Re: Winter snowdrops

[David Quinton]

Now that the freeze has abated, is it time to start a 'January 2009' thread?

[mark smyth]

Yeah go for it

[mark smyth]

I just created a new one for 2009

[johnw]

Here are a few photos from today.

Lovely shots Mark. Was 'John Long' growing on your roof or dig you dig a pit in order to shoot it against the sky so nicely?

johnw

[mark smyth]

John, they are in a 1L long tom

[johnw]

John, they are in a 1L long tom

How very appropriate. They make good bed fellows.

johnw

[johnw]

Well a bit more information on Rosemary Burnham.  I just had an hour phone conversation with Bodil Leamy who now lives in the interior of BC.  Bodil looked after the Lohbrunner Garden at UBC for a number of years and has a strong horticultural background. As you will have read in the above article by Pam Frost on the Galanthus, Rosemary was accompanied by Bodil when they found the green elwesii.  The abandoned house was in a ravine near RB's home in South Burnaby.  The clump RB spied was a single clump 6" across and consisted of about 15 bulbs, all were identical.  Rosemary thought it might not be unusual but Bodil knew it was very special. Rosemary took the clump home and Bodil got a few bulbs. Bodil's petered out on her poor sandy soil in her garden in West Vancouver. The rest of the story holds up. RB's clump got shaded out but she had shared it with Thelma and then on to Don Armstrong when Thelma was dying.

The interesting thing is that there were no other Galanthus anywhere in the area, just that single clump of green ones growing rather near the house, not a white one anywhere. So it appears to be have been a single clone and not a group of green seedlings. I wonder if the original home owner spotted it in a drift and brought it home?

johnw     

[Diane Whitehead]

For those who can't grow Rosemary B - the most common snowdrop
here in Victoria, and possibly over in Burnaby too, though I haven't
checked, is elwesii.  Old gardens, farms, churchyards - if there are
masses of naturalized snowdrops, they are elwesii, not nivalis.

I think the opposite is true in England, from what I have read.

Rosemary is an elwesii.  It could be our dry summers she is needing.

[mark smyth]

Exactly what the bulbs didnt need here in the UK and Ireland over the last two summers. Maybe I will give it a third go sometime.

[Anthony Darby]

I think nivalis is naturalised in Britain as it has been here for hundreds of years, being the nearest species to the UK. I don't know if it is a native, but the vast majority have come as ecapees.

[Brian Ellis]

I think they are believed to have come over with the Romans Anthony - picked up from Jo Sharman I seem to remember, but don't qoute me!

[Anthony Darby]

So Jo supplied the Romans? Wow!

[Brian Ellis]

Just shows you what you have to do when you are a confirmed twin scaler to get rid of the bulbs!

[Maggi Young]

So Jo supplied the Romans? Wow!

 A lot of plantoholics loook younger than they really are..... must be the galanthamine   

[mark smyth]

They definitely do