Galanthus February 2009

[Hagen Engelmann]

Emma and Diane, your pics give power for this weekend without any drops here, only snow,snow,snow. Unusual plants. Our galanthusworld gets new horizons by you.

[Diane Whitehead]

OK, by request, I amended my previous post to add two larger
photos.

Yes, they are pocs.  They balloon out more than other pocs I have
seen.

[Alan_b]

Thanks Diane.  The second photo makes it clearer.  They remind me of the poculiform E.A.Bowles, which also has the nice balloon shape to the flowers.  One bulb of E.A.Bowles sold for £150 (approximately $300 Cdn) at the Galanthus Gala last Saturday.  So your friend might be sitting on a goldmine if she could find a way of bringing her snowdrops to the eager European market.

P.S.  I'm tempted to suggest it should be called Galanthus elwesii "Missing Link" because it so resembles a leucojum.

[Brian Ellis]

That's it Diane, I'm moving to Canada

[Mavers]

Diane all I can say is WOWWWWWWW!

They are superb snowdrops............I don't recall there being a nuclear happening in BC to cause these wonderful mutations much like is thought to have caused the beautiful mutations in Japanese Hepatica.

[Anthony Darby]

Diane, every new find you produce is better than the previous. That is absolutely stunning. Right, now how many eye teeth can I spare? I might add that I think that it kicks 'A. E. Bowles' into touch!

[Ian Y]

A friend's find.  No, it is not a leucojum, but another one of our
unnamed Victoria elwesii.

Now Diane that is different, very interesting and beautiful.
As the founder of 'LeucoJocks' -an alternative to Galanthophiles - the aim of which is to find and name as many Leucojums as we can, I think we have some claims to your latest discovery.

What your posts do show us is that all we need to do is find a large open woodland plant a few different Galanthus species and wait 100 years or so for nature to take her course.
Thanks for sharing this superb site.

[Mavers]

Diane's galanthus pic's just show snowdrops have the potential to keep us philes in a state wanton desire for years to come!

[Maggi Young]

A friend's find.  No, it is not a leucojum, but another one of our
unnamed Victoria elwesii.

 Diane, your friend is exceptionally fortunate.... that  green tipped poculiform is a thing of real beauty.

[annew]

Goodness me, I think I'll emigrate! 

[Anthony Darby]

As the founder of 'LeucoJocks' -an alternative to Galanthophiles - the aim of which is to find and name as many Leucojums as we can, I think we have some claims to your latest discovery.

The English equivalent, the 'Leukojaks', never took off due to the need to shave ones head, suck lollipops and say 'who loves ya baby' as a form of greeting to fellow members.  

[Diane Whitehead]

Here is a weird elwesii first bloom from one of the pots I bought
at the grocery store last year.

The flower is complete, though wispy.  Then there are all the extra
bits from the spathe.

[Anthony Darby]

The truth is out there Diane.

[RichardW]

i am shocked some growers ignore virus like this

Rob,

whatever you saw in the photo (I agree it does look mottled) is not virus, it may just have been the light, the inner segment on that flower is very slightly distorted, I examined them closely this pm and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them.


same flower, another photo in the sequence, just different angle.

[Paddy Tobin]

Rob,

Of course, virus-infected plants are not to be ignored. However, in populations such as Richard has shown, I think it unlikely that virus would do little more than minimal damage.

As Richard has shown, it was not a case of virus at all. I wonder how many plants are disgarded as being virus-infected when they are not infected at all. It is important to be careful with one's plants but there is no need to let worry about virus dominate our treatment of our plants.

I do agree with you that it is not acceptable for bulb suppliers to forward virus-infected plants. However, I imagine this is uncommon. Certainly, it has not been my experience.

Paddy