Re: Winter snowdrops

[mark smyth]

Most of my collection look like they are above ground now much the same as last year. Here are a couple.

elwesii 'Long Drop' will elongate as the days pass. I only noticed after poting the photo there is a green smudge at the base of the inner petals

plicatus 'Florence Baker' a lovely snowdrop that flowers in time for Christmas

[Paddy Tobin]

Two lovely snowdrops, Mark.

Paddy

[mark smyth]

THanks Paddy but reading the book right now 'Florence' is wrong. It should have two marks one taking up 2/3rds and two arms.

[Paddy Tobin]

Poor Florence, not up to the mark it seems.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

Perhaps Zebedee should send her to bed early?

[Anthony Darby]

This is what 'Colossus' looks like today.

[mark smyth]

My 'Florence Baker' is OK. Today I noticed very feint arms rising above the main mark

[Maggi Young]

Here,  on page one of this thread   http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2806.0
Re: Winter snowdrops
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2008, 01:20:31 PM »  .......I posted a pic of Galanthus reginae olgae 'Hyde Lodge'.... Ian picked a flower to take into the BBC for the Potting Shed Programme yesterday so the flower has opened nicely..... here it is..... hope, after all this anticipation that it IS 'Hyde Lodge'! ? !

[mark smyth]

pass.

[Maggi Young]

pass.

 
 Pretty snowdrop, though, eh? 

[mark smyth]

all are lovely

[Brian Ellis]

It looks a lot more like it than mine does at the moment.  I wrote to Dr Mackenzie about it and he phoned yesterday and assured me that it was a twin-scale from his own G.Hyde Lodge and it was immature and should exhibit the normal shape and form in the future, as you can see from the pictures it is much like John Finch's - next year I hope it will look like yours Maggi

[Brian Ellis]

This is what concerned me Rob, I was expecting it to look much more like Maggi's although that does seem to have a good point on it too.  I assume as the bulb matures it will develop much broader outers with a point.  It seems to me that many of the twin-scaled bulbs do need to settle down before they take on the full appearance of the original.

[Brian Ellis]

It might also be affected by growth in a cold greenhouse as opposed to in the open air.

[Martin Baxendale]

Maggi, yours looks like 'Hyde Lodge'. Flower shape and inner mark both look good.

I lifted various clumps of 'Hyde Lodge' this year, to select some good bulbs out for chipping and to pot others for crossing. One clump which was potted has produced flowers exactly like Brian's, with a different mark and more pointed, longer outers.

Just this one clump looks wrong, and they were mature bulbs from the garden, chipped some years ago, not recently chipped. I don't habitually get 'wrong' looking flowers on small bulbs of 'Hyde Lodge', and this is the only clump where I've ever seen this. All the bulbs in the clump are making this type of flower, small and large bulbs.

The flower shape just looks quite wrong, and so does the ovary shape, both of which should be constant. The mark might vary a bit with a very small or unhealthy bulb, but I would expect basic petal shape and ovary shape to vary little.

So, to conclude, I'm not sure I agree with Ron on this one. I still suspect rogue bulbs may have got into the process somewhere. And of course Ron hasn't seen the flower on Brian's bulb, I assume. Perhaps of he did, he might change his view.

Anyway, time will tell. I've marked my wrong-looking pot to keep an eye on it next year. I'd suggest others do the same. If a rogue bulb (or clump) has got into Ron's propagating system at some point I'm sure he'll be pleased to have this confirmed so he can sort it out in due course.