Desperately seeking Lady Moore

[Paddy Tobin]

I am seeking a bulb/bulbs of a snowdrop called 'Lady Moore'  or information of the origins of snowdrops being circulated under this name.

Lady Moore was the wife of Sir Frederick Moore, a former Director of the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin. Lady Moore did have a snowdrop of which she was particularly proud. Lady Moore gave some bulbs to the mother of a lady of my acquaintance, Miss Rita Rutherfoord (only very recently deceased, R.I.P.) Miss Rutherfoord was with her mother on the occasion of her receiving these bulbs, around 1940, and when she left her mother's home she brought some of the snowdrops with her and kept them going to this day. She very generously gave me some of these bulbs only a fortnight before her death, indeed some might say very surprisingly as she was always very reluctant to part with them even to family members. I had corresponded with her since last year regarding these bulbs and have her detailed account of their history and I think that after many years of keeping them so carefully she was happy that there was someone with an interest in them who would continue to mind them and keep their history and significance alive.

I would like to find out if the snowdrop being circulated under the name 'Lady Moore' is the same as that given by Lady Moore to Rita Rutherfoord and also, if possible, to trace to origins of the bulbs being circulated under this name.

Any help, information, bulbs, contacts, possible leads etc would be most gratefully received.

Also, if anyone has a spare bulb of G. 'Lady Moore' I would be delighted to swap  some of the bulbs I have from Miss Rutherfoord.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

We've been having some bother with our internet connection in the last few days (a problem with BT network rather than our equipment, it seems) so when I was working my way through all the posts made during our enforced absence, I was a little concerned to see the title of this thread.... dear me, I thought, another lonely soul looking for love in the arms of an aristocrat.....they're on a hiding to nothing here.........but no, what a relief, 'tis Paddy on the trail of an Irish snowdrop....a perfectly respectable quest and, I hope, one destined to have a better outcome than the one I originally envisioned

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

I was wondering when someone who twig the thread heading as it was displayed: "Desperately seeking Lady". We must be the only two with the peculiar way of looking at things that spotted this side of the title.

Well, what's your answer?

Paddy

[David Nicholson]

Maggi,

I was wondering when someone who twig the thread heading as it was displayed: "Desperately seeking Lady". We must be the only two with the peculiar way of looking at things that spotted this side of the title.

Well, what's your answer?

Paddy

Me being very polite, I was taught not to comment on people's predilections!

[mark smyth]

I noticed but resisited commenting but as others have come forward I can let you have my cousin Susan

[Paddy Tobin]

Oh, you are a hard-hearted lot. Here I am, lonely, depressed, broken-hearted, desperately seeking a companionable female and all you can do is poke fun at me. A cruel lot - you are even gathering from the southern hemisphere to mock at my predicament. Life is cruel.

Mark, as I don't know your cousin, Susan, I am not in a position to make any judgement on her but it seems to me that she is not a titled lady and as you see I have set my sights quite high! I hope she won't be too disappointed.

Seriously, though, does anybody know anything of this snowdrop?

Since posting I have been told that there certainly seems to be two snowdrops under this name and I would like to clear up the confusion.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Some "offline" information coming through on this snowdrop. These offline messages are to be expected as people do not wish to disclose information about people who hold the snowdrops so as not to put them in the way of nuisance contacts.

Anybody with further information can send it on offline if wished and the information will be most welcome and treated in the strictest confidence.

My interest in the snowdrop, as well as being a personal interest, is also part of the work of the Irish Garden Plant Society of which I am a member and within this society have taken on the research of snowdrops with an Irish connection with the intention of establishing a reference collection in a state owned garden. This latter work is going well and Altamont Gardens in Co. Carlow now has a significant number of these Irish snowdrops. Other state gardens are also interested and it will come to pass that several gardens will hold similar collections. It is a case of safety in numbers - the more gardens which hold material for this collection the less chance of the snowdrops being lost. Should they be hit by virus in one garden they may survive in another. The fortunate ones then provide replacement material for the garden which lost them etc.

Such an approach is especially appropriate for this particular snowdrop as Lady Moore was known to say, "The best way to keep a plant is to give it away."

She also had a very nice way of requesting a nice plant when visiting a garden. If shown a plant of interest, she would enquire, "Does it have any little brothers, by any chance?"


Paddy