Galanthus: January 2008

[David Nicholson]

Mark, thanks! I wont comment on how similar they seem to me!!!!

[Martin Baxendale]

A particular problem with snowdrops and naming is that there simply has been so little deliberate breeding and selection of good cultivars by experienced growers who know what to look for when selecting good, distinct plants - unlike in most other genera, like daffs, tulips, lilies, even crocus, where there has been lots of deliberate breeding and careful selection by experienced amateurs and professionals.

For decades snowdrop people have looked for their "new snowdrops" almost entirely amongst self-sown seedlings and chance hybrids in old gardens and woods. With hundreds of people all looking for anything that looks even slightly different in a swathe of snowdrops, it's all a tad haphazard and bound o lead to lots of so-so stuff being picked out and named by people who have no way of knowing if twenty other people have also picked out something just like that and named it.

If more new cultivars had come from experienced growers deliberately breeding, there'd have be more quality control, more careful selection and I'm sure fewer named cultivars. After all, few professional breeders name all their flowers after themselves - it's less of an ego-trip (as Lesley put it) and more a qustion of wanting to do a proper job of breeding and selection and not wanting to be associated with sub-standard plants.

[Gerard Oud]

 

And how would you actually register a snowdrop (or any other bulb for that matter).  Do you have to ship a specimen to Holland?
[/quote]about 30 bulbs of a flowerable size send in before november1, 1 or 2 names you would like to give it, small description about the name and species origin.It will be jugded on uniformity, stability and if its not the same like some other already registerd snowdrops.After 2 years observing and found good enough, it gets official registrated.
And the other important thing is you have to leave about 65 euro(inclusiv VAT) at the KAVB office.
Drs Johan van Scheepen is always very helpful about several questions in bulbmatters, although it takes a while before you get a reply.Its better to contact him by phone 0031252536950.

regards Gerard

[Martin Baxendale]

30 bulbs, Gerard? Wow! If you had to send 30 Gal. 'Diggory', at £50 a time in the catalogues now, that'd be £1,500 worth of bulbs. The 65 Euro charge seems peanuts in comparison! 

I think it's right to say, isn't it? that registration of bulb names is mainly for professional growers who have raised large stocks of very commercial verieties for the general bulb market and want to get their name registered and accepted by the bulb trade so their cultivar will be stocked and sold. So it's very much a commercial thing, along with registering cultivar 'trademark' names and claiming plant breeder rights.

[Diane Whitehead]

Two years of observing ----

Does this mean that there is a place in Holland where all the registered
snowdrops are growing?

Can we visit?

[Maggi Young]

There is certainly a  place where vast numbers of old Tulip varieties are grown, Diane, because I know Ian visited there  and was most impressed. A sort of growing museum!

[Martin Baxendale]

Gerard, what do you normally use your oryzalin on if not on snowdrops? You say you have a lot of it. Do you use it on lilies?

[Gerard Oud]

We do use it on the lillie scales to make them tetraploid, about the snowdrops registration after those 2 years you can have the snowdrops back if you like.Otherwise they end up in the bin or the collection of the KAVB. For tulips there is the Hortus Bulborum and it is still in Limmen i believe and they grow tulips from over 400 years old till now, google a bit on the net and you will find it.

[mark smyth]

David, again, ask and you receive! Galanthus hippolyta

[mark smyth]

I heard back from the registrar in Holland
"Dear Mr Smyth,

We are at present in the process of incorporating all Galanthus cultivars
which are published in the book Snowdrops: A monograph of cultivated
Galanthus by Bishop, Davis & Grimshaw. Besides that we have a few cultivars
which are extra to this book. So until we have finished and checked our
input of the database, a list will not be made.

yours sincerely,"

[David Nicholson]

David, again, ask and you receive! Galanthus hippolyta

Mark, thanks, was I wrong, is it on your Site?

[mark smyth]

It's not there. I dont know how I missed it well, when I havd to search through 6 years of image folders It would be very easy to over look one or more

[mark smyth]

Brian was it a local lecture that Joe was at?

[Brian Ellis]

Yes Mark, Norfolk branch of the NCCPG...but open national members and also to guests at £1.50, and I have to say Joe is a super lecturer. ('Course his plants are good too )

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Rob, welcome to the Forum.
I'm going to merge this topic with the existing topic "Galanthus, January 2008"

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=947.0
 Cheers,
Maggi Moderator