Galanthus Events 2009

[steve owen]

Did anyone go to the wisley snowdrop splendour today?,im heading down there tomorrow ,providing it doesnt snow to hard.

 I was disappointed by Wisley's snowdrop display, very few named cultivars but they have some wonderful Witch Hazels and you mustn't miss the butterflies in the glasshouse.

And the small alpine house (not the big new one) at the top of the rock garden is a dream.

[KentGardener]

Colesbourne...

...can you recommend gardens or nurseries to visit in the immediate vicinity, even naturalized snowdrops?  Hellebores, primulas, other bulbs, trees, shrubs etc etc are all of interest. Will not be doing a car rental.   

Hi John

how will you be getting to Colesbourne if you don't have a car?  I would think it could be a difficult to do on public transport.

I was intending to visit the 'Painswick Rococo Garden' when at Colesbourne this year - but that is not to be.  Haven't been to the Rococo before but looking at the website it seems it can be done by train and bus:

http://www.rococogarden.org.uk/visiting.aspx

If you do go please take lots of photographs so that I can get a feel of the place.   (On a map it looks about 6 miles from Colesbourne accross country).

Cheers

John

[Alan_b]

Galanthus platyphyllus is a late flowerer. Mine aren't even close to the surface of the compost yet. They are very distinctive with little or no sinus notch on the inner petals.

This is a picture of the snowdrop that was sold to me as Galanthus platyphyllus.  The leaves are supervolute and dark green with a matt finish.  The flower is quite small so the sinus notch is little, although when magnified in the photograph not so little in proportion to the petals.  If it is not platyphyllus, what could it be?  If it is platyphyllus then somebody has a stock of a much earlier flowering form.  Nobody at Wisley could/would tell me who supplied these snowdrops. 

[Anthony Darby]

Here is a link to Galanthus platyphyllus: http://www.hot.ee/sibullilled/thumbs/127.jpg The problem lies in that in the past woronowii has been called G. ikariae latifolius, and G. platyphyllus used to be called G. latifolius. Your plant looks to me like woronowii Alan? http://www.hot.ee/sibullilled/thumbs/131.jpg

[Alan_b]

My flower does not look that much like your picture of platyphyllus, Anthony, but I do not think it looks much like woronowii either.  In all the woronowiis I have seen, the inner mark always stops abruptly at the end towards the base as if a line had been drawn across the petal; this is clear on the link you gave.  This does not happen on my "platyphyllus".  My leaves are also more like the matt finish of the leaves in the platyphyllus picture than the gloss finish of the leaves in the woronowii picture.  But my inners are notched and not rounded and the flowering time is much earlier than it is supposed to be.

I guess one problem is that platyphyllus is so little known.  It must be a bit like trying to infer what Galanthus gracilis looks like having only seen Galanthus gracilis Highdown.  Some of the features of Highdown are characteristic of the species but others are not.  Or does the world's entire cultivated stock of platyphyllus derive from the same few bulbs/seeds?

[ian mcenery]

If anyone is in the Midlands in mid February Olive Mason is opening for the NGS. Olive has a fabulous garden and over 400 varieties of snowdrops. Details as follows

Wednesday/Thursday 18/19 February 2009

Olive and David Mason, Dial Park, Chaddesley Corbett, DY10 4QB
Special snowdrop opening for the NGS with over 400 varieties on display. An entrance fee is required.

Open 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm.

[ashley]

In all the woronowiis I have seen, the inner mark always stops abruptly at the end towards the base as if a line had been drawn across the petal; this is clear on the link you gave.  This does not happen on my "platyphyllus". 

Although my woronowii vary quite a bit in flower (& leaf) size, their inner segment markings are rather uniform.

[Anthony Darby]

Here are three of my woronowii.

[mark smyth]

here I am in Suffolk. It's sooooo cold and snowing heavily

[Martin Baxendale]

Is anyone going to the CGS Cerney Event on the 21st?  We will be in the area as we are going to Colesbourne the next day. If we don't attend the CGS can you recommend gardens or nurseries to visit in the immediate vicinity, even naturalized snowdrops?  Hellebores, primulas, other bulbs, trees, shrubs etc etc are all of interest. Will not be doing a car rental.   

johnw

I was hoping a few weeks ago to be able to go to the CGS event and could perhaps have helped out but I won't be around then. S****ng business again!  Always gets in the way of snowdrop stuff.   

[Maggi Young]

here I am in Suffolk. It's sooooo cold and snowing heavily

No snow here yet.... I thought from the forecasts that this snowy weather would hit up here first and then move down  the east coast to England...... it'd be nice if the snow had decided to miss us out altogether....

I feel sorry for all those poor little flowers who are going to get a nasty shock.

[Alan_b]

here I am in Suffolk. It's sooooo cold and snowing heavily

Not too much snow in Cambridge so far, so your trip to Anglesey Abbey tomorrow might just make it if the roads are passable.

[Alan_b]

I am grateful to Ashley and Anthony for their pictures of galanthus woronowii (the connection to this thread being that I bought a "suspicious" Galanthus platyphyllus at an RHS event at Wisley).  Anthony, your third picture does resemble my snowdrop although the colour of your leaves seems almost impossibly dark.  Do you have more photos of that one, a close-up of the flower maybe?

[johnw]

John -  We just might get to the Cerney Event, the first Saturday train gets in to Cirencester at 10:25 and John Grimshaw is speaking at 11, it will be a scramble.  The event starts at 10 with snacks and sales (too bad missing the snacks). Thanks for the information on Painswick, we'll try to visit if there's time. Sorry you can't make it Martin.

How cold is it there? And how much snow? No need to respond if above -5c or less than 10 inches.

johnw

[Anthony Darby]

I am grateful to Ashley and Anthony for their pictures of galanthus woronowii (the connection to this thread being that I bought a "suspicious" Galanthus platyphyllus at an RHS event at Wisley).  Anthony, your third picture does resemble my snowdrop although the colour of your leaves seems almost impossibly dark.  Do you have more photos of that one, a close-up of the flower maybe?

Here's the same plant again, but brighter and close-up.