Galanthus April 2022

[Villu]

Snowdrop season in the UK and Central Europe is long gone and forgotten. Northern countries are still struggling with snow and cold temperatures. There has been fresh snow twice in my garden this month, which luckily melted quite quickly. But I know that most of Finland is still covered with snow. Cold nights with freezing temperatures haven't been kind to blooms either. So many once again were ruined. More so in open places, so microclimate also matters. Some of the best blooms at the moment:


Galanthus elwesii 'Rosemary Burnham'


Galanthus nivalis 'Virescens'


Galanthus elwesii 'Pat Mason', my all-time favourite


Galanthus elwesii 'Godfrey Owen'


Galanthus plicatus 'Wendy's Gold'

Hope to hear from Leena soon!

[Leena]

Hi Villu  , as you wrote there is still snow here, but last week it has started to melt, finally!   It is interesting what you wrote about microclimates, and you must be right. My snowdrops grow mostly in part shade (summer in shade). Your snowdrops are such good clumps, and wonderful pictures! Even 'Godfrey Owen' is growing so well in your garden. Here it is not so good, and not flowering at all this spring. I planted last summer another bulb of it to a different bed, more moist, to see if it would like better in another location.
This spring has been a struggle for me, mentally.
The earliest place where I had snowdrops coming up already in late March, before new snow and cold, is now flowering well, but unfortunately I have planted most of my snowdrops elsewhere (this early spot is very dry in summer, so G.plicatus types which are my favourites don't like it).

'Lerinda' and 'Bess' are hardy and sure plants for me, and I don't know if I would tell them apart, except 'Bess' is clearly earlier and showed its noses already in late November while 'Lerinda' has never been up before winter. In more south the difference must be more pronounced.

Villu, your 'Rosemary Burnham' is looking so good! I had trouble with it in the beginning, and I thought maybe I have to move it and try someplace else, but now it has started to grow better. Here it is coming up yesterday.

'Viridapice' has been a good snowdrop for me. Usually it's green tips show better, but this year for some reason they are very faint.
The last picture is 'Mrs Mcnamara' coming up from icy ground. I already thought I had lost it, but snowdrops in that bed are just very very late.

[Tim Harberd]

This year I'm using Organza Bags to protect the most precious seed pods. They are cheap enough on Ebay.

Tim DH

[Leena]

I have used the same kinds. What is the second seed pod? It is very long.

Some more pictures from yesterday.
'Greenish', then 'Green Light' which never shows green spots in petals here or only faintly. I think this is a climate thing.
'Rosemary Burnham'
'Ray Cobb'
'S.Arnott' came through snow.

[Tim Harberd]

Hi Leena,
        The long pod is on my favourite sandersii. ... Here is hoping........

        Last year I thinned out one of my dense clumps and refreshed the soil in that bed. I must have missed this bulb. Look at the effort it went to to reach the light! 90cm from basal plate to leaf tip!!

Tim DH

[Leena]

Some more snowdrops flowers. The area where I have my most choice snowdrops has still frozen ground, and I fear that there will be damage to them.
But here are some from other beds.
'Falkland House'
'Lord Lieutenant'
'Viridapice'

[Villu]

Hi Leena! Good to see your snowdrops and season progressing. I agree that this year the green marks on snowdrops are rather faint, if not yellow. And I have noticed also that green snowdrops are not so green here as in warmer climates. I still have to try out the greenest varieties but my hopes are not very high.

I think your 'Rosemary Burnham' looks very lovely now, especially with that little solitary bee in the picture! I hope your main bed will melt and provide a lot of pleasure after some concern.

[Villu]

Snowdrop season in Estonia is pretty much over for this Spring. Only 'E.A. Bowles', 'Cicely Hall' and G. platyphyllus are decently in flower.  I must praise 'E.A Bowles' for being the longest blooming snowdrop in my garden. It starts blooming in mid-season but is always the last one in flower.

Maybe G. platyphyllus will last longer as it emerged just a week ago from soil and flowers are not fully developed yet.

If anything last till May, I will report!


Galanthus plicatus 'E.A Bowles'


Galanthus plicatus 'E.A Bowles'


I received two little bulbs of 'E.A. Bowles' back in summer 2015. Now they both have formed nice clumps. No matter for being the same cultivar, one is always taller than the other.


Galanthus platyphyllus


Galanthus 'Cicely Hall'

[Leena]

Villu, your 'E.A.Bowles' has increased so well! Mine is much slower, and only now just coming up, but I love it.
'Cicely Hall' is one of the latest ones here, and there is no sign of it yet.

Some pictures from past days.
'Rosemary Burnham' is soon over, and now there is hardly any green in the outers.
'Diggory' always does well.
'Lord Lieutenant' one of my favourites, I love how it carries the flowers well above leaves.
'Moreton Mill', again one of my favourites though it isn't increasing as fast as I hope.
'Starffan' and 'Ruby Giant'

[Leena]

'Mighty Atom'
'Peardrop'. Notice how some of the bulbs have developed well and are in full flower while some of the same are only coming up. This is very typical this year. I wonder if they have had some rooting problem because of early and cold winter?
'Ailwyn' has the same problem and also the snowdrop in the last picture. It is a seedling of 'E.A.Bowles' and was tall and early last year when it flowered the first time.
Maybe these develop more when the flowering continues.

[Gail]

Lovely pictures of your snowdrops.

I got back yesterday from a Greentours trip to the Greek Rhodope - a small group of six of us including leader Oron Peri. I'd gone hoping to see Paeonia saurei/peregrina. Although we did see the plants, as it was a late spring disappointedly they were not yet flowering. There were of course many compensations, including wild cats, beech marten, thousands of crocus/pulsatilla etc - I'll post some pictures elsewhere.
On Saturday as we were driving I was doing my usual hopeful scanning for peony flowers or at least a bear, when I was surprised to see a snowdrop above us. I shouted "Snowdrop!"
Oron replied, "Galanthus don't grow on this mountain. Did you see a white flower?" but kindly reversed to see what I'd seen. Of course I was then questioning myself, but lo and behold we actually had found a whole colony of white flowers...

[Maggi Young]

Crumbs! Well spotted, Gail!!

[Gail]

They had the upright twisted leaves of G. gracilis but apparently these are Galanthus elwesii (syn G. graecus)?



Quite variable in markings;




We found a nice yellow which would probably give G. gracilis  ‘Ronald Mackenzie’ a run for his money, except that we think that it was probably only yellow as it had emerged through a molehill. Oron was laughing about posting a picture on facebook to drive the galanthophiles wild!

[Gail]

Lovely to see something so unexpected - we found Galanthus leaves at a couple of other sites but they were well past flowering so it was a real treat to find Greek Galanthus in April!




Oron photographing white flowers.

[Leena]

Thank you Gail for showing these pictures. It must have been fantastic to find them in nature, especially from a place where there wasn't supposed to be snowdrops.
Also here many normally green snowdrops are yellow when coming through snow, or because of very cold nights.