Galanthus: January 2008

[Paddy Tobin]

Now Anthony,

Here is today's vocabulary lesson from Dictionary.com:

Paddy


Dictionary.com Unabridged
reg·u·lar·ize      /ˈrɛgyələˌraɪz/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[reg-yuh-luh-rahyz] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -ized, -iz·ing. to make regular. 

Also, especially British, reg·u·lar·ise.


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[Origin: 1615–25; regular + -ize]

—Related forms
reg·u·lar·i·za·tion, noun
reg·u·lar·iz·er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This regularise

verb
1.  bring into conformity with rules or principles or usage; impose regulations; "We cannot regulate the way people dress"; "This town likes to regulate" [syn: regulate] [ant: deregulate] 
2.  make regular or more regular; "regularize the heart beat with a pace maker" [syn: regularize] 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,

I shall look more carefully at this clump and read the label this time to be sure it is 'Paradise Giant'. I must admit that I simply took the photograph and based identification on location in the garden rather than checking the label to be certain. I'll look into it but not today, hardly tomorrow, possibly on Wednesday.

Paddy

[mark smyth]

How do you find chipped bark over bulbs?

[Anthony Darby]

Mark, I just look and there it is.


Paddy, didn't check my dictionary.  My Concise Oxford English Dictionary (8th ed. 1990) includes it at the end with the American spelling and "also -ise". It just means to regulate, and I would always say that you "regulate the heart beat with a pace maker". Looks to me like a word in the same bracket as "burglarise", "hospitalise" etc. where a noun is changed into a verb, whether there is a perfectly good one already or not, by adding "ise" or "ize" to the end of it? 

[annew]

Good Grief, a Scot (?) lecturing an Irishman about the finer points of English......

[tonyg]

Chipped bark - over anything - I found it blew about when it got dry. (.... so when I looked there it wasn't )

While we are on the subject of top dressing. Fine grit = cat litter but very coarse grit and heavier 'shingle' is better.  Sandstone and slate are my favourites (but not mixed   Slate is not brilliant for bulbs as it lies flat and can block growing shoots, causing some shoot damage.

My snowdrops are covered by fallen leaves which are damp this time of year and usually do stay put.

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,

I have bark only on one bed which has bulbs, a mixture of cyclamen and snowdrops and it works perfectly well; never gave me any bother or gave any trouble to the snowdrops. It seems to suit the cyclamen very well indeed. The second bed on which I use it has cyclamen only.

Tony,
It has never blown away on me though bird pecking about can disturb it. Throughout the rest of the garden leaves are what cover the snowdrops, in places to quite a depth, deep enough to make it impossible to find labels and emerging snowdrops snouts at this time of year but it is the perfect mulch, I imagine.

Paddy

[snowdropman]

Second attempt - the first one just seemed to disappear after I pressed the 'Post' button!

Mark - I find that Blackbirds are the main problem with chipped bark - when it is wet they tend to root around in it, looking for worms etc, leaving 'holes', as well as scattering the chipped bark around in places where it was not intended!

Tony - with the advent of our milder winters, which in turn seems to mean that the slugs etc are now active for most of the winter, I tend to remove fallen leaves as these encourage the slugs, with a much higher incidence of the new shoots of the snowdrops being 'grazed'.

[Martin Baxendale]

Anthony, can you tell me what magnification I'd need to see leaf stomata? This is to do with telling if a plant is teraploid (large stomata) or diploid (smaller stomata) and originates from discussions in the galanthus breeding thread, but I'm not sure if you read that thread.

I'm thinking of trying to get hold of a microscope and wondered what magnification would be required to study stomata.

I should remember (roughly) from A-level biology but (for someone who once wanted to be a botanist) I wasn't as attentive as I should have been - I once got marks deducted in an essay for saying that a definition of an animal was that it could "move of its own coition".   

[Martin Baxendale]

Of course I meant "volition" but that didn't stop the teacher reading it out in class so everyone could have a good laugh (though he had to explain "coition" first, for the benefit of most of the class).

[Paul T]

Er Yes, that would have got a bit of a chuckle from the class. 

[mark smyth]

Here's a couple of photos of my elwesii 'Fred's Giant' very ordinary by today's standards and most likely not 'Fred's' at all. The petal with the mistake is more 'Fred' like. It's not very giant either.

The so called 'Cotswold Farm' is developing in to an elegant snowdrop but still not woth a name.

One of my 'Castlegars' has a mistake on an inner petal just like 'Fred' or is that petal showing what 'Fred' should look like?

[Alan_b]

I seem to remember that when I was a child there was a vogue for "funny-face" pansies (so named because the marks on the flower resembled a face).  I wonder if one day there will be a vogue for sad-faced snowdrops?  Is it just me or does anyone else see a sad-faced clown in the markings on Mark's second picture?     

[Paul T]

It's not just you.  I always see faces, but the sad clown hadn't materialised until after you'd mentioned it and I went back for a look.  You're not alone!! 

[Paddy Tobin]

I imagine there are many who might think us sad to be looking for faces on snowdrops at all.

Is there a need for a new place on the forum - "Seekers of Sad Faces"?

Better to look on all snowdrops as happy plants, perhaps.


Mark,

Your posting is a perfect example of the muddle in the naming of snowdrops: You refer to  and "not very giant either".
'Fred's Giant' as "most likely not 'Fred's at all."
Also, you have the "so-called 'Cotswold Farm' ....not worth a name" and then we have "'Castlegar' has a mistake on an inner petal."

This would lead one to wonder if any of them are what they portend to be at all and certainly indicates a general  muddle with snowdrop names.

Anthony, this is a situation which needs to be regularised!

Paddy