Galanthus March - April2007

[Paul T]

Mark,

Yep.  I had a chuckle about that myself too.  The Galanthus season never ends eh?

[David Nicholson]

Paul, nice to see that 'the little white flower with the green smudges fever' is alive and well in Oz.

[Paul T]

David,

Well and truly, and most definitely not just me.  I may have 50 or so different varieties, but that I realise is just a fraction of what there really are.  So many of the named ones never get to Aus, and because of the use of chemicals in quarantining bulbs there is limited chance of new ones surviving being brought in now.  Until they find an alternative for Methyl Bromide the problems will continue.  I am still hoping to one day get seed from 'Trym' from someone and then miraculously get a seedling to bloom true.  I do know of one bulb of 'Trym' in Aus, but it is struggling on apparently.  Often it appears that they live through the Methyl Bromide and then slowly get the dwindles until they die out. <sigh>  Here's hoping that they find an alternative soon that isn't so toxic to the 'little white flower with the green smudges" brethren. 

[loes]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the photo`s! 
it`s nice to see what I am waiting for.
Hope my reginae-olgae and pesmenii will flower for me this autumn.
What`s your next drop to flower?

[rob krejzl]

Paul,

Did you buy 'Winterwood' this summer? It seems to me that that is the way to go, rather than going the Methyl Bromide route.

[Joakim B]

Here is the answer about what was the flowerbuds going to be that I had earlier. http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=300.msg9359#msg9359
The aswers is a very spectacular looking galanthus with multiple flowers.
I have not seen any one like that and it is not galanthus ikari that it was bought as.
It is galathus narcicus tazettus I may have made my fortune. 2€ will become millions on ebay.
Unfortunally it does not have much scent and the flowers are only 1cm across. They did not last as long as the narcissus.
Joakim
PS Fermides was spot on in his guess/reply

[Paul T]

Loes,

It actually varies a bit from year to year to be honest.  There are a couple of them that tend to vie for the honour, but I'll go back and check at least for last winter and let you know.  I usually get 4 to 6 weeks out of the autumn ones, then there is a brief rest of a week or two until the first of the elwesii types appear.  The very first one out is usually an elwesii that I don't have a name for.  It has produced a nice little clump and always is in flower early in June.  Sometimes others beat it but not often.  It just looks like a "usual" elwesii monostrictus type.  It may or may not be an Australian seedling of some type.

Rob,

Yeah, I bought that too.  Do you mean that we should just be breeding our own?  To be honest (although it has only flowered for me the once so no idea what it will settle down to) I couldn't see any difference to the normal 'Atkinsii'.  It is apparently 'Winterwood Atkinsii' I think... a "superior" seedling selected from 'Atkinsii'.  In it's first flowering here it could have been the same as the original, although it has yet to settle down.

I would really like to get 'Rabbit Ears' but I do not know of it ever being shared from the original garden it was found in.  Sounded quite interesting.  Such a shame if something is found and named, then never gets out into collections to keep it alive in the event of something happening in the original garden (not wishing anything ON that original garden either I might add).

[rob krejzl]

Paul,

"Do you mean that we should just be breeding our own?"

Exactly so.

[mark smyth]

Rabbit's Ears? There are quite split spathe that available. I dont think another should be named to satisfy an eager isolated market unless it stands out as very different.

[Paul T]

Mark,

'Rabbit Ears' apparently consistently only has two outer petals.  Nothing to do with split spathes, so wouldn't be doubling up on anything.  I am aware of the 'Sharlockii' group (or I am assuming it is a group, as it does appear in seedlings apparently) with the split spathe etc.  I had one of them appear in some nivalis which I bought a number of years back.  I have developed quite a good clump of it now, with the green tips to the flowers and the prominent split spathe.  I am betting it was just a random seedling in the mix.  Definitely well worth keeping it separate though!! LOL

Rob,

I am slowly getting seedlings around other varieties, but I haven't actually done any specific hybridising.  I will be potting up seedligns from around 'Sibbertoft Manor' shortly if I can find them.  That particular variety is one of my favourites, and I will be most interested to see what the seedlings may end up like.  Maybe this year I can try doing a bit of hybridisation amongst the various named varieties.  I find that the monostrictus types do tend to set seed fairly easily (which may be why Norm Collins used them so readily for his namings?  Then again, a number of those which I got from him are I think the same thing, and I am attributing that to mistakes in packaging, rather than the more sinister alternative.). 

I have never had seed set on nivalis or anything like that as far as I can tell, but I have had just a couple of seeds set on Galanthus gracilis which I have sown or sent overseas to people who don't have that species.  I have a single clone so it rarely sets seed.  I am hoping to rectify that fairly soon with my few seedlings hopefully maturing in a year or two if I am lucky.  I would be interested to try crossing it with other species to see what results, but attempts at that in the past have failed.  Definitely worthwhile thinking about hybridising this year.  Still not likely to get anything like 'Trym' though without having it somewhere in the parentage.... which is why I hope to get seed from it one day to at least try to get something similar here that hasn't been through Methyl B.

[mark smyth]

poor Galanthus are suffering badly in the garden. Most are now turning brown.

Anthony I hope you are in on Friday. Your package is ready to go in the post tomorrow

[mark smyth]

They're back! Narcissus flies are out 4 weeks early. They are usually hatching at the end of May.

[Martin Baxendale]

Mark, I swatted my first narcissus fly of the season this afternoon. Nice forehand with my trusty old tennis racket as the little b***er was settling on a colchicum leaf. All my snowdrops leaves are shrivelling in the heat too. Seed starting to ripen about a month early too. Quite wierd to see the leaves dying back first while the seed pods and old flower stems are still green. Hopefully the bulbs made enough growth during the mild winter not to mind going dormant early. Some bulbs I just lifted for chipping seem nice and hard.

[mark smyth]

by coincidence my ex Narcissus flies have been hit while sitting on Colchicum leaves. So they have use after all

[David Nicholson]

Does anyone have a picture of a Narcissus Fly?? I wouldn't want to miss hitting one by not recognising it!