Galanthus January 2009

[Roma]

Paddy,

I'm sorry I did not make myself clear in my last post.  As you have read in the snowdrop book 'Fred's Giant was found in the Cruickshank Garden by Fred Sutherland.  There is a reference to the snowdrop being sent to Kew and Wisley inthe early seventies.  Fred's Giant was not named until after Fred retired which was in 1977 so the name would not have been in use before the late seventies or early eighties though it may have been passed on as Fred's giant snowdrop.  Any snowdrops distributed directly from the Garden after this time would be the form with the  X mark.  It got a P.C. when shown at the early bulb show in 1992.  I think it may have been shown earlier at an RHS by Lyn Bezzant.  It flowers very early in Aberdeen. All those varieties of Galanthus which are traded and coveted by galanthophiles now were virtually unknown in Aberdeen 30 years ago and probably not much known outside a close circle of people who knew each other.

After he retired Fred lived near Aberdeen but spent a lot of time at his daughter's house in Inverness, eventually moving there to stay.  Fred looked after the garden.  He collected and exchanged snowdrops with other people.  The snowdrop I posted is one I got from Fred which he found in a friend's garden near Inverness.  It is later flowering and is fertile.  The other snowdrop I mentioned has increased to two bulbs in 16 years!  I think he was joking when he referred to it as Fred's Giant mark 2 as it was a very large bulb and it produces huge leaves.  It was found at Culcabuck House and is not related to Fred's Giant 

I'm not sure how well Fred's daughter would have known the snowdrops.  If he did the gardening and had a number of large elwesii type snowdrops it would have been easy for her to be mistaken.
Hope this clears up some of your questions.

Roma   

[Paddy Tobin]

Perfectly clear, Roma.

Many thanks for the time you have taken to lay out the story of this snowdrop. Much appreciated. Paddy

[Alan_b]

Recently I had Paddy going off in search of an Irish snowdrop that proved to be a wild goose chase.  I thought I would just show this picture as supporting evidence that it was growing in the location where I saw it on 18th January 2004.  I got mine in 2002, when it must have been in flower around the New Year.  The photo is taken indoors.

[Alan_b]

Oh, and I found another picture of my last sighting in-situ (I have not visited since) on 31st December 2005.

[mark smyth]

Is it Ciceley Hall or maybe the Whopper?

[Alan_b]

Is it Ciceley Hall or maybe the Whopper?

It's not a whopper nor, to the best of my knowledge, any named variety.  Anyway, I have promised to give some to Paddy so maybe he can work it out.

[Paddy Tobin]

Alan, Many thanks for the additional photographs. From your photograph I think I have placed where I saw the snowdrop in the garden. It was a small clump, maybe 5 flowers open on Sunday last. I didn't ask for a bulb as I felt there were not enough there to ask for them to be split.

I did see an excellent clump of G. 'Drummond Giant', growing very well, great broad glaucous foliage and in the best of health. Unfortunately, I have found some bulbs of this snowdrop are being passed around when in poor health. One clump of this in my garden is showing only one miserable bulb this season while another clump was hit by fungus at the end of last season though this one seems to have recovered reasonably well now.

A few years ago I set about documenting Irish snowdrops with, peculiarly, great help from Chris Sanham -  peculiarly because there seemed to be nobody at this side of the Irish Sea with the knowledge or enthusiasm to do it. Some years back there were two enthusiasts at the National Botanic Gardens who had care of the woodland planting there and these two people did great work on Irish snowdrops but promotion and other work opportunities has moved them from this position and those who took over care of that area of the gardens seem not to be so well informed or interested. Since then I have found it both exciting and frustrating that research into snowdrops of Irish snowdrops has led to the discovery of more and more but these are often not significantly different and one regularly comes across snowdrops being named after, say, a garden where they were noticed but without any research being done on whether or not they were different in any way. The result is that there may noe be a  longer list of Irish snowdrop names but not necessarily of different Irish snowdrops. I'm sure the same comment could be applied to snowdrops elsewhere. I am beginning to feel that snowdrops have similar cross-breeding habits as aquilegias, promiscuous, and give rise to a huge range of variations. Whether all these variations should be named is worth considering. G. elwesii, for example, presents itself in many different guises, different markings, and I wonder if they should be simply all be called "G. elwesii" without any cultivar name being applied?

Obviously, I have time on my hands this morning to be waffling away.

Paddy

[Alan_b]

The big advantage of giving a snowdrop a name is that it helps posterity keep track of it.  On the other hand I think all but the most rabid galanthophile would agree that there are too many named snowdrops.  An idea I put forward a few weeks ago was a snowdrop score sheet, giving a snowdrop marks out of 10 in various categories including such things as vigour and hardiness.

[Jo]

giving a snowdrop marks out of 10

That sounds like a great idea, but a mighty big spread sheet if there really are 600 + types available