Remarks from the Weekly KAVB Flower Show - Lisse

[Brian Ellis]

That doesn't surprise me Gerard, the reason I would not come down on yes or no was that it really depended on what Matt meant in the book by 'a basal triangle narrowly joined in middle to an apical V with expanded, rounded arm-ends'.  It shows you have to see the whole plant, and know what you are talking about.  Many people put pictures up for identification and I think it is only possible to home in on some alternatives; without seeing it in real life, as the whole plant -  that's why I try and refrain from saying "That's ....."

[Maggi Young]

Rhodohypoxis 
   These have obviously more possibilities than known by most people.
   Here they are shown in excellent selling quality in Mid February. 

Luit, since we often wait too long to water our Rhodohypoxis troughs  we often do not have them in flower before late may or early June - to see them in flower in February is amazing for us. 

[johnw]

Rhodohypoxis  
   These have obviously more possibilities than known by most people.
   Here they are shown in excellent selling quality in Mid February.  

Luit, since we often wait too long to water our Rhodohypoxis troughs  we often do not have them in flower before late may or early June - to see them in flower in February is amazing for us.  

Maggi - Do you replant your Rhodohypoxis troughs every year or just move the troughs under cover for the winter?  We dry them off and stick them in the cold room till late April then plunk them outdoors again. Usually they take a long while to get going as we're quite cool, especially so at night, until mid/late-June.

P.S. I am dreading replanting those troughs as the bulb count per square inch is so high and the bulbs all look like gravel.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

We tend to let them over winter in the troughs and only repot late,(if at all    )  in April sometime .
This year Ian has replanted  some of them already , though they are still dry.

[johnw]

We tend to let them over winter in the troughs and only repot late,(if at all    )  in April sometime .
This year Ian has replanted  some of them already , though they are still dry.

So they stay outdoors all winter long and survive that?

johnw

[Maggi Young]

We tend to let them over winter in the troughs and only repot late,(if at all    )  in April sometime .
This year Ian has replanted  some of them already , though they are still dry.

So they stay outdoors all winter long and survive that?

johnw

Oh NO! That would be cruel.... They are lifted into a glasshouse to overwinter under the bench.

[Lvandelft]

Luit, since we often wait too long to water our Rhodohypoxis troughs  we often do not have them in flower before late may or early June - to see them in flower in February is amazing for us. 

Maggi, I understand that you both were surprised to see them flowering now, but when we used to grow them by the 100thousands many years ago the plant was still rather unknown and we were already searching for methods to offer flowering plants earlier in spring to increase the marketing and sales.
The best way might be to store the pots cold for at least 8 or 10 weeks cold in autumn and then place them in the greenhouse at moderate temps. and maybe some extra light to make the days longer. The problem is the cold storage which needs a lot of space….
I don’t know how this grower did it, but Rhodohypoxis seems not difficult to manipulate.

[Lvandelft]

Its not Beth Chatto but another from the seedlings!

In the Galanthus pages I saw some discussion about Beth Chatto and on page 40, reply 589 there were the following lines:

In her lovely book The Woodland Garden she refers to her snowdrop as a very special snowdrop that occurred in the garden many years ago (the book was published in 2002).  She goes on to say that she was “surprised and pleased to see that it seeded true”.

As I am growing just a few Galanthus in our garden I think I am rather neutral in this matter.

So when I read these lines careful then I am inclined to believe that maybe there are a lot of true Galanthus Beth Chatto.
She writes herself    “surprised and pleased to see that it seeded true”.      
Now I am very curious about what plant was named “Beth Chatto”

Was it just one of those seedlings or was it a vegetative propagated plant of the original find?    

I read that B.C. Gardens now is trying to find the original plant again which is in my opinion
barely possible, again because possibly a self seeded plant was named.

In this case the best thing will be to name this plant G. Beth Chatto Group.
But of course the specialists will know much better than silly me    

[Gerard Oud]

I compared mine that was bought before 2002, the year that the Beth Chatto gardens lost theires, with the ones from the biggest collection in the UK, and they were the same. The owner is on this forum too!

[Lesley Cox]

P.S. I am dreading replanting those troughs as the bulb count per square inch is so high and the bulbs all look like gravel.

johnw

Don't even think of dividing into bulbs. Just take (break off) small clumps about an inch in diameter and replant those. We are lucky in that they can be left in the gound all year round.

[Lvandelft]

Usually no names of exhibitors here, but this week there was an interesting Galanthus entry
by our Forumist Gerard Oud and he got a well deserved Gold Medal.
Just a few flowers pictured:                             
                                 
Galanthus hybr. Little Ben                             
Galanthus plic. Nigel Chadwick dubb.                 
Galanthus Sel. out of Comet  (With green leaves)     

[Lvandelft]

A picture of a group of some interesting Ornithogalum hybrids with new colors:                   

groep 
Scilla peruviana   
Ornithogalum dubium                             
Ornithogalum Oranjezicht                         
Ornithogalum Sunny Day                         
Ornithogalum wit   

[Lvandelft]

Here an overview of the hall and several other entries:

overzicht                           
Narcissus Toto     
Galanthus Hill Poë
Hyacinths     
Pot tulips                                           
Pot tulip                                       
Scilla mischtschenkoana Zwanenburg               
Crocus chrys. Zenith     
Iris histrioides var. sophenensis   

[Rob]

Wow lots of great stuff exhibited this week.

Congratulations to Gerard, Galanthus Sel. out of Comet  (With green leaves)  will be popular with all the Galanthophiles.

[Maggi Young]

this week there was an interesting Galanthus entry
by our Forumist Gerard Oud and he got a well deserved Gold Medal.

 Well done, Gerard!