Galanthus July 2017

[Leena]

It seems incredible to see snowdrop leaves midway through July.  Yet on my trip to Georgia in mid-March the krasnovii and (most) platyphyllus species snowdrops were still under deep snow.  It might be interesting to try these in your garden, Leena, although unfortunately they are difficult to get hold of.

This year is so different from previous years, all plants are later than usually when snowdrops go dormant here in June. Those species are interesting, but as you wrote, difficult to get hold of.

[Alan_b]

The Reverend Richard Blakeway-Phillips was a keen plantsman and an early-adopter of the modern craze for snowdrops.  He originated quite a few, one of which was 'Abington Green'.  The Abingtons, Great and Little, lie a few miles south of Cambridge, just off the road to Haverhill.  Richard Blakeway-Phillips lived and worked as a curate in Little Abington for some years.  The Abingtons are in my locale and 'Abington Green' is quite frequently misspelled 'Abingdon Green' so any misspelling is like a red rag to a bull to me.

I never knowingly met Richard Blakeway-Phillips and when he died in October 2012 his death seemed to have passed unremarked here on the Forum.  None of the books on snowdrops I checked give biographical information on him and it seems I have to pay £2.50 in order to read his Times obituary.  What remains online is an article written by Anna Pavord in February 2012: http://www.independent.co.uk/property/gardening/snow-white-its-high-time-you-succumbed-to-snowdrop-fever-6668092.html       

[Brian Ellis]

The hyphenated surname originates with the marriage of Robert Phillips and Mary Blakeway in Pontesbury, Shropshire in 1842.  They were his great grandparents and subsequent generations used Blakeway as a middle name to begin with.  Revd Richard John Blakeway-Phillips was born in September 1919 in Atcham, Shropshire.  Ledbury was his first curacy and it was when he was curate at Cirencester, Gloucestershire that he married Rachel Cutter ithere n 1950 moving to Aylburton to be Priest in Charge and curate of Lydney. Sadly his first wife died in 1953 and he remarried in 1956 his wife being Eleanor Shacklock who was the mother of Clare, Mathew and Celia. He also introduced Iris unguicularis 'Abington Purple' in 1993.

[johnralphcarpenter]

The Reverend Richard Blakeway-Phillips was a keen plantsman and an early-adopter of the modern craze for snowdrops.  He originated quite a few, one of which was 'Abington Green'.  The Abingtons, Great and Little, lie a few miles south of Cambridge, just off the road to Haverhill.  Richard Blakeway-Phillips lived and worked as a curate in Little Abington for some years.  The Abingtons are in my locale and 'Abington Green' is quite frequently misspelled 'Abingdon Green' so any misspelling is like a red rag to a bull to me.

I never knowingly met Richard Blakeway-Phillips and when he died in October 2012 his death seemed to have passed unremarked here on the Forum.  None of the books on snowdrops I checked give biographical information on him and it seems I have to pay £2.50 in order to read his Times obituary.  What remains online is an article written by Anna Pavord in February 2012: http://www.independent.co.uk/property/gardening/snow-white-its-high-time-you-succumbed-to-snowdrop-fever-6668092.html       

As Anna says, he was a regular at RHS Westminster Shows. I probably bought some from him then. Pity the shows are a pale shadow of what they once were.

[Alan_b]

Thank you both for your information and comments on Rev. Blakeway-Phillips.  I remain surprised that his death seems to have passed us by unnoticed or unremarked upon at the time.

[Leena]

It seems incredible to see snowdrop leaves midway through July.

I looked in my notebook, and I had written, that 'Wendy's Gold' and 'Spindlestone Surprise' came up March 28th. The same plants were in the picture in previous page and are now going dormant. They didn't have seed pods. 'Gerard Parker' came up some days earlier in March, and it is now slower going dormant, but it has seed pods. The growing time was about three months and two-three weeks, but we had quite cold spring and early summer this year. How long these snowdrops are growing in the UK where they start earlier?

[Alan_b]

In my part of the world most of the snowdrops last until May, some go at the start of May and some last until the end; a small minority might just make it into June.  The majority start to appear in January and flower in February.  So I guess the average time above ground is about 4 months.  I don't believe the ones that appear and flower later keep going any longer so it might be as little as 3 months.  And the autumn-flowering ones don't seem to derive any benefit from their earlier appearance.