Galanthus July 2011

[Martin Baxendale]

Sorry, Sean, forgot to say that the largest bulb is 2cm across. So at least some should be flowering size.

[Martin Baxendale]

Nearly finished de-potting all the seedlings and chipped bulbs currently in the pipeline and my bedroom is pretty much overflowing with plastic bags full of bulbs airing out. Time soon to start re-potting and planting out 

John, I grow seedlings and chipped bulbils to flowering size in soil-based John Innes compost mixed with lots of fince pumice grit (1-3mm) and baked clay granules bought here as 'Moler' (1-3mm). I stop watering the minute leaves start to yellow and try to keep the pots out in direct sun as much as possible (while avoiding rain) to ensure they dry out fast (which means a lot of swapping trays between outdoors and under cover in Spring. That and the pumice and Moler help to ensure fast drying and pots which get very dry, which seems to be the secret to very healthy bulbs (that and growing a lot of new healthy seedlings). With some of the older cultivars even this treatment doesn't guarantee success in pots, as they can rot even when given this kind of treatment and even when watered with fungicide as well! Such older varieties are probably best in the open ground (although you have to have them in pots at first if chipping them of course).

Even with my extra-drained mix, I still sometimes find larger pots that retain moisture at the base, which can be annoying. Small pots are best (7cm square) as they dry out fastest when you stop watering. Roots will come out of the base, but if you liquid feed a lot they seem to do okay.

[Gerard Oud]

Sorry, Sean, forgot to say that the largest bulb is 2cm across. So at least some should be flowering size.

They look very promising Martin!

[Tony Willis]

I am confused by Martin's post on drying the bulbs which clearly works well for him.

Received advice is that it is not good to buy galanthus bulbs from the garden centre as they will fail because they have been dried,so if buying get them packed damp. Most survive outside in my wet climate and so must be wet all the dormant period.

 I grow my 'collection' in pots and try to keep most of them damp (apart from peshmenii, cilcicus and r-o) because of this advice.

Rot has been a bit of a problem in pots this year and I wonder what methods for pot grown bulbs others use?

[Martin Baxendale]

I am confused by Martin's post on drying the bulbs which clearly works well for him.

Received advice is that it is not good to buy galanthus bulbs from the garden centre as they will fail because they have been dried,so if buying get them packed damp. Most survive outside in my wet climate and so must be wet all the dormant period.

 I grow my 'collection' in pots and try to keep most of them damp (apart from peshmenii, cilcicus and r-o) because of this advice.

Rot has been a bit of a problem in pots this year and I wonder what methods for pot grown bulbs others use?

The snowdrops are fine in pots of tight-packed, hard, bone-dry compost as they would be in a dry situation in nature. What they don't like so much is being in very loose dry compost or being out of soil or compost in the open air for weeks and weeks to dessicate, which is what happens with many bulbs from big bulb merchants. Moist soil seems not to be such a problem in the open garden, where moisture can dissipate away into the mass of surrounding soil, but in a pot Summer moisture has nowhere to go.

[Tony Willis]

Martin,very helpful,thank you

[Martin Baxendale]

I imagine it's also to do with temperature. In the open ground moist soil will also tend to be cooler soil with less variation in temperatures, especially at depth. In pots, the compost temerature is prone to much more wide variation, so moist compost will tend to be warmer. I'd imagine warm moisture in pots (with probably less general aeration as well) would be much more conducive to rots and moulds than cooler moisture (and better general aeration) in the open garden (especially in the sort of summer-shaded spots that suit snowdrops.

[Martin Baxendale]

To confound another common saying about snowdrops, I also keep my dry bulbs in plastic bags for a while in summer prior to repotting. If kept moist for long periods in plastic bags they tend to rot (as would pretty much anything) probably for the same reason - a combination of moisture and warmth. But if the bulbs are bone-dry from being in very dry compost and are then de-potted and put in plastic bags bone dry, they're fine for quite long periods (but best to keep checking just in case and dusting with flowers of sulphur if mould appears). I then have them in bags ready and convenient for planting out or repotting. Given the hundreds of pots I deal with each year, this is better than tipping out of old pots as I go along.

[annew]

I'm also in the process of depotting etc and all the bulbs from pots in the glasshouses which have been allowed to dry out for the last month or so are beautifully clean and healthy. Those from frames outside, especially those which were in clays plunged in a sand frame without covers suffered badly in the winter. Many have lost the outer layers of the bulb which have turned to mush, although there is healthy tissue beneath. Bulbs in pond baskets in the same frame did rather better. I have yet to investigate those that were in baskets plunged in a raised soil bed. I will make sure to provide all my frames with covers this winter. If I get around to it...

[Lesley Cox]

I've often wondered about the practice of planting Galanthus "in the green" because it's an opportunity that we in NZ and probably Australia, simply don't have, except as potted, growing/flowering bulbs from the occasional salestable or similar, and it applies to Narcissus, Crocus and most small bulbs in fact. Our sources of anything much unusual or different are these little sales, of bulbs potted and in flower. They can then be planted "in the green" I suppose. But most of us plant out our bulbs in the garden and because of the vagaries of our island weather systems, the long, hot resting period that many bulbs have in nature just don't happen here. So my Galanthus, Narcissus, Crocus, frits or whatever, have summer rain, sometimes real downpours, and much cool damp weather when in theory they are resting. As well, we water our rock gardens and raised beds where these bulbs live because they're planted among other, herbaceous plants which need moisture in the dryest times. The bulbs are perhaps never truly dried off under these conditions. Yet I don't believe we have problems with rotting. My patches of various Iris reticulata vars are going from strength to strength and yet were continually watered through last summer as I had planted many small alpines that needed water to establish. So probably it all boils down to good drainage. If the resting bulbs are not sitting in water, they can take plenty moisture while resting.  

When I do grow something in a pot on a long term basis, I go to repot mid summer, and find the darned thing has roots 5 cms long so it would have been better in the garden anyway, even though this pot may have been kept quite dry.

[Anthony Darby]

Selling snowdrops in the green is a lazy man's way of having his cake and eating it. The bulbs can be identified as they are in flower and sold once the seller has had the enjoyment of them. The poor purchaser then has to wait a year and if they are wrong, or fail to grow, the seller is in the clear as you will have just put it down to experience, or lack thereof. Buying plants flowering in pots is different as they can be planted without disturbance. In fairness, I have purchased bulbs on Ebay in the green and they have always been fine, but you lose a growing season.

I am curious to see what snowdrops will grow well in Auckland. The garden centres have none and when I ask they seem to have little clue as to what I'm talking about. Leucojum aestivum planted in grass under some trees in a local park has been out for a couple of weeks and some of the Agapanthus spp. are already in bud, with the odd flower out!

[Lesley Cox]

My sister growes G. nivalis in Tauranga, but I don't think they flower very well for her. She is in the warmer, closer to the sea part of the city than Bill, who I think lives a bit out into the countryside, a little cooler and maybe under the hill. Not sure where he is though.

[Anthony Darby]

Is that the sister with the Peter Scott paintings?

[Lesley Cox]

Yes. I only have one (sister).