Galanthus - February 2015

[Mariette]

I´m not sure if I´d been tempted, but I´d definitely be interested!!!

[mark smyth]

Nearly an EYEPoc! 

'Eyepoc' would be a great name Anne. Claim it!

[mark smyth]

Which is the real 'Sally Wickenden'?

One seen in David Bromley's garden and the other bought at the Shaftesbury sales last week

[mark smyth]

I now have permission to tell you this is an Avon baby "BUT it is a singleton and will go under the knife in June ". I guess that means no pestering lol

[kentish_lass]

Sorry Maggie - posted in the wrong section - should be in Snowdrop Events.  Is it possible for you to move it there?  Oops

[Maggi Young]

No worries Jennie, I've moved it across to "events"   for you   

[Leena]

Hi Leena, do you plant them in pots and then in the ground or directly into the ground?

I plant directly into the ground, in slightly raised woodland bed. I try to keep the soil well drained, and have added some sand sometimes beneath the bulbs. When I have planted nameless dormant bulbs from garden center in September I have tried to keep the ground from freezing early by adding mulch on top, and they have done ok, too, but earlier the planting is the better maybe. Some years the winter may come already in November over here.

'Green Light' is usually about two weeks earlier than the bulk of the nivalis snowdrops it grew up with.

Thank you, so it is right on schedule.

[Blonde Ingrid]

I plant directly into the ground, in slightly raised woodland bed. I try to keep the soil well drained, and have added some sand sometimes beneath the bulbs. When I have planted nameless dormant bulbs from garden center in September I have tried to keep the ground from freezing early by adding mulch on top, and they have done ok, too, but earlier the planting is the better maybe. Some years the winter may come already in November over here.

Thanks Leena, it is always very interesting to see how others deal with resting bulbs. Your climatic conditions can be more severe than here in the Southern UK, so your method is fascinating.

I sit at the ultra conservative end of the spectrum with how I deal with resting bulbs and it is thought provoking on how you deal with yours. What sort of success percentage do you get bringing them to flower?

[Leena]

What sort of success percentage do you get bringing them to flower?

First I have to say that I am a novice when it comes to snowdrops!
I have had G.nivalis in my garden for almost 20 years. Then around ten years ago I bought dry bulbs from garden center (G.nivalis, G.elwesii and G.woronovii) couple of years in September, and mostly they came up ok, but I think from G.woronovii only about half of them came up. They may have been too dry and I didn't know enough to see that when buying them. I remember also that they didn't flower the first year at all.
Then since 2011 I have bought more snowdrops, cultivars with names and also nameless snowdrops in three autumns from garden center in September (G.elwesii and G.nivalis), and they have flowered all in the first spring. I have protected them better with mulch the first winter than earlier, I don't know if that has helped or not, but I try to take better care of them now than I did ten years ago. I have also bought some snowdrops from Netherlands which have arrived in early October, and only one of them never came up. That was 'Barnes' which had already started to  grow with no roots when it arrived in October and then the cold came in November, I think that was the reason it died. The same time I got snowdrops which were supposed to be 'Magnet' but weren't and all three of them came up the following spring. The same year I planted 'S.Arnott' in August and it thrives here. I have also bought some snowdrops from Estonia which always arrive late in the beginning of October ('Merlin', 'Jacquenetta' and 'Cordelia' several bulbs) and all but the smallest 'Cordelia' bulbs flowered the following spring.
Other dormant bulbs I bought from Glen Chantry (twice), Dryad Bulbs (twice) and Avon (last summer), and all of them have come up and flowered 100% the following spring, they were all really fine bulbs! I am very pleased with them, and I think most from 2013 have now doubled since the first year, and I'm getting more flowers. 

The first snowdrops cultivars which I bought were in 2011 in the green from the UK, the shipping took two weeks and the bulbs were in very bad condition, the leaves were already rotting. There were six bulbs, and only two of them came up the next year and neither of them flowered until the second year.  This discouraged me from buying in the green, the shipping to Finland is very unreliable and for some reason it always takes more time the parcels to get to Finland than if I send something abroad. I have a friend in Finland who orders snowdrops from Avon in the green and is pleased with them (mine weren't from Avon), but as I get as many snowdrops in the summer as I can afford to buy anyway, I prefer it. I am sure if the shipping takes less time, this wouldn't be such a problem.
I have potted the in the green snowdrops right after I have gotten them and kept them in the greenhouse (because the ground has been still frozen when they have arrived), then planted them in the garden in the summer.
I have gotten snowdrops in the green from two kind forumists and they have been in much  better condition on arrival then the ones from a commercial source, and all come up the next spring, not all of them flowered the next spring but more than half did and all are alive (some of them from last spring are still under snow so I don't know about them but I'm positive they are alive). I have also gotten snowdrops from friends here in Finland, moved after flowering, and all are doing fine, some have flowered the next spring, some not. Two years ago I got a big clump of G.woronovii in the green, lifted from a friends garden in May right after flowering, but not one of them flowered the next spring, all came up though and I'm sure they will flower this year.
So these are my experiences.

[Leena]

Here is 'Peardrop' from Glen Chantry planted last August, one big bulb.
Picture is from last Saturday.

[Blonde Ingrid]

Well, wintery conditions forecast today, which failed to materialise.

However...snow did appear in the form of Flocon de Neige, what a beauty 

Ably supported by Simply Glowing and Phil Cornish, it was quite a show.

[ruben]

Some selections i made today

3 pocs.

A nivalis scharlockii poc with green tips
A nivalis poc with identic green tips on the inners and the outers

[ruben]

a total white poc in nivalis ( no scharlockii)

[annew]

Like the eye poc!  The Boardmans have been growing these snowdrops for some years (think how long it must have took for 'June Boardman' to come into the sales lists) they both, and now just June, have been keeping an eye on them and Bill was a plantsman of some note.  Stable differences in height and marks.

Understood!
Ruben, they are very interesting.

[Brian Ellis]

Yes, some nice finds Ruben, why can't we find them in English woodlands?