Galanthus in February 2013

[mark smyth]

Hi, have finally joined, after much elbowing from Mark Smyth!

Happy to have pushed you in the right direction

[ChrisD]

my two new ones before going to their new homes, sunny day but cold wind kept everything else closed.

pl. Gerard Parker
pl. Lambrook Greensleeves

Lambrook Greensleeves is a new one to me - very nice. I can see why you got that one.

Chris

[JanB]

Alan, I was having a senior moment there, it's not Trymposter I was on about, but it's now too dark to get a pic so will try tomorrow. Think it was Trymming!

[kentish_lass]

Welcome JanB - nice clumps

I went to take photos today but just could not resist the urge to pull out a few 'no show' lattice pots and check their contents.  This is what I found:

Ron Mackenzie (it was very tiny and I wish I had not planted it)....... Gone / dead / no more

Quatrefoil  ( another tiny unflowered bulb ) ......not a sign/ dead

Kildare ( had a shoot but no flower last year)..... Nothing in the pot

Ransom 's Dwarf ( second year not showing) .....nothing in the pot

Danube Star.....(naturally small bulb)......nothing in the pot 

Greenish...(was 3 bulbs).....nothing in the pot 

Erway....(flowered last year).....the bulb was there but no roots....will investigate tomorrow

Witchwood...(was a very tiny bulb).....found the bulb it has a teeny shoot and one tiny root.  Don't know what to do with it as it looks so fragile and vulnerable.....and rare! It is really tiny and it would have definitely rotted as the pot was wringing wet.  I have it in sharp sand at present.

Walrus.....found a tiny tiny bulb....the main one must have rotted away

Angelique not showing AGAIN and this is my 3rd or even 4th attempt

Not a good day.  I sifted the soil from the pots for hours.  Kept getting my hopes up finding pieces of grit that might be a bulb    I came in and went to bed to forget about them.  Just woke up and they were straight on my mind.  So i am sharing with people who understand !  Feel a bit better now 

I have made my mind up to never put a small bulb in a lattice pot again.  I have to rethink my planting methods/techniques.  Tomorrow is another day.

[Alan_b]

You have my sympathies, Jennie. 

Could you be planting your snowdrops in an area that is just too wet?  Snowdrops always seem to do well on banks and banks always give good drainage.  Snowdrops can tolerate wet during the growing season but not, I think, when they are dormant.  Another option, although it's a lot of work, is to create raised beds.  Snowdrops display very well in raised beds because you don't have to bend down so far to see them.  Not that I am by any means an expert in growing snowdrops well, I have lost my fair share including some that I found so that were unique to my garden.  But I think I'm getting to know what the problems in my locale are, and I have some ideas for how to overcome them. 

[ChrisD]

Oh Jennie, no wonder you were upset.

Do you have any ideas why you had these problems? I was expecting significant losses this year as the summer was so wet, but when I dug up the lattice pots in the summer they were bone dry. There are lots of trees on the margins of the garden and they do a good job of removing the summer moisture from the soil. One or two of mine look a bit weak but no loses as such.

As Alan says the first thing that comes to mind is the drops being too wet during dormancy. Did you have many lattice pots in the same area with drops that survived and are now growing well?

Chris

[annew]

Jennie, what a shame - I feel for you. I always put very tiny bulbs bought in into clay pots and plunge them in my shaded glasshouse, but not everyone has one of those. Last year, being short of space in there, I put lots of young chipped ones into baskets, but plunged in sand in my covered frame where I can control the watering. I let them dry out a bit before repotting and it makes that process a much cleaner and easier job. All my bulbs are in a layer of sharp sand in the pot/basket as well. Using trichoderma seems to help against fungal diseases.

[JanB]

thank you all for the lovely welcome. 'Push' Mark, you? Never lols.

Well infact I was talking about Trymming, bought one bulb, which has now got a new one, both are white.
Maggi, also included a shot of my garden, looking good at the mo, drops, helebores, which hazel, acontites and all covered by my tree fern in full green fronds still not damaged and looking lovely.

H.mollis pallida behind the tree fern.

[Brian Ellis]

Jan my Trymming hasn't yet flowered, but I would be surprised if that is the right snowdrop!  Perhaps someone with an earlier flowering garden can tell you for sure.  As far as I recall it has a short fat receptacle (ovary) and short fat petals with the green mark

[RichardW]

Jennie, that's a lot of disappointment 

agree with Alan that raised beds/banks are the way forward, my own slightly raised old veg beds have suffered with the wet this year, they were fine when first converted but haven't been dug now for 5 years, although lattice pots help i doubt even they will help with such wet conditions.

I'm currently doing a lot of rescuing & replanting bulbs so if I do start thinking long term I will be looking at double digging the beds and replanting everything or making a new area along a wall with sleepers, the banks I've been planting in the last 5 years are proof enough for me that good drainage is vital.

That said I removed 20+ lady Beatrix Stanley bulbs from a bank yesterday which hadn't made any roots, only a foot away from a thriving clump, sometimes I get the feeling they do it deliberately.

[Sean Fox]

Welcome JanB 

Oh Jennie, so sorry for your terrible losses It can be quite polar at times this gardening malarky, total euphoria to utter devastation. But hopefully the good days far out way the bad ones. Raised beds does seem to be a good option, they're the future!

[Maggi Young]

Merciful heavens, Jan!  A tree fern in full frond  in February! What next? (Icy winds and snow again here.......)

The tales of losses are depressing. Especially whole plantings.

At least with the bad weather here I am not tempted to go  prospecting for growth yet - better to delay any possible disappointment, I reckon.

[KentGardener]

Really sorry to hear about the loses Jennie - I know just how you are feeling.  I spotted virus here again on 3 plants yesterday and it really put me on a downer.   

Re lattice pots - my aunt tried them about 6 years ago and she decided they didn't work for her too.  Here they seem to work well.



But to cheer me up, and hopefully to put a smile on your face too, I took some pics of healthy plants and tried to forget the bad news.

1 - 'Green Light'

2 - 'Jade'

3 - 'Hoverfly'

[KentGardener]

And 3 more.

1 - 'Margaret Biddulph'

2 - 'Trimmer'

3 - 'Elizabeth Harrison'

[Hagen Engelmann]

Hey John,

not only one fine gem, you have a whole  treasure in your garden. All look very healthy.