hello Tim, hallo Mariette,

thanks for the information. I'll stay on the scent and report as soon as I know more.

BW
Hannelore

[Tim Harberd]

Hi There,
   My ‘Fred’s Giant’ finally got to a petal length of 41mm, and January was quite dry, so the cultivar might be able to manage a bit more.

   I’m blaming the dryness for Glenorma ‘only’ getting to 51mm.. Since no-one has posted about any other contenders I’m guessing that Glenorma is still the Largest of the Large.
        I decided to try getting a petal edge to edge measurement today…. about 39mm.

Tim DH