Galanthus in January 2017

[Rick Goodenough]

A bit of a warmer day and I got a couple of shots. G. 'Fenstead End' peeped open today and this G. gracilis was putting on its show.

Rick

[Alan_b]

edit : replying to comment  in the Early flowering 'drop thread  -  Yes, but there are no early yellows that I know of and only one double, which is not consistently yellow. 

Surprisingly, the article makes no mention of recent successes in breeding yellow snowdrops, such as Joe Sharman's 'Golden Fleece' & 'Treasure island' or Anne Wright's 'Dryad Gold ..' series.

[Blonde Ingrid]

Interesting introductory article in the February edition of the RHS The Garden magazine on yellow snowdrops by Roger Harvey.

Includes photos of some of the more common varieties and references some of the orange drops.

Worth a look.

[Alan_b]

Aha; my psychic powers allow me to answer Ingrid's comment before she has posted it.

[Brian Ellis]

Surprisingly, the article makes no mention of recent successes in breeding yellow snowdrops, such as Joe Sharman's 'Golden Fleece' & 'Treasure island' or Anne Wright's 'Dryad Gold ..' series.

Perhaps it shows he is a nurseryman first and a galanthophile second.

[Maggi Young]

Aha; my psychic powers allow me to answer Ingrid's comment before she has posted it.

Indeed - I was impressed at that!  I moved the two posts from the "earlies" thread to here and they turned around in this one - very odd!

[Maggi Young]

Perhaps it shows he is a nurseryman first and a galanthophile second.

That was my thought!

[Alan_b]

Poor 'Elizabeth Harrison' always gets a mention as being stratospherically expensive - which was largely a result of Thompson and Morgan going a bit crazy for some reason of their own.  These days the going rate is under £100, which is ridiculous in terms of ordinary garden plants but you can pay the same or more for a rare Hepatica.  Galanthus 'Golden Fleece' went for well over £1000 when first sold on eBay so it's a pity it did not get a mention.  And surely the recent crop of yellows represents the most successful attempts at cross-breeding snowdrops since the Greatorex Doubles? 

[Brian Ellis]

Poor 'Elizabeth Harrison' always gets a mention as being stratospherically expensive - which was largely a result of Thompson and Morgan going a bit crazy for some reason of their own.  These days the going rate is under £100, which is ridiculous in terms of ordinary garden plants but you can pay the same or more for a rare Hepatica.  Galanthus 'Golden Fleece' went for well over £1000 when first sold on eBay so it's a pity it did not get a mention.  And surely the recent crop of yellows represents the most successful attempts at cross-breeding snowdrops since the Greatorex Doubles?

Nobody is disputing any of that, but if I was a nurseryman writing an article I would make sure the majority of plants mentioned were available from my nursery.

[Maggi Young]

While not doubting that many lovely 'drops have been found in existing populations, I have a great admiration for those working hard to breed certain desired  characteristics into  bulbs from scratch. 'Our own' Anne W. is one such, of course.

[annew]

I just read the article. it is rather biased (so am I!  ), but you can't blame him - he has to sell his own stuff.

[Maggi Young]

Anne's new 'drops are attracting  great interest on ebay - as well they might! 
One of Hagen's  gems is  soaring, too-  see Here.

[Maggi Young]

From Ian the Christie kind....

"Found this new G.  nivalis near here last year -  the inner marks close up look like a green cross under a green line below the ovary,  a neat small Snowdrop.
 
 The flowers are only 3 to 4 inches high - might get taller ,very nice pristine white flowers without doubt this is a hybrid with something (g.  plicatus?)"
 
 
 
 

[Maggi Young]

Again from Ian C.
"I went out today and selected some G. plicatus leaves - and a leaf from the little G. nivalis shown in the previous post.  That nivalis leaf is at the end of the first pic and is a blue green. Note the turned over leaves  on all this lot. These are hybrids, pictures are all of the reverse of the leaves. "
Cheers.
 
 



     

[Maggi Young]

Referring back to Julia's photo  the other day - here is a close-up of Ian Christie's new
'drop from the Castle - which he has named for his Mother  so it  is   Galanthus 'Alice Bell' - which he tells us is not for sale!