Galanthus Events 2009

[ichristie]

To all snowdropaholics, please remember that Rod Leeds will be the speaker at the Snowdrop gala in the RBGE on friday 20th feb and he will also be speaker at The Dunblane show SRGC on Sat 21st Feb, he will be speaking about Snowdrops no need to fly south just come to Scotland,  cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[jamouatt]

My Gala ticket also arrived some time back Martin.

[Martin Baxendale]

Yes Martin, I had mine some while ago.  Hope yours are on the way.  I checked my bank statement to see if the money had been taken before they arrived.

Thanks Brian. Just checked my bank statements and the cheque was cashed, so I'm paid up even if the ticket got lost in the mail.

[johnw]

Thanks Alan , all those events give me some leeway. I am tempted to check for flights. They won't be £2-ers however.

johnw

[librarylady]

Hello, I am in Newbury and our local nursery foxgrove plants has very fine snowdrops. They are having an event in early February. I can also highly recommend Brandy Mount as all the snowdrops I have had from there have done well.

 I have had to dig the whole lot up last year from my small town patio garden in central newbury  as the neighbours were putting up an extension and  it appears that a lot have buds on.  Unfortunately quite a few of the expensive ones I have had over the years seem to have disappeared. The soil here is very well drained alluvial silt -apparently and gets a lot of sun in summer . do I need to add a thick mulch to cool the soil in summer. I am missing 3 ships, benhall beauty, margery brown, richard ayres and many others that vanished the year after planting. Comet , ketton, curly,  earliest of all, john gray are all doing very well any clues, please?
This forum seems to be very knowledgeable and I am hoping to gain many useful tips.
I have a very small digital camera, which has gone AWOL completely over christmas, and which does not take good "snowdrop " pictures. What do you all recommend to take clear photos ?

Thanking you in anticipation
Wendy

[Alan_b]

There is a snowdrop-specific type of botrytis (the furry grey mould) that could have killed your bulbs over the summer if they got it late last season.

Leaf scorch (Stagonospora) seems to be on the rise but you might have noticed unusual marks on the leaves last season if the bulbs have died over the summer.

Slugs and snails can be a problem in mild weather and will eat snowdrop flower buds as the emerge from the ground.  I have seen bulbs with large chunks eaten out of them (but which survived and recovered over the next several years).

In your position I would wait another month or so and if nothing appears then try to excavate where one of the missing clumps was to see if there is any sign of the bulbs.  But be careful what you do with the soil as you do not want to spread any disease there might have been.


On the subject of digital photography, I find the macro feature on my (Nikon) digital camera very useful for taking snowdrops but the autofocus is a real pain because it much prefers to focus on the background than on the large expanse of white that is a snowdrop flower close-up.

[johnw]

Yes Martin, I had mine some while ago.  Hope yours are on the way.  I checked my bank statement to see if the money had been taken before they arrived.

Thanks Brian. Just checked my bank statements and the cheque was cashed, so I'm paid up even if the ticket got lost in the mail.

Martin - After his recent rash of orders I don't think Brian will be receiving any more bank statements.

johnw

[Brian Ellis]

I hope not John it will be too much of a shock

[johnw]

I hope not John it will be too much of a shock

 

johnw

[jamouatt]

Two additional places Alan did not mention well worth a visit are:-

The National Trust garden at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire where to get access to the Special Galanthus Collection one must ask at the entrance ticket desk for a (free) snowdrop guided tour ticket. Only a few of these tickets are available each day so it's best to get there just before opening time to make sure of one.  Please refer to http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-events-find_event.htm?propertyID=36 for times and dates and more info.

The other garden is a woodland garden, Evenley Wood Garden at Evenley Northamptonshire near Brackley. This is run by Tim Whiteley who I believe supplies some of the Galanthus trade outlets.  I had the following email from Tim today about the 2009 snowdrop open weekends (Dear John  We are opening for two weekends for snowdrops this year  Fri.13th.Feb----Sun.15th and Fri.20th----Sun.22.11.00--4.30pm). The garden web site has a list of snowdrops to be found in the gardens and the clumps are well labeled. To digress a little this garden is also interesting in that the soil in one area is alkaline and the rest acidic.

[Alan_b]

Two additional places Alan did not mention well worth a visit are:-

The National Trust garden at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire where to get access to the Special Galanthus Collection one must ask at the entrance ticket desk for a (free) snowdrop guided tour ticket. Only a few of these tickets are available each day so it's best to get there just before opening time to make sure of one.  Please refer to http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-events-find_event.htm?propertyID=36 for times and dates and more info.

More on Anglesey Abbey (which is not far away from me).  Their snowdrop season runs from 21st January to 22nd February, according to the notices on display at the property (although these dates might alter if the snowdrop season were affected by a prolonged spell of cold or mild weather).  The free tours of their Special Galanthus Collection start at 2:00 pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  They do not run at weekends and I did not think they ran on Tuesdays (although the information online implies otherwise).  The property is closed on Mondays.  You certainly need to arrive early to be sure of getting a ticket, particularly if the weather is good.  Getting there "just before opening time" is probably earlier than necessary.  It seems there are up to 50 places on each tour.  I did not mention Anglesey Abbey because it is not an "event" but I do consider it well worth a visit.

[mark smyth]

"Hello Mark,

We’re a botanical garden in Belgium, close by the border with the Netherlands, and I have visited your site www.snowdropinfo.com several times. 

For the first time we organize a Galanthus Gala in our garden on the 14th of February 2009.  There will be some lectures, a little market and an exposition ‘The Snow Drop Show’.  Here in Belgium this is very unique because Galanthopilia is not so common (yet) as it is in Brittan.  We hope that with our initiative we well reach lots of galanthopiles and that it will grow into a unique journey. We don’t have that much Galanthus in our own collection yet, but the exposition and lectures will compensate that (I hope so).  We do have a world famous Hamamelis collection, which is quit interesting.

Your site is clear, interesting and it has been useful for me because I’m not a galanthopile at all, so I had to start learning from the beginning because I had the assignment of setting up this event.

Keep up the good work!"

Well spotted Luc

Arboretum Kalmthout
http://www.provant.be/vrije_tijd/domeinen/arboretum_kalmthout/?redir=http://www.arboretumkalmthout.be/

[Brian Ellis]

Interesting Mark, that I am on Harvey's postal list and have only just this morning received news of the snowdrop days.  It might be worth mentioning to him that he ought to be quicker off the mark next year!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Hello Mark,

We’re a botanical garden in Belgium, close by the border with the Netherlands, and I have visited your site www.snowdropinfo.com several times. 

Mark,
Who did this come from ??

[mark smyth]

Well spotted Luc

Arboretum Kalmthout
http://www.provant.be/vrije_tijd/domeinen/arboretum_kalmthout/?redir=http://www.arboretumkalmthout.be/