Galanthus - January 2015

[kentish_lass]

Thanks everyone for your comments re. Swift Moth larvae.  Alan I am going to remove Hemerocallis from a raised bed in partial shade and use it as a Galanthus bed and cover with netting as you do.  I do not have a great deal of luck with potted plants so this may work better.  How do you secure your netting to the ground - bricks, pegs?  Do you raise it off the ground using posts?

I have been wondering if I could make individual net covers using strong wire into a tee pee and wrapping netting around as sewing the netting onto the baskets is arduous to say the least!  However, wherever I have covered the bulbs with baskets I have not had any losses as far as I can tell.

I do see Swift Moth larvae quite often in my soil but hoped they would not make it into the woodland area where my snowdrops are planted - WRONG!  As Tim said - it is always the coveted snowdrops that seem to get attacked 

[Alan_b]

Jenny, I use canes with ceramic balls on the top to raise the netting above the bed and weigh-down the edges with anything heavy I can find - such as bricks.  If you want to be really professional/up-market then something like this might work http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/plastic-raised-beds-and-protection-cid7.html

Swift Moths lay their eggs on the wing, apparently, so I use the finest mesh netting I can find in the hope that eggs would not fall through.  This should work against Narcissus Fly also

[Dean C]

John Gray, Diggory and Glenchantress 

[Brian Ellis]

Super snowdrops Dean, and so clean

[Carolyn Walker]

Thanks everyone for your comments re. Swift Moth larvae.  Alan I am going to remove Hemerocallis from a raised bed in partial shade and use it as a Galanthus bed and cover with netting as you do.  I do not have a great deal of luck with potted plants so this may work better.  How do you secure your netting to the ground - bricks, pegs?  Do you raise it off the ground using posts?

I have been wondering if I could make individual net covers using strong wire into a tee pee and wrapping netting around as sewing the netting onto the baskets is arduous to say the least!  However, wherever I have covered the bulbs with baskets I have not had any losses as far as I can tell.

I do see Swift Moth larvae quite often in my soil but hoped they would not make it into the woodland area where my snowdrops are planted - WRONG!  As Tim said - it is always the coveted snowdrops that seem to get attacked 

Jennie,  I find that the jerry-rigged methods usually are hard to put in place and usually fall apart not to mention storing them.  I cover my snowdrops to prevent rodent damage when newly planted with a product called a Low Pest Control Pop Up in either 4x4 feet or 4x8 feet: http://www.gardeners.com/buy/low-pest-control-pop-ups/8587837RS.html?start=13&cgid=GardenPestControls_Cat.  It pops open like a children's play tent and is just as easy to fold back up flat and small for storage.  Being green it stays clean but still let's in enough light. It comes with attached loops and metal stakes to hold it down tight.  Good for theft deterrent too.  Made by Gardener's Supply in the US.

[Dean C]

Super snowdrops Dean, and so clean

Thanks Brian, they've had enough 'rinsing' in this weather and a great airing last night in the wind! Got my John Gray in the rock garden as the grit mulch keeps it clean when it droops!

[kentish_lass]

Thanks Alan and Carolyn for your meshy tips!  I have had a quick look on ebay and found these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pack-of-1-Mini-Pop-Up-Crop-Cage-Fruit-Veg-Cage-50-x-50-x-50cm-SKU-GPN050-01/301444086449?_trksid=p5411.c100167.m2940&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D28871%26meid%3D003cde05770c4fb58c948e4ccfef7793%26pid%3D100167%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D301307759559

and these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-m-x-1-m-x-0-75m-Pop-Up-Giant-Garden-Fruit-Crop-Cage-Low-Height-GPN100-50-/301307759559?

All very positive

[mark smyth]

6 or maybe 7 days open and despite warm days and windowsill treatment 'Moortown Mighty' still doesn't open wide enough to show off the inners. The outers are too thick to do the snowdrop pinch. Today I gently raised the flower by resting two outers on two fingers

First time growing Galanthus graecus.

'Moortown Mighty'
Galanthus graecus

[mark smyth]

Very happy to see my group of Trumps has almost doubled the number of flowering sized bulbs since last year

[Yann]

Galanthus 'Primrose Warburg'

[Uwe]

 a nice garden-center find (nivalis )  from this week , here a little more green than usual at the nivalis with green tips 

[snowdropcollector]

Nice find Uwe , try to find some more.

[Anne Repnow]

That clump of 'Trumps' is gorgeous, Mark! 
Well done, Uwe, you must have a good eye for these special beauties. An excellent find.

My 'Modern Art' is doing weird things. Besides producing perfectly normal scapes, it produces very short ones with flowers which have hardly any spathe. Is that something that happens regularly?

[carolesmith]

I think you may have posted a picture of 'Modern Art' and 'Courteen Hall'.

Thanks Steve you are quite right  - I do have a problem with the names "Modern Art" and "Art Nouveau" - although I am quite happy distinguishing the drops. I will try and amend my posting.

[mark smyth]

Jo very briefly shows off 'Wind Turbine' 3.30 minutes in
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b050b6qd/spotlight-31012015