Galanthus February 2016

[mark smyth]

Is it a plicatus? It looks a bit like Timpany Late

[mark smyth]

A gift from Lithuania of Galanthus caucasicus but someone says it is probably Galanthus alpinus

[johnstephen29]

Hi mark I think you could be right about it being a plicatus, the marks look the same. I will check my plants in the garden just to be sure.

[hud357]

Perhaps someone here could help me out. I'm no Galanthus expert - they are mainly things that pop up from time to time in my garden 

Last night I watched the end of an e-bay auction for a single bulb of 'golden fleece'. It went for £747 (960 Euro/ 1083 USD)

Why? What am I missing?

[Maggi Young]

Simple answer :  snowdrops are popular / snowdrops  have some  fanatical followers / this snowdrop is a "new" variety/ some snowdrop fanatics have plenty money  .......see, quite simple. 

(It's better  not to look too closely into the  various - "takes time  to settle to its full potential" comments and their like!  There are plenty of  reports of  such "different" plants  not being stable in the characteristics which make them "special" - it's a minefield, I reckon.  Mind you, some of these plants are very pretty, and if people have the disposable income to  splash on these  bulbs, well, so be it! 

[johnstephen29]

I showed Andrea what Golden Fleece went for Maggi and she said some people have more money then sense, but I pointed to her that's it's there money they can do with it what they like which got me a look.

[hud357]

I showed Andrea what Golden Fleece went for Maggi and she said some people have more money then sense, but I pointed to her that's it's there money they can do with it what they like which got me a look.

I'm certainly not questioning what people may or may not do with their own money on e-bay or anywhere else...

I was simply asking... What makes this particular 'bulb' worth ~ $1100 at auction?

Does it have unique breeding properties? Is it so rare that a collector would see it as a 'previously extinct' variant that has suddenly re-appeared?

Honestly, I am not questioning the 'right' of anyone to pay whatever they wish for whatever they want ... Just asking, what makes that particular variant worth that kind of money? 

I had thought that Worsleya procera was probably the most expensive plant on Earth but now ...
 

[Maggi Young]

I repeat my previous answer  - Simple answer :  snowdrops are popular / snowdrops  have some  fanatical followers / this snowdrop is a "new" variety/ some snowdrop fanatics have plenty money  .....

I'm not making comment on what people may or may not spend their money on either - I'm just stating the case that leads to these high prices.

The fact is that all  of these expensive snowdrops have some minor differences from the typical snowdrop -which may or may not be  stable - and which make them  irresistible to collectors.  It is really is as simple as that.

[hud357]

I was actually responding to 'johnstephen29' and his(?) view that one can spend ones money wherever one wants.

True enough. But what makes that particular 'bulb' worth that kind of money? Is it 'breeding material'? Is it 'collectors material'? I was simply asking, what, as a complete ignoramus in matters Galanthus, makes that bulb worth £750?

I believe that some 'Art' that sells for 50 million is absolute rubbish but, then again, I'm not the one buying it. What makes the bulb in question worth, to somebody, £750?
     

[steve owen]

Golden Fleece is not a unique event; in fact it is part of a trend. Numbers of new snowdrop varieties for sale each year* or advertised on Ebay, shown with the average price across those new varieties in first year, were:
(* that I know of; there could well have been others that didn't cross my radar)
2007        8       £14
2008      11       £17
2009      16       £23
2010      18       £28
2011      22       £33
2012      24       £38
2013      27       £45
2014      25       £51
2015      28       £56
2016      24 (to date)  £88

This data covers just new introductions in their year of introduction; data further shows that in subsequent years prices fall, e.g. Cowhouse Green, Trumps, Flocon de Neige, Green Tear - as people buy the new rarity, twinscale it, and the supply thus increases.

This creates two pressures; a) on "discoverers" to continue to market new names with claimed distinct marketable qualities, b) available space in the gardens of would-be growers. Of course, some snowdrop gardeners have avoided the limited garden space problem by deciding not to grow any of the "common or garden" varieties but only the new exotic introductions.

Is this a sustainable situation? That depends on the ability of snowdrop introducers to widen the market of growers, eg in Germany or the United States; it will also be affected by the publication of the Snowdrops 2 book. Someone I spoke to yesterday likened the whole new snowdrop-price thing to the mythical Oozlum bird. Please Google this fabulous bird and see if you detect the parallel too.

[johnstephen29]

Hi Hud I don't know wether a individual or a company bought the bulb, if a company they will want to bulk it up by whatever means as quickly as possible to get there money back, like what happened with Elizabeth Harrison a few years back. If a single person it might be the attraction of having a rare bulb that not many people have, who knows. I went a bit mad with a bulb of Kildare that I wanted and had to have.

[Alan_b]

... But what makes that particular 'bulb' worth that kind of money?

  It's USP would be that it is the yellowest snowdrop there is.

[Martina Kopsieker]

Well actually the price went down this year.
Last year it reached the 1300 pounds mark- a new record.
What makes it so unique is the fact that it is a yellow Trym and that it took someone ten years to breed.
It is a variety Galanthophiles dreamed about for years and someone could make the dream come true with deliberate crossing.

You can see the same with hepatica. Some avid collectors pay way over 600 pounds for a "new" variety.


 

[johnstephen29]

I don't know if you go on eBay hud, but if someone see's something on eBay and they want it badly enough they will try there best to get it. As long as they have deep enough pockets of course.

[mark smyth]

I'd bet there are breeding programmes to get yellow in to a snowdrop like Green Tear