G. rizehensis

[apothecary]

This is a rather feeble record of what I have as G. rizehensis.

I must apologise for the appearance.  Yet more camera trouble (battery ran out half way through photographing this snowdrop) led to a limited choice of pics and this was the only vaguely worthwhile one among them - unfortunately, in my haste I forgot to add the ruler.  Suffice to say, this one is as small in real life as it should be.

The owner of the camera has now located the charger so I'm raring to go with the next one as soon as the trusty picture box is ready.

[Martin Baxendale]

Looks okay to me, Kristina. I assume it was labelled as rizehensis, in which case it looks right. If it's very small, it'll be the widely-grown diploid form which often seeds around (you could have a look and see if there's any signs of seedlings around the clump) - there's a larger triploid form which doesn't seed, but that one's not very commonly grown or available.

I assume this is another one from the woodland. Can you give us any more historical info about the garden, its plantings, etc?

[apothecary]

Certainly!

I am in fact broadcasting to you from the National Botanic Garden of Wales (www.gardenofwales.org.uk).  I wasn't wanting to be too obvious about that since I'm aware that what you've seen so far of the way we've handled our snowdrop collection looks decidedly amateurish.  However, I feel I may begin to redeem that now in the eyes of the average galanthophile given the effort I'm putting in to sorting out what wasn't sorted out in the past.

The NBGW is set on the remains of a C18th estate which belonged to a Sir William Paxton.  It was previously owned by a family called Middleton and some records go back to C15th.  The current estate totals 568 acres of which about 175 are cultivated botanic garden and amenities etc.  To manage these 175 acres of garden we have a total of about 12 gardeners, 4 students and a variety of volunteers. 

The two main features of the NBGW are the Great Glasshouse (largest single span glasshouse in the world which displays mediterranean climate plants for 6 regions of the world) and the Double Walled Garden (where we keep our order beds according to the new genetic-fingerprinting based system).  We also recently opened our new tropical glasshouse which houses plants belonging to the monocot section of the Double Walled Garden.

The NBGW has been open since 2000 and is still so very young.  We have been working to grow and develop the garden into what will hopefully one day parallel the likes of Kew/Edinburgh.  I think we have a few hundred years to go yet.  Nevertheless, the garden is very beautiful and unlike so many botanic gardens with urban settings, it is nestled in the rolling Carmarthenshire hills with an incredible wealth of all things natural and untouched.

The snowdrops we have were all donated a few years ago.  They've come from 2 or 3 different places, and I'll have a quick look through the records for some info if anyone is interested.

[Rob]

Hi

Can you post some pics showing the snowdrops growing in the NBGW. If there are large swathes of snowdrops it might encourage visitors.


{quick edit, to keep on topic}

[Martin Baxendale]

The snowdrops we have were all donated a few years ago.  They've come from 2 or 3 different places, and I'll have a quick look through the records for some info if anyone is interested.

Yes, that'd be interesting to know.

I remember watching some stuff on TV a few years ago about the NBGW and it did indeed look like there was a daunting amount of work to do. I'm sure everyone on the forum would be interested to know more about how things are progressing. Perhaps you could also start a separate thread about the botanic garden generally, where (if you have the time) you could post some pics for us.

[apothecary]

Ok, we have limited info on the origins of most snowdrops but I'll begin adding our record notes to new snowdrop entries and update the old ones.

If I were to start an NBGW thread upon which I could include photos of some snowdrops in situ (if the rain would just give us a break for two minutes) as well as other info/discussion , where should it go on the forum?  Should I stay in Galanthus or find a more appropriate spot elsewhere?

[Maggi Young]

I'd suggest  the All plants: General Forum for a new NBGW thread, Kristina.

When the NBGW was under threat of closure a few years ago, the SRGC and its then Editor came out with a statement of support in our Journal... you may not  have known that!
More power to your elbow, that's what we say!

[apothecary]

Origins:

We have two batches of G. rizehensis.  One comes from the Primrose Warburg collection in our 'Springwoods' and the other (from which this sample comes) came originally from Longacre nurseries in 2003 and has been growing in the monocot quarter of the Double Walled Garden.

I'd suggest  the All plants: General Forum for a new NBGW thread, Kristina.

When the NBGW was under threat of closure a few years ago, the SRGC and its then Editor came out with a statement of support in our Journal... you may not  have known that!

I'll head over there for a new thread then (was getting quite cosy in here though).  I didn't know you supported us, but I'm glad - we needed all the help we could get at the time.  Hopefully things will continue to look up for us now though.