Galanthus species in the garden

[kentish_lass]

I am keen to grow as many species snowdrops as I can but am wondering which ones are hardy in the garden.

I am not having much luck with reginae-olgae either in the ground or in a pot in the greenhouse.  I bought peshmenii 3 years ago and planted it in the garden and obviously lost it (never knew better back then).

At present I grow in the ground:

woronowii
elwesii
alpinus bortkewitschianus
gracilis - several forms
plicatus
lagodechianus
rizehensis

I have corcyrensis in a pot - is this actually reginae olgae subs. reginae olgae?  Will it be ok if I put the lattice pot in the ground?

I would like to try transcaucasicus and fosteri but wondered if these need special requirements?  Are they hardy in the garden?

Also what other species will grow in a garden situation?

many thanks

[kentish_lass]

Also every ikariae I have bought turned out to be woronowii.  Will get one from a reliable source next time 

[Jo]

Hi Jennie,  I bet you grow nivalis 

I grow reginae-olgae in a raised bed in the garden and ikariae also in the garden, I think I've posted a pic of ikariae before but here it is again. 

[Alan_b]

I've grown reginae-olgae (autumn-flowering) in my garden for well over a decade.  It appears to like a warmer spot than most snowdrops in order to do well and my whole garden tends to be dry.  I've had small clumps completely disappear between one year and the next but snowdrops in my garden do tend to do that unless they are very vigorous.  It also seems to run out of steam and go into a decline after a few years in the same location.  Slugs and snails can be a problem because they are still active when it comes into bud and they eat the buds as they emerge.  But I started with only four bulbs and I'm still winning.

So basically, warm spot, not too wet, slug pellets or grit and you should be fine.       

[Oakwood]

I'm growing all known species mainly in the ground for now, so I could put here my galanthus hardiness list for 5th zone (SE Ukraine) with some notes

Fully hardy in the ground, leafless overwintering
nivalis
plicatus
graecus - suffering from snow mold in warm winter
gracilis
alpinus var. alpinus & var. bortkewitschianus
angustifolius
krasnovii
platyphyllus
panjutinii
koenenianus
trojanus (to note - mid-winter leaf regrowth)
transcaucasicus

hardy in the ground, but it could be seriously injured if in leaves when frosted below -15C and without snow
woronowii
lagodechianus
elwesii var. elwesii & var. monostictus

overwinter always with fully developed leaves, so grown in cold tunnel under cover
cilicicus
reginae-olgae ssp. reginae-olgae
ikariae
peshmenii

yet to be tested as grown only 1-3 years at me in the ground, but more-less successfully
reginae-olgae ssp. vernalis
fosteri
rizehensis
x allenii

[johnw]

Dimitri  - I am very happy to have your hardiness list.

I am very surpised to see trojanus in part 1.

A bit surprised at your list in part two - do you mean theyse oines are fully hardy but not if they leaf out and then the temperature goes to -15c and kills the leaves or that such a low will kill the bulb?

johnw    - a beastly cold day with an appreciated 10cm of snow in the nick of time.  -10c

[Oakwood]

Dimitri  - I am very happy to have your hardiness list.

I am very surpised to see trojanus in part 1.

A bit surprised at your list in part two - do you mean theyse oines are fully hardy but not if they leaf out and then the temperature goes to -15c and kills the leaves or that such a low will kill the bulb?

johnw    - a beastly cold day with an appreciated 10cm of snow in the nick of time.  -10c

John, yes, I put my trojanus in fully hardy, but I suppose if it push the leaves during snowless frost period of January-February at me, it could suffer.

yes, it means they would be fully hardy in snowy winter, but it occurs from time to time they push leaves from December-January and if it is severely frosty in this period, they could be even completely died as it was the case with my simple G. woronowii that I lost in winter 2006.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Thank you Dimitri for your list. So I will also try to plant some more species outside.

[Susan Owl]

hardy in the ground, but it could be seriously injured if in leaves when frosted below -15C and without snow
woronowii
lagodechianus
elwesii var. elwesii & var. monostictus

This is what happened last year in my garden with G. woronowii and G. elwesii. We had frost til - 23 C without any snow after a warm period.

[Brian Ellis]

Dimitri I think you have taught us all not to be so cautious with our snowdrops.  Perhaps with a back up under glass we could put a lot more snowdrops in the ground.

[Tim Ingram]

We rarely drop below -10 to -15°C so I think most species should be hardy, but some don't seem to grow as well as others! I have had several forms of reginae-olgae; one spreads wonderfully and self-seeds whereas several others have never really got going and I suspect soil pests like swift moth caterpillars. G. 'corcyrensis' we have had for years but it hardly increases. G. peshmenii I had only seen as a show plant in a pot, but have tried outside on a raised alpine bed and it is still there but not really increasing - good drainage is probably the key with many of these.

I have the true ikariae (from Kath Dryden) and this does well, self-seeding gently, and I've also seen it in Elizabeth Cairns garden near Maidstone (which is opening for the NGS this year) but a much stronger form. G. woronowii is a great little plant, though the form I have has the smallest of flowers, increases very well, and its glistening green leaves are delightful compared to so many other galanthus.

And fosteri? We did grow this for several years on the edge of an alpine bed but have now lost it. I don't think hardiness is such a problem, but like all snowdrops they can be vulnerable to more pests than we would like and once they get established I try to spread them around the garden in different places. One good thing about the species (in many cases anyway) is that they set good seed which means they will often increase in the garden and there is the chance of variation and adaptability to different garden conditions.

[Anthony Darby]

I'm going to look for seed of peshmenii and fosteri as they should cope with me? Mixed snowdrop seed and reginae-olgae have germinated and reappeared, so this is encouraging. Is trojanus a cold adapted species. It seems to occur at low altitudes, but this can be misleading, as the likes of ikariae is found in cold wet habitats in otherwise warm dry areas.

[Jo]

I have grown x allenii and rizehensis in the garden for at least ten years and they increase well but don't self seed, I don't expect x allenii can.  We have had minus twelve or thirteen here the last couple of winters so I would rate them both as completely hardy.

I have also had G. ikariae 'Snogerupii' or is it subsp. snogerupii, for the last three seaons ( from Glen Chantry and from a friend ), and both clones seem perfectly hardy and have settled well. They flowered this year at the end of December, this photo was taken on the 7th Jan.

[Jo]

Just popped out and took these pics.  G. x allenii and G. rizehensis in the snow, how hardy is that    Me that is 

[Oakwood]

There are some nuances as for me when we're speaking about snowdrop hardiness in severe climate zones (below 5 zone):

1. I know even G. nivalis well rooted in fall and leafless in winter dies in rare harsh black frost winters (more then -25C without snow) occurring in northern latitudes.

2. The general moment of plant plasticity when cultivated: the plants been grown from seeds or many years growing well established in more severe climate zone (more then -20C, under mulch cover), they'll survive in greater rate when temperature drops sudden seriously and without snow, that we could observe for the last few years in W Europe, then the same species plants cultivated in mild climate that will die rather. E.g., most plants I've got in swap from our forumists, even hardy at me G. elwesii, died at me in SE Ukraine during 2-3 years after planting (under mulch cover, up to -15...-20C in those passed common winters).

3. If temperature drops seriously (more then -20C) and without snow after warm fall/early winter period, when plants are with developed leaves and even in bloom, there would be two outputs:
- the low altitude Trans- and Fore-Caucasian species and strictly Mediterranean species could suffer seriously and die;
- the Asia Minor species would have severely injured leaves up to mulch level, but would survive with regrown leaves to spring and alive bulbs.

4. As a conclusion, e.g. G. elwesii established and cultivated for many years in Ukraine/Europe part of Russia would be more hardy then the same one but from W Europe at the equal temperature winter frost period.

5. The hardiness apart, the strictly Mediterranean xerophylic species like G. peshmenii, G. fosteri, G. cilicicus suffer in W Europe mostly from wet warm summer and weak drainage bed, requiring more aridic culture conditions.