Galanthus breeding

[Diane Whitehead]

I'm looking for good breeding material for my seedling programme

Martin,

What are you aiming for?  Are there enough snowdrop breeders to have a separate
discussion?

[mark smyth]

Martin I'm thinking of crossing 'Castlegar' with r-o 'Alex Duigud'

[ArneM]

I pay for my money transfers to England not any fees !!!
The only is you have to send the amout in Euro ....
It is not correct if you have to pay any fees inside of EU !!!

Arne : go to the website of your bank - go to "Auslandsüberweisungen" -there is all written .....

I know how to make a bank transfer and that there are no fees for me if using IBAN und BIC but the problem is the difference of the money. So there are like I said fees for the receiver.

[Gerard Oud]

Hello  Arne ,
With the iban there are 3 possibillities, you accept all costs, or chaire costs, or all costs are for the receiver.
If you chaire costs its the cheapest way for both to transfer money in the EU.

[ArneM]

Hello  Arne ,
With the iban there are 3 possibillities, you accept all costs, or chaire costs, or all costs are for the receiver.
If you chaire costs its the cheapest way for both to transfer money in the EU.

These fees are so far as I know about 10 euro here in Germany and sharing the price is for sure only possible with private people and not with companies. So I think I will send money or use a credit card if possible.

[Gerard Oud]

Its possible with everybody in the EU, who has a International Bank Account Number also companies. When i need spare parts for my british car, i order and pay with the iban and it costs me a few euros.
Ask your bankmanager about the exact costs. Money trafic with iban is safe and easy.

[Martin Baxendale]

I'm looking for good breeding material for my seedling programme

Martin,

What are you aiming for?  Are there enough snowdrop breeders to have a separate
discussion?

Diane - in short, my main aim is to try to get some tetraploid seedlings so I can raise lots of strong, disease resistant large polyploid snowdrop cultivars from which to select a new generation of really good big beautiful snowdrops that will grow anywhere without cossetting. So basically, I'm where the very first daffodil breeders were about 100 years ago - with just a few barely fertile triploid cultivars to play with, hoping for a long-odds breakthrough in the form of fertile tetraploids. At the moment most of the best cultivars are virtually infertile triploids, which set virtually no seed, so you just can;t get breeding seriously. Unless you stick with small diploid snowdrops, which are less strong growing and less disease resistant than polyploids like triploids and tetraploids.

Mark, I've tried pollinating Castlegar and never got any seed. I suspect that like so many good cultivars (see above) it may be a triploid with low fertility. Having said that, no harm in having a go.

[Diane Whitehead]

I decided to Google "breeding Galanthus" and found one article about
a stallion named Galanthus, one Forum citation of earlier posts by Martin,
plus lots of articles about using a Galanthus Nivalis Agglutinin (GNA) Gene
to add insect resistance to various crops, like wheat and cotton.

[Martin Baxendale]

I decided to Google "breeding Galanthus" and found one article about
a stallion named Galanthus, one Forum citation of earlier posts by Martin,
plus lots of articles about using a Galanthus Nivalis Agglutinin (GNA) Gene
to add insect resistance to various crops, like wheat and cotton.

Diane, try Googling again in twenty years time!   

Mark, I forgot that 'Cotswold Farm' is a nivalis X plicatus type cultivar isn't it. I had it (and possibly still do) but it wasn't any great shakes. I wouldn't be too disappointed at not getting it. Obviously you were sent Colossus by mistake as you say.

[rob krejzl]

my main aim is to try to get some tetraploid seedlings

Martin,

The protocol for using Oryzalin for producing 4N forms of lilies seems fairly well established. Have you tried it on chipped/twin scaled bulbs to see what happens?

[Alan_b]

I thought I should get a post in whilst it is still pre January!  This photograph (actually two weeks old) shows a group of one of my favourite snowdrops, Galanthus elwesii Peter Gatehouse.  I like the way the green mark on the inner petals shows through even under typical conditions when the flowers are not very open.  And perhaps more importantly, this plant has always bulked-up well for me so this little clump began as three smallish bulbs three years ago.  I bought Peter Gatehouse as a single bulb a few years ago and it was not very expensive.  I think early-flowering snowdrops tend to be under-regarded because there is nothing to see during the main season when everyone goes off on visits to other people's snowdrop collections.
   

[Martin Baxendale]

my main aim is to try to get some tetraploid seedlings

Martin,

The protocol for using Oryzalin for producing 4N forms of lilies seems fairly well established. Have you tried it on chipped/twin scaled bulbs to see what happens?

Rob, I didn't know about this procedure for creating tetraploids. I only knew about using colchicine to induce polyploidy, which I think was found to cause other genetic abnormalities too, resulting in genetically unstable offspring.

I'm trying for the traditional breeding route of crossing triploids with each other and with diploids, in the hope of getting that rare tetraploid success.

But can you point me towards some further information about the Oryzalin process?

[Alan_b]

I'm trying for the traditional breeding route of crossing triploids with each other and with diploids, in the hope of getting that rare tetraploid success.

I can see I need to look out for a copy of "Polyploids for Dummies" in the January sales but how do you know when you end up with a tetraploid?  Would it not be simpler to screen an existing snowdrop population to find one that already exists?

[mark smyth]

what do these ploid names mean

[Maggi Young]

It's all a question of chromosome numbers... and that is as much as I know! Luckily, there are those around here who know more!....................