Galanthus in February 2018

[Maggi Young]

Sheryl Jermyn has some news of Jim Jermyn........

BREAKING NEWS: Check out BBC Breakfast News on BBC1 tomorrow morning - Saturday 24 Feb - to see my Dad, Jim Jermyn, botanist / horticulturalist and Head Gardener / Property Manager at Branklyn Garden, do a piece on rare snowdrops!!! 

 Michael Myers  was included :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-43174324/are-you-suffering-from-galanthomania

[Alan_b]

'Green Light' growing nicely in North America.

Growing superbly well, I would say.  The green on the outer petals can be just a small dot, sometimes.  You have the marks as large as they ever get.

[Shauney]

Dodo Norton looking good in the sunshine today.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Ditto

[Bart]

No name, no id, but glorious in the winter sun today..

[Blonde Ingrid]

Brief flash of sunshine amidst the snow on a very cold morning patrol.

First up Greenkeeper from Anne Wright. I like this green tipped variety. it has good strong green colour. Both mine are increasing well, both in the ground and pot.

Next Praha, this one in my swaps/spares pot. Reported to be slow and difficult but not so for me. Delightful colour and diminutive, holds it's own despite it's size because of colour and shape.

Next Tante Anne from Andreas Händel, which he describes as ' the only double flowered G. nivalis with five outer petals and green markings on the outer sides". It is an odd looking drop but not unattractive.

Next, one of the freaks Green Maid! Not to my taste at all but catches the eye nevertheless.

Finally Lucy, bulking incredibly well and looking wonderful today, it has been flowering for an age.

[Maggi Young]

How pretty  'Lucy' is!   Quite like 'Praha' too ..... I'll make no comment about 'Green Maid' !

[David Lowndes]

Nice selection. I like Lucy too.  What are you doing about your pots in this cold weather?  I’ve sunk my larger snowdrop pots in a trench in our polytunnel.  The many smaller pots are in the heated greenhouse ...with the lemons! Seems weird. The garden drops will just have to cope. A bit concerned about the reginae-olgaes

[Alan_b]

What do you think of this one?  I thought it looked quite striking, went to consult my notes as to which named cultivar it was and found that it was actually a snowdrop I found as a single bulb in 2014.  It has just got to the stage when you can appreciate it as a group; the first time in its existence. 



I'm quite taken with the pinched green and white tip.  I don't think we have the concise terminology to convey this effect.   

[Susan W]

Yes like it a lot. Looks a good one.

[Rick Goodenough]

Growing superbly well, I would say.  The green on the outer petals can be just a small dot, sometimes.  You have the marks as large as they ever get.

Thank you, Alan. I will show another with both flowers more opened up when we get a few rays of sun.

Also, on your 2014 foundling...that is quite a lovely bloom with an elegant long form and as you say the pinched apical mark on the outers simply accentuates its elegance to my eye. Is it nivalis? Lovely. Rick

[Alan_b]

Is it nivalis?

14 years ago I chanced across a wood with a large population of Galanthus nivalis.  Many nivalis populations in England are not very fertile and they rely mostly on natural division to bulk-up the stock then man, animals or nature to spread the bulbs around.  But in this particular wood you see large quantities of seedlings and as a result the snowdrops growing there are much more diverse than is usual here.  We got permission from the landowner to remove a few bulbs and I have been returning every year since to see what I can find.  I have never yet found more than a few of any one type or a few different types of interest in any one year.  Most things that I find and think might be promising come to nothing.  But this one is looking good and it has increased quite rapidly.       

[François Lambert]

but I have a question.  The clumps of Galanthus growing near the spruce trees seem to shrink every year (from left on the bedroom view pic).  Could it be that the needles falling from the trees have made the soil too acidic ?  And would it help then to sprinkle some lime on the soil.  I don't think shade is an issue, I have many clumps prospering in deeper shaded areas of the garden, but there they do not grow under conifers.  Your advise will be much appreciated.

Thank you all for you advise.  I think water & nutrients are probably not the problem, the soil is a heavy clay soil which keeps it's moisture very well even when rain does not fall for a couple for months (happened last year) and since I use a mulchmower for the lawn the soil even accumulates nutrients.  So that leaves me with the shade as major problem.  There's also a rhododendron growing there, which makes it indeed a dark spot and the sherry tree at the right also grows bigger every year.  I will cut off the lowest branches of the spruces to allow more light getting in from the South.

[Brian Ellis]

I'm quite taken with the pinched green and white tip.  I don't think we have the concise terminology to convey this effect.

Very nice find Alan, the term is goffering to indicate the pinched green part - often seen in what I always think of as Bohemian snowdrops.

[Alan_b]

So that leaves me with the shade as major problem. 

In one location I visit there is a big colony of Galanthus plicatus, self-set around some trees.  One tree is deciduous and is surrounded by snowdrops right up to the trunk.  The other tree is an evergreen yew and there are no snowdrops at all close to the trunk; nothing within a 1 m radius and little within 2 m. The contrast in growth habits is very striking.