Galanthus in October 2016

[Alan_b]

I made two previous attempts to grow Galanthus reginae-olgae 'Tilebarn Jamie' and in both case it failed very rapidly.  Then a very kind friend gave me a spare pot of them and I have not looked back since.  I had sixteen bulbs when I repotted them in the summer and this pot contains half of those.  I have focused on the base of the plants so you can see that many of the bulbs are producing two scapes.  The one in the centre must have been a twin-nosed bulb as there are three more scapes emerging.  So if you wonder what the USP of this particular snowdrop is, well it certainly produces lots of flowers.
   

[johnw]

Looks as if the G. peshmenii seedlings will be the first in flower beating out the reginae-olgaes this year.


johnw

[Hagen Engelmann]

so here it is always ... johnw

[Leena]

Very nice snowdrop, Alan.
Here an unnamed G.reginae-olgae came up in early October, but just as I had taken this picture, the next night a vole cut it's flower.
There is no sight yet of 'Tilebarn Jamie' or 'Cambridge', also last year they came up here in November, much later than in more south,  and started to flower in December (just before the winter), so I'm still hopeful that they may emerge. I'm beginning to think that also daylength affects on when they flower, and it may be that autumn flowering snowdrops don't do well here in the long run, but this is only my second year with them so I can't say for sure.

[Alan_b]

I mentioned that I had sixteen bulbs of 'Tilebarn Jamie' and showed a pot of 8 of them.  The other 8 are also in a pot but this was in a more shaded part of the garden (although only a few metres away).  So this second pot would have been in colder and probably drier conditions than the first.  I have three noses just emerging in that pot which puts it about two weeks behind the first one.  All my reginae-olgae are quite late this year, probably because we had a warm and dry spell in September.  I'm sure soil temperature and moisture play a part in flowering time.  If day length has an influence then presumably you would expect earlier flowering the further north you get.

I should add that the biggest threat to autumn-flowering snowdrops here is predation by slugs and snails which can be still quite active at the time the shoots emerge.     

[Maggi Young]

I feel your pain, Alan - in recent years it seems there is no time of year when slugs and snails are not active.   Doesn't make life any easier, does it? 

[Leena]

I'm sure soil temperature and moisture play a part in flowering time.  If day length has an influence then presumably you would expect earlier flowering the further north you get.

Here summer was rainy and autumn dry (but cool). These snowdrops grow in the sunniest place in my garden, and I had watered them through September and October, because it didn't rain (hoping for them to come up earlier than last year). The unnamed G.r-o came up the same time as last year, about three weeks earlier than 'Tilebarn Jamie' and 'Cambridge' last year. They all grow close to each other. If cooler soil temperatures trigger the flowering then they should come up earlier here than in Europe, or perhaps they need warmer autumn to come up..
With day length I meant that some plants need longer night than day time to trigger the flowering (for instance Persicaria virginiana never manages to flower here, it starts to develop flower bud too late in the autumn as it needs longer night to do it. I got the seeds for it from Montreal, Canada, where it even produces seeds).
Here day is longer than night until almost end of September, in more southern latitudes the dark time is longer in August and September than what it is here.

It is possible that my TJ and C suffered so much from last winter that they have died, and that's why there is no sign of them.
I'm very happy with the unnamed autumn snowdrop which is so early that it might make it also here.
Luckily there are no slugs any more, they have gone to winter rest here.

[Alan_b]

I don't want to get too technical, Leena, but I think that anywhere that is far enough north to be in Europe experiences the autumn equinox (equal length day or night) on the same day towards the end of September.  But by now you will have longer nights and shorter days than I do in Cambridge.  All reginae-olgae flower after the autumn equinox so if flowering is triggered by shorter day lengths then it ought to happen sooner the further north you get.   

[johnw]

I got the seeds for it from Montreal, Canada, where it even produces seeds).

Leena  - I am thunder-struck.  I would never have guessed reginae-olgae would survive a winter in Montréal let alone ripen seed there.  Unbelievable given the  mountains of snow there.  I wonder if a hardier strain might be possible with a little inventive pollination....


john

[Alan_b]

I agree that Montreal seems an incredible location for reginae-olgae if they are exposed to the winter.  It would be very interesting to know the specifics, Leena.

[Leena]

John, I meant that Persicaria virginiana flowered in Montreal and not here, it was an example of plants that need darker nights earlier in late summer to trigger flowering.
And of course the nights are here now longer.
Whatever the reason is that to me it seems that autumn snowdrops which start to flower already in September or early October in lower latitudes, come up here later (not only in my garden but I have couple of friends who have tried them and have the same experience). It would be interesting if anyone here has successfully grown them norther than where I live.

[Alan_b]

Further north you have longer days in summer but the sun does not rise so high so you get fewer hours of strong daylight.  Perhaps it's a certain number of hours of strong daylight that the Persicaria needs to make it flower?

For any bulb that flowers in autumn and needs exposed seed pods to survive the winter, flowering later where the days are shorter and the winters are colder is not likely to be a good strategy for long-term survival.  So what could cause this?  If the trigger to start the 'clock' were some (broadly) latitude-independent event like the autumn equinox but then flowering time occurs a certain number of daylight hours later then that would delay flowering the further north you get.  But I cannot really convince myself that this postulated mechanism is likely to be correct. 

[johnw]

Leena  - That's a relief, I should have read more closely.  My G. reginae-olgaes seem to have disappeared after a mild winter.


john

[ruben]

Galanthus peshmenii 'Green Flight'

[Alan_b]

That's a nice looking snowdrop, Ruben.  I made one attempt to grow Galanthus peshmenii outdoors in the garden but it never came back the following year so I have been shy of growing that species ever since.