KentGardener's Galanthus Blog 2013

[Mavers]

You're right Maggi it does.

My Wendy's Gold have never set seed the capsules usually go bright yellow & wither away so it is interesting to see that Anne & now Tim have seedlings from her.

[mark smyth]

Arum italicum pictum with yellow leaves - love it and would give it a home in my garden

No mention of the best Geranium for this time of year?! G. x oxonianum Spring Fling

[Tim Ingram]

Thanks John - so nice to see your own garden through another's eyes. The Arum doesn't look so yellow right through the year but it is something I must bulk up since it seems to be stable. And yes - Geranium 'Spring Fling' is a superb winter plant. I don't know anything of its origins?

[mark smyth]

The Danish 'Storksbill' book mentions the year 2000. I cant read Danish.

My plant is 6 years old and badly needs started again in case it suddenly dies. The rosettes, after 6 years are no longer at ground level. I also need to propogate phaeum Green Ghost.

[Bronwyn Parrott]

I got home late tonight with lots of things to do, but sat and enjoyed your blog so much the jobs will all have to wait until tomorrow!
Thanks
Bronwyn

[Carolyn Walker]

John,

I just read your whole blog to date in one sitting because I was actually able to expand the photos in a decent time frame.  I enjoyed it so much---keep up the good work.  I have a blog myself and know that it can very time consuming.  I am so glad you got your snowdrop.  I was on the edge of my seat like The Perils of Pauline (is that a US thing?) and could definitely envision the arm above the crowd.  Your garden might be small but it's definitely pretty.  I love the mutant snowdrops especially the last.  Could someone go back right now and find it and mark it?  The arum is amazing and could find a nice home in my arum collection in the US if it is hankering for some international travel.  I find it very interesting that photos of snowdrop people get 175 views while photos of snowdrops get 75.  Perhaps we should have a people thread and post our individual photos along with group shots. 

Thanks you so much,
Carolyn

[KentGardener]

Alan and I left Tim's house in the early afternoon and started out on the half hour drive to visit Spring Platt ( http://kentsnowdrops.com/ ) and the collection of Caroline and Julie Millen.  The last time I visited this garden was in 2011 and was looking forward to see what changes had been made.

The first surprise was how busy it was - we hit a 'traffic jam' on the country lane leading to their house with three cars coming up the road and three down at the same time - eventually all the cars managed to tuck into the hedges and we eventually passed.  We then found that the parking was no longer in the field opposite, as this has now been turned into an acid loving garden using raised beds built of peat block.  Parking was now in the lower half of the Millen's garden - an area that John has flattened out as a croquet lawn many years previous.  He had obviously done a good job as the cars were causing hardly any damage at all.

We got out of the car to find the first new planting area - this is their one and two year old acquisitions that are at the base of a hedge.  Alan was pleasantly surprised that the first plant we saw was one of his finds 'Green Light'.  It was all smiles until we were given the sad news that the weekend had been so busy there was no more home made vegetable soup left.     But the home made fruit cake and warming cuppa more than made up for it.   

1 - the parking area at the bottom with the wonderful view across the weald.  We were the last to leave.

2 - the new plant border

3 - Alan's 'Green Light'

[KentGardener]

It is not just the croquet lawn that John Millen has built well - but also the various raised planting areas for the snowdrop collection.  My favourite is the sleeper edged steps as it is easy to climb on them to look at the drops up close.  This had been extended by a full sleeper length since I last saw it in 2011 and there is room for at least one more sleeper length.

At the front of the house are waist high raised beds that allow the flowers to be seen very easily.  John was telling me that he has plans to one year build another set of these raised beds on the lawn to the right of the picture.

Alan and I were discussing the narrow leaves on r. o. 'John Marr' - we speculated that it must come from a really sunny place and the narrow silver leaves were it's way of coping with the intense sunlight.

1 - Sleeper steps with Alan spotting something

2 - raised beds

3 - 'John Marr'

4 - 'Diggory' looking nice

5 - The amazing egg yoke yellow of 'Ronald Mackenzie'.  This was their first year flowering on their 2 year old chips.

[KentGardener]

And finaly a few more flowers that attracted my attention.

1 - 'Windsor Yellow' - it was interesting to see that this was hardly any bigger than in Feb 2011 with just one flower still.  There were some young leaves starting so hopefully next time I visit there will be a little group of slowers flowers. 

2 - 'Sweet Alice' - this was a beautiful flower and is now on my wish list.

3 - 'John Tomlinson' - also now on my wish list.

4 - 'Hercule' - looked to be quite large - but I didn't have a tape measure on me.   

5 - 'Trymming'

That's the end of last weekends travels.  I've come down with a tummy bug this week so hope I am up for more travels next weekend.

[Rob]

Another good entry, I'm really enjoying the blog again this year.

[Lina Hesseling]

Hope you are getting well soon, John.
We need you next weekend!

Thanks for the great pictures, I love G. 'Sweet Alice' too.
Just ordered it from Valentin Wijnen en will hopefully get it next week.

Lina.

[Alan_b]

... hopefully next time I visit there will be a little group of slowers.

Not sure if that is a misprint or an apt term for something that doesn't increase very fast.

And you've not caught me in the most attractive pose in your previous post!  I either need to go on a crash diet or stop wearing that padded winter jacket.

[art600]

John

Thanks for your blog, especially Spring Platt.  After Harvey's on Saturday decided I needed a rest - real reason Spurs were on TV AND won  . 

There is more to life than snowdrops, but sometimes it is a close run thing .  Spring Platt is one example - an excellent garden set in wonderful surroundings and a collection of snowdrops displayed to best effect.

[KentGardener]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments - it is always lovely to hear that the time to sort/resize pictures and write some words has been worth it.    

[chasw]

Hope that my John Tomlinson flowers like that, still, waiting have 2 flower spikes

And is Hercule a poc John?