Galanthus January 2009

[KentGardener]

Paddy the last one is 'Ding Dong'

Hi Paddy

it certainly looks like the 'Ding Dong' I posted on Saturday



Regards

John

[mark smyth]

Good job Maggi removed my address from another thread - here's a small display of mine.

Answers on a post card to
Mark Smyth
%$ .......

[Maggi Young]

maggi, whats wrong with perlite? it helps make the heavy soil of john innes lighter and aids drainage. its a porous rock just like pumice?
i allready use grit in the potting mix, but i think it may be to heavy if i used it in place of perlite altogether?

 Nothing "wrong" with perlite as such, Rob. But I have read there are questions about health implications of using it, dust, fluorine etc.....we use it only a occasionally for seed storage/ twinscaling ....we don't use it in potting compost....

[Brian Ellis]

Mark, if you enter them in a show I hope you clean your pots.  That's my constant bugbear when judging

[Martin Baxendale]

A few more.

I have posted two "Unknowns" below and would welcome suggestions as to their identity. I believe the first is G. 'Atkinsii'. The second came to me labelled as G. 'Barbara's Double' but it certainly is not double and is the first time it has flowered here. Suggestions welcome.

Paddy

Rather than leap into a possible mis-identification, Paddy, can I be cautious and ask if you got the mis-labelled 'Barbara's Double' from a nursery and if so who from. If it was a nursery mix-up then obviously what other snowdrops they list would help with confirming correct identity. Sorry, but I'm always nervous about saying on the forum purely on the basis of a photo that such and such an un-named snowdrop is definitely this or that without any other detective work. Mis-identification is so easy, given how alike many snowdrops look. So, nursery or gift?

[Anthony Darby]

I grow orchids in 80% perlite.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Thanks all for showing the hope, that spring will come. Dear Paddy don`t be too closefisted with the kb of the pics. When they arrive here in Germany  I get only the last 30kb and if I want to zoom to see a little bit more of your fine flowers, they are checkered

[mark smyth]

Doesnt Perlite dust cause lung cancer? You aren't supposed to use it dry but add water first?

[mark smyth]

I'll back Paddy that G. Unknown 160109.jpg is 'Atkinsii'

Does anyone not grow 'Atkinsii'?
 



Paddy's pic (copied here by Maggi)
 

[Maggi Young]

At the risk of personal injury... I must say that any resemblance, to my eyes, between the Dong Dong and Atkinsii and the pix posted by Paddy are purely coincidental..... they're all snowies.... but identical they are not.... and if they're not identical, then how can we tell what they "are" and why have they got names in the first place? 

[mark smyth]

Atkinsii, nivalis x plicatus, dates back to the 1860s so it's one of the old boys and named after James Atkins. It's a lovely snowdrop flowering for a few weeks in my garden. It's tall with distinctive shaped flowers especially when closed

'Ding Dong' was named by ?Alan Street after the ad on TV with the catch line Ding Dong, Avon Calling!

[mark smyth]

Martin wanted to know what elwesii Pat Mason looks like

[Anthony Darby]

I'll back Paddy that G. Unknown 160109.jpg is 'Atkinsii'

Does anyone not grow 'Atkinsii'?
 

Me. Yippeee!!!

[Paddy Tobin]

Many thanks for comments on my unidentified snowdrops. I am confident with the one I named as G. 'Atkinsii'. It has been in the garden for several years and I also grow G. 'Atkinsii', a named group, elsewhere and also some of the Atkinsii relatives, 'Lyn', 'Silverwells', 'James Backhouse' and have been comparing it with them over the past few years.

Re the 'Barbara's Double' I am inclined to take Martin's approach and not jump to conclusion - it has taken me five years to be satisfied with naming the G. 'Atkinsii' above. I grow G. 'Ding Dong' elsewhere in the garden - it came from Avon Bulbs and so should be correctly named, I expect - and there is no flower showing on that group of 'Ding Dong' yet. Differing flowering times can simple be a result of bulbs not yet being established and this group of 'Ding Dong' may settle into more normal flowering time in a year or two.

Martin, you asked of the origin of the plant in question. It came from a friend and most likely there was a mix up with labelling.

And, Anthony, you don't grow G. 'Atkinsii' - well, now I know I have two large clumps of this so, if you want it you can let me know.

Hagen, sorry about the low quality of the photographs. My telephone line is down at home and the internet speed at work it atrocious so I was lowering the image size to facilitate posting them. I may post a few more today but will do so at a larger setting and post just a few at a time.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Back to snowdrops. I'm afraid none of these would do well in a show. As you will see several have suffered from weather damage, particularly those which are low to the ground. 'Bill Bishop' and 'Florence Baker' are unfortunate in this regard.


G. 'Anglesey Abbey' - just a better shot than the one I posted yesterday, showing a better view with more regular inner segments.
G. 'Bill Bishop' - very low to the ground
G. 'Blaris' - this is from Harold McBride in Northern Ireland. Harold found it growing in the graveyard in Blaris where his parents are buried.
G. 'Florence Baker'  - a little dote of a flower

Paddy