Northumberland yellow galanthus

[Rob Potterton]

I'm no good with X Y Z or my A, B, C's but +17 to -9 = OUCH !!!!

p.s. BEAUTIFUL yellow snowdrops

[johnw]

I but +17 to -9 = OUCH !!!!
/quote]

Rob - So said the Trillium.  And still -6c at 10:45 Sunday morning. These we take in our stride as not one of our more dramatic plunges. In the days of Fahrenheit  in the late 70's or early 80's on Boxing Day it was raining and 55F at 3pm, by 10pm we were at -4F. Boston dropped to -9F. Now that was carnage.

johnw

[ChrisB]

Galanthophile:
Northumberland yellow snowdrops can be seen, if you can spot them, during the Howick Gardens snowdrop days, usually late Jan/earlyFeb.  I think they only open weekends though.  Details will no doubt be on their web site.

Maggi:  John spoke to us at our NCCPG meeting yesterday, topic was wild flowers of Northumberland, and of course, amongst the dozens of orchids and so on, showed us the yellows.  He said he has found them growing wild around Hexham, but I know they have loads at Howick too. 

He did mention one other place, and I believe he knows where the first were found too, but as a galanthophobe, I didn't pay much attention    They look like snowdrops with the flu to me, in need of a good tonic!

[johnw]

Here's a second thought that applies to rhodos only and with  obvious exceptions.  This was passed along to me by a famous rhodo and magnolia breeder and concerns the inheritance of yellow. He insisted that the maternal parent should always be the yellow on all sides of the cross.  He got very close to achieving a yellow evergreen azalea by injecting a yellow deciduous azalea into the formula.  Close but sterility raised its ugly head before he got to his final cross.


So for instance in Galanthus the proposed cross below would not be acceptable:

({Trym x Wendys} seedling #1 X {Trym x Wendys} seedling #2)

Nor would:

({Wendys x Trym} seedling #1 X {Trym x Wendys} seedling #2)

Nor would:

[({Wendys x Trym} seedling #1 X {Trym x Wendys} seedling #2)] x {Wendys x Trym} seedling #3

But this is how he would proceed:

({Wendys x Trym} seedling #1 X {Wendys x Trym} seedling #2)

or

[({Wendys x Trym} seedling #1 X {Wendys x Trym} seedling #2)] x {Wendys x Trym} seedling #3

Of course in rhodos the yellow flower pigment may be an entirely different matter than the inheritance of the yellow ovary and markings of Galanthus. Further complicating the matter is that in eastern North America we have to breed for hardiness as well as yellow at the same time. It is always difficult to decide which is the more important factor maternally, it could be the flower shape of Trym is the difficult one to get.  A bit like the lottery.

For what it's worth.

johnw

[Alan_b]

I have been really intersted in these insights into plant breeding.  My understanding is that there is a high probability that Trym seedlings share its characteristics.  I suspect this has been observed most often with Trym as the female parent because galanthophiles often leave their plant breeding to nature.  However I understand there is a low probability that first generation crosses with Wendy's Gold are yellow.   

[galanthophile]

I've seen some nice drifts of snowdrops in Northumberland in graveyards - one of the few places they can grow undisturbed I think!

[Maggi Young]

I've seen some nice drifts of snowdrops in Northumberland in graveyards - one of the few places they can grow undisturbed I think!

 Yes, Ann, I think you're right.... some graveyards with good crocus drifts, too. 

[mark smyth]

One problem I foresee Ann is people stripping the yellows from the graveyards and woods as white fever spreads further.