Galanthus in December 2016

[Ru]

G. alpinus (Adjarian) (PAL-SV-15-0154) The green spot is not as bright as it was before.

[Rick Goodenough]

Ru,
A handsome drop nonetheless.
Please show us more!
Rick

[Ru]

G. alpinus  (PAL-SV-15-0119).
He is in full bloom now.
This is not the first flower of this form .
I wanted to call it "mosquito". Alas, that name is already taken . I am grateful to Janet Benjafield for information about this. Dima Zubov  gave me a good idea: " like a flying Christmas angel!!! "
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fz4876GfFtM/hqdefault.jpg
Why not?
'Flying Christmas Angel'?...  'Christmas Angel'?...

[mark smyth]

A week of record breaking cold temperatures, -7c, followed by a week of record breaking warm temperatures, 16c, have persuaded two snowdrop to finally burst open and drop. They've been in the upright position for what seems to be a few weeks. 'Mrs McNamara' and 'Fly Fishing' are the start of my winter season

[johnw]

A lovely one Ru, 'Christmas Angel' sounds just right to me.


I have an alpinus (gracilis it turned out to be) from Anne's seed showing a flower bud already yet my old Potterton "caucasicum" since thought to be alpinus ssp. alpinus is my latest snowdrop.  It has barely started to make roots.


john

[Alan_b]

I'll give it another year of 'looking after' Then I'm afraid its likely to go to the allotment for a fairly brutal assessment as to whether its more robust than Dad!

I have not grown 'Three Ships' for very long but I have seen nothing to indicate that it is less robust than the average snowdrop cultivar; the fact that it is so widely distributed implies that it is a good doer.  So to be more robust is quite a challenge!  Can it not be more fragrant or have longer-lasting flowers or some other more subtle merit?  Just to be flowering this early is quite impressive. 

[Mariette]

´Three Ships´multiplies quickly, but in Germany, there have been losses in cold winters.

[Alan_b]

Losses where other example of the same species (Galanthus plicatus) have survived?

[Ru]

A lovely one Ru, 'Christmas Angel' sounds just right to me.

I have an alpinus from Anne's seed showing a flower bud already yet my old Potterton "caucasicum" since thought to be alpinus ssp. alpinus is my latest snowdrop.  It has barely started to make roots.


john

My alpinus s.str, caucasicum, angustifolius, bortkewitschianus still asleep. No flowers. The uniqueness of the Adjarian population is that these plants not need a  cold dormant period. They begin to grow immediately after the first cold nights ...
Some of these plants are real giants. Some of them have a very broad leaves. I plan a lot of work on hybridization with them.

[Alan_b]

I'm very taken with a new snowdrop that I acquired in the summer called 'Else Grollenberg'.  The three large bulbs have each produced two flowering shoots and a third smaller non-flowering one.  They came into flower at about the same time as my 'Peter Gatehouse' snowdrops, so relatively early in what is, for me, a later-than-usual autumn season.  The flowers are unusually proportioned with very long narrow outer petals.  This makes them distinctive and immediately recognisable.  I have tried to capture this in a downward looking shot (please excuse the anti-squirrel netting).

My impression is that not many UK galanthophiles grow this particular snowdrop.  They are distributed by Wim Postema from http://www.sneeuwklokjes.nl/   

[Mariette]

Losses where other example of the same species (Galanthus plicatus) have survived?

Yes, probably due to it´s early flowering and sending up leaves, ´Three Ships´died or were severely reduced where ´Augustus´, for instance, remained unharmed.

Once, G. plicatus was considered short-lived in Germany, which is not the case, in my experience. Possibly it succumbed to frost in the colder parts of Germany. Luckily, I´m gardening in one of the mildest parts, near the Dutch border.

[Brian Ellis]

'Alpha Dervish Dance' is really nice Ru, quite distinctive.

[Ru]

'Alpha Dervish Dance' is really nice Ru, quite distinctive.

I was surprised by the size of its bulbs

[Leena]

Bulbs are like small onions   

Here there are no sign of any snowdrop noses yet, the ground is frozen and has been some time already. I don't expect it to melt until spring. Usually I can see noses of early varieties like 'Mrs Macnamara' in December, though they flower only in March and April here, but this year they are not up yet. I think this is because this cold period started already in the beginning of November, earliest since I have grown snowdrops.
So far G.plicatus varieties have been fine here in spite of the cold, they don't come up until spring. I hope this winter is no exception.

[johnw]

Ru - Good to see both you and those giants!


john