November 2014 snowdrops

[Alan_b]

Absolutely, Mike.  I feel I still have a long way to go up the learning curve.

[johnstephen29]

That is so true Mike, to my mind all snowdrops are treasures

[mark smyth]

I went and bought some more G. elwesii from my local garden centre. The best are gone but I chose the best of what was left. They all had root buds poking out looking for moisture. I soaked them in water since yesterday, 24 hours, to rehydrate them and get the roots going before planting today. The root growth is amazing

[mark smyth]

Would you like a copy of the 'Drop Out the new 'magazine'/booklet that looks at new snowdrops? There will be a charge which has to be finalised.

Email your name, address and post code to me at markATmarksgardenplants.com replacing AT with @ and subject line 'Drop Out

[johnstephen29]

Hi Galanthus Peshmenii which I got from Pontus in Switzerland is in flower, beautiful little snowdrop.

Galanthus Peshmenii by johnstephen29, on Flickr

[emma T]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11213044/Margaret-Owen-obituary.html

[Maggi Young]

What a lovely obituary for Margaret Owen.  Thank you for this link, Emma

[snowdropcollector]

Thank you Emma, for the link. Lovely to read this.

In the summer I received a bulb of a Elwesii Monostictus, from a friend. It is in flower now. Good substance and size flower
with nicely green markings on the outers. It is not named yet.

[penstemon]

In Denver, too. I guess this is plain old G. elwesii var. monostictus.

[mark smyth]

In the summer I received a bulb of a Elwesii Monostictus, from a friend. It is in flower now. Good substance and size flower
with nicely green markings on the outers. It is not named yet.

Fantastic!! I hope its being twinscaled if the green outers are stable

[mark smyth]

In Denver, too. I guess this is plain old G. elwesii var. monostictus.

G. elwesii Hiemalis Group if its flowering now. The leaves are correct for G. elwesii

[penstemon]

Thanks. I consulted the snowdrop book, and wondered if it might be Hiemalis Group, because the label just says elwesii. I have read that variety monostictus blooms early here, but that would have been on the label, too. (It came from The Temple Nursery.)
Being a galanthophile over here isn't exactly easy ....

[Anthony Darby]

That green tipped elwesii monostictus looks quite special.

[Alan_b]

Thanks. I consulted the snowdrop book, and wondered if it might be Hiemalis Group, because the label just says elwesii. I have read that variety monostictus blooms early here, but that would have been on the label, too. (It came from The Temple Nursery.)
Being a galanthophile over here isn't exactly easy ....

Hiemalis Group is just that, a group comprising all elwesii that flower early (around this time) provided they are also monostictus, which is a classification for elwesii with 'a single apical segment marking'.  You don't show the marking on the inner petals so we don't know if it is a monstictus and therefore in the Hiemalis Group.  Statistically it is likely to be because the vast majority of early-flowering elwesii are.  But there are exceptions, 'Peter Gatehouse' for example, which has too large a mark to be classified as monostictus so does not fall into the Hiemalis Group despite the fact that it is in flower here now.

Although Hiemalis Group snowdrops are rare amongst the sum total of all elwesii, they are sufficiently common that only a few of them have names and this is either because they are old enough to have been named at a time when they were thought more rare or because they have some special extra feature as well as being early flowering.  A prime example of a badly-named Hiemalis Group snowdrop is 'Earliest of All' which most certainly isn't by modern standards. 

[johnw]

The Galanthus nivalis have just surfaced here & the Cambridges are up but an inch.  It's been an odd year.

johnw