THIS IS THE REAL "Some Galanthus for Identifying"!

[Robert G]

Katherine,

Great pictures!!! We have smaller plantings, not anywhere as interesting as your pictures, at the arboretum I work at. Now they are under half a metre of snow. For whatever this is worth, the manager's reponse makes me suspect that he has no idea of the plants origin. I find here the record keeping regarding "the little plants" have been neglected over the years. Maybe there too.

[Anthony Darby]

Just he drink malt whisky?

Maybe. And he maltreated me.

Touché

[Carol Shaw]

We hope to actually see our snowdrops one day soon... when the other white stuff finally goes away

[KentGardener]

Anthony,
I asked him before, if they knew what species have been planted originally, and he was ABSOLUTELY UNHELPFUL. He told me, "this information is not public". 

Kata

That attitude is such a shame. 

Could I ask - the ones in the walled garden - could they be specimens that have been planted recently from purchases or swaps?  It's just that the yellow one looks so much like something that may have been planted in the last couple of years from somewhere else.

If they are all seedlings that have appeared on their premises it would be a real shame for them to not be shared around the world.

It could be worth writing to the director of the arboretum explaining how you would like to study and document the Galanthus as part of 'your degree project'.  Or perhaps send a personal message on this forum to Ian Christie for some ideas of how he has come to a happy accord with Brechin Castle in a very similar project.

Regards

John

[Paddy Tobin]

Kata,

You have found a treasure trove of wonderful snowdrops. Many thanks for sharing the sights with us.

Paddy

[steve owen]

 

[vivienr]

I wish I had known about this arboretum when I was in Budapest in early March 2007. We went up into the hills on the little train but I don't remember seeing snowdrops.

What a fantastic display.

Koszonom, Kata.

[Katherine J]

Thank you all for your kind comments!

Vivien,
This is not qiute so close, is about 40 km to Budapest.

Maggi, Martin and Rob,
I am sorry for removing the duplicate of this topic, I just did not want to confuse the other Forumists too. It was wery strange, because there appeared only my firts post, without the close pics of the flowers. Maybe I should have wait for Maggi to make order in the mess.

Anthony,
I think they already know what kind of treasure have there, and don't want anybody to go and collect anything... Maybe some day they close that part of the garden and will not let "anybody" to put the nose there.

[Brian Ellis]

Kata what a treat you have given to us.  Many thanks, I love the snowdrops in your last two postings.  Perhaps the director would be happy for you to take seeds if he is not willing to share the snowdrops

[Martin Baxendale]

Maggi, Martin and Rob,
I am sorry for removing the duplicate of this topic, I just did not want to confuse the other Forumists too. It was wery strange, because there appeared only my firts post, without the close pics of the flowers. Maybe I should have wait for Maggi to make order in the mess.
of the garden and will not let "anybody" to put the nose there.

No problemn, Kata. My comment about the leaves looking like Gal. plicatus is not relevant - I made it based on having only seen the first two long-distance photos you posted on the duplicate thread. I never received any email notification from the forum for the real thread with all your close-up photos. A very strange thing to happen. Some lovely snowdrops there.

[vivienr]

Some googling this afternoon...
Kata's arboretum has a website in Hungarian but does not say anything about the snowdrops.

The arboretum is on the site of a manor house built by Habsburg archdukes, at least one of which were great plant collectors and travellers and filled the gardens with rarities. The house was burnt down by the Russians in 1944.

In communist times it was run as a botanical garden and is now run as part of the National Park system.

There are 6 species of snowdrop in the park.

hovirag = ho(snow) + virag(flower)

Headline from Budapest english language newspaper:
'You know when spring is coming when the first snowdrop smuggler is caught.'

Smuggling seems to be primarily to Germany.

The arboretum seems to be having a photo competition to which Kata should enter some pictures (it may have finished?).

The chapel is available for weddings!!!

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks for that Vivien, I collected this postcard and should have known what Hovirag meant!

[Alan_b]

The most detailed English-language account I could find of the news item Vivien referred to was here:

http://www.humanflowerproject.com/index.php/weblog/comments/hovirag_hungarys_hot_snowdrop/

The stealing of snowdrops can be a big problem and it happens in the UK also; both in large quantities from woodlands for resale and occasionally specialist snowdrops have been stolen during open-garden events.  I would be gutted [tremendously upset] if this ever happened to me so I think some of the comments made in jest earlier on this thread were a bit off.  Granted, the manager of the arboretum may be unhelpful and offhand but the snowdrops are still his.  So either Kata has to win him round or bide her time until somebody else takes over if she want to see specimens of the more interesting snowdrops brought into cultivation.  Or it might be possible to gather and cultivate seeds from the interesting plants in the hopes that the offspring share the characteristics of their parent.        

[Hagen Engelmann]

I have removed a post of mine, because it`s not a point of fun, what we must read in Alan`s post. To steal plants in nature and destroy habitats is a shame. It`s appalling.
Not my kind of galanthophile.

[Katherine J]

Vivien,
Bravo for your excellent detective work!
Yes, it was built by Habsburg archdukes, and terribly ruined (and the house literally stolen) in the 2. world war. There remained only the tympan.

The photo competition's title is "4 seasons in the Alcsut arboretum" and will finish in August, I think.

The snowdrop field is in the back, quite out of the way, and many visitors do not know about it. It is sad, but really may be abuses, if everybody knew about it...

Snowdrop collecting is indeed prohibited in Hungary, and I agree with that, because a few years ago every spring the cities were full of snowdrop sellers (and they collected it not from their garden ).
Now I know many places in Buda hills where there is abundance of Galanthus nivalis, but these are almost inaccessible steep slopes and bushy places.

And maybe the head gardener's attitude can be understood, because he did not know me, but then why did he put some selected forms near the entrance (see the pics with the stone fence in the back), without any label? Indeed, most people in Hungary are absolutely not interested in names of the plants. They buy plants for their garden (or collect in the wild!) without knowing absolutely nothing about them. 

OK, i finish now. 

Here are two pics, one of the former house in the Alcsut arboretum, and one with snowdrops from Buda hills (the hills surrounding Budapest on the right side of the Danube)