eBay offers

[mark smyth]

That dodgy green tipped snowdrop 'Green Spirit' and description of nivalis 'Viridapice'  is back on ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galanthus-nivalis-Green-Spirit-TearDrop-5-Pieces-Old-And-Rar-/361219007344?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item541a54a370

[mark smyth]

I've upset someone

[annew]

ooops.

[steve owen]

I've upset someone

We should be too big to take offence and too noble to give it.

[art600]

I've upset someone

Lucky you - he/she has saved you a fortune

[Richard Williams]

I've upset someone

O Mark I didn't know they could do that, you didn't try and buy that dodgy lot of Green Spirit did you? There are some 'interesting' lots on e-bay . Just noted Mother Goose on a buy it now at best part of £300 for a non flowering daughter bulb ! and the same seller having Beany for £139 twice what Matt was asking for it I believe.

[Carolyn Walker]

Here is the article in Money magazine about the "snowdrop bubble": http://time.com/money/3716753/snowdrop-bubble-galanthus-galanthomania/.  Have there been articles over there about 'Golden Fleece'?  Does anyone know who bought it?

[Tim Ingram]

Good article and timely. It's nice to consider gardening in the same light as other artistic and cultural expressions and snowdrops are like the icing on the cake - they might attract attention but there is so much more more about gardening and growing plants which is often hardly appreciated. But so far 'Elizabeth Harrison' has not appeared more in general cultivation in the same way that 'Wendy's Gold' has and there is an exclusivity about snowdrops that comes from these prices which is a bit more debateable (good for those of us who grow them though )

[Alan_b]

I must say I was impressed with the factual accuracy of the Money Magazine article.  But the one aspect not touched-upon was the attrition rate for snowdrops.  Almost all snowdrop growers have failed to establish some particular snowdrop or have lost an established one for no apparent reason (or for a variety of apparent reasons).  Imagine buying 'Golden Fleece' and then having it die on you!  Even chipping is by no means a guaranteed route to success.   

[annew]

Some people would not think twice about paying £2000 for a designer dress/handbag and wearing it only once. Not me. But you have to see things in perspective, a dress doesn't have the possibility of being 2 dresses next year. These are Designer snowdrops I guess.

[Alan_b]

An amusing article in the Spectator on 'Golden Fleece' here http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/culturehousedaily/2015/02/single-snowdrop-sells-for-1390-welcome-to-galanthomania/ , particularly so because the author does not realise that it is supposed to be yellow and describes the marks on the outer petals a "lime green".  And rather than being a galanthophile it turns out I might be a galanthomaniac. 

[steve owen]

I must say I was impressed with the factual accuracy of the Money Magazine article.  .   

Except for one crucial thing, Alan. The article says "What accounts for the tiny flower’s big price tag? For one thing, the dainty bloom is tough as nails..".
Wrong wrong wrong. The two native English varieties certainly are as "tough as old boots" but many of the expensive new varieties of recent years have tender delicate constitutions and keel over at the slightest hint of fungus or other in-the-soil nasty. Robust they ain't.  I have had to cosset and coax many varieties into reluctant growth - in fact had I the room and the dosh I would put up a large alpine house and grow many of my varieties under glass.

I think the struggle to keep snowdrops healthy and the cost of replacing of losses will have the effect of creating a ceiling on the number of people who seriously collect snowdrops. The stampede to buy an exotica such as Golden Fleece, accompanied by ever more imaginative ways of describing the latest fashionable snowdrop (inverse poc; pterugiform?), will surely not last. How many more greentips from Belgian or Slovenian forests can civilisation accommodate?

Not so much a bubble bursting as gently deflating as people turn to more reliable plants. Anyone for crocus?

[vivienr]

Someone is optimistically trying to sell 100 nivalis for the bargain sum of £300.00

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-Snowdrop-Bulbs-activley-growing-in-the-Green-Galanthus-Nivalis-Free-UK-/291365455771?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43d6bc079b

They are very generously including postage though

[chasw]

Just check out the feedback......................and note the feed back score of 1

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galanthus-Woronowii-039-elizabeth-Harrison-039-Select-Yellow-Snowdrop-last-One-/331490291532?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

[Tim Harberd]

And that feedback says...''wish you had left flower on''     !!!!!!!

Tim DH