Schneeglöckchentage in Nettetal - spot the Forumists!

[Hans J]

Hi Armin ,

After a close inspection of your pics from G. "Hans guck in die Luft" I have to say that these plants are not correct - I have never send any plants to Oirlich .....

If you look to my pics from last year you will see the rigth plant - the marks are really different :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1343.msg31755#msg31755

[Armin]

Hans,

as I previous mentioned I'm not a Galanthus expert. I just referred to the name on the label.
It is a mistake. I'll modify...

Your pictures look really like "Hans guck in die Luft"!

[Hans J]

Armin ,

thats not a fault of you -I have in meantime written to Günter to correct this label .

We have so may wrong named plants ....it is not nessecary to have more 

[Alan_b]

Hi Armin ,

After a close inspection of your pics from G. "Hans guck in die Luft" I have to say that these plants are not correct - I have never send any plants to Oirlich .....

If you look to my pics from last year you will see the rigth plant - the marks are really different :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1343.msg31755#msg31755

Hans J's link to his original post about "Hans Guck in die Luft" reminded me that he had already explained the origin of the name.  But I cannot help thinking that somebody could do a better English translation {Edit: of the poem, I mean}.  For example, in English we would say "head-in-the clouds" rather than "head-in-the-air", but I guess it is much harder to rhyme "clouds" than "air".  Is there a poet in the house? 

[Diane Clement]

Hans J's link to his original post about "Hans Guck in die Luft" reminded me that he had already explained the origin of the name.  But I cannot help thinking that somebody could do a better English translation.  For example, in English we would say "head-in-the clouds" rather than "head-in-the-air", but I guess it is much harder to rhyme "clouds" than "air".  Is there a poet in the house?   

Not a translation, just a bit of doggerel

Johnny does not become a Galanthophile
with apologies to Heinrich Hoffmann

Once, with head as high as he could,
Johnny walked in snowdrop wood.
Johnny watched the pigeons trying
Which was cleverest at flying.
He didn’t see the galanthophiles,
Nor those white things, miles and miles.
So he strode on, silly fellow,
Missing green and white and yellow.
Then he noticed those folk praying -
Or so he thought.  He heard them saying:
Come look here, just by that rock,
There’s a double, there’s a poc.
He thought it must be a new religion
But head up, continued to look at the pigeon.

[Armin]

Bravo Diane

[Hans J]

Alan :
It is easier as you think - "guck " means simply "look"

So "Hans guck in die Luft" means only "Johnny looks in the air"

....but why you like translate this plantname ?
we have also to accept all the english cultivar names 

[Alan_b]

Alan :
It is easier as you think - "guck " means simply "look"

So "Hans guck in die Luft" means only "Johnny looks in the air"

....but why you like translate this plantname ?
we have also to accept all the english cultivar names 

Hans, no no , I am very happy with the plant name.  It's the English translation of the poem that I do not think is very good; and by that I mean it's a fine poem that I don't think has been translated as well as it might be.  A superb effort from Diane, however. 

[Lesley Cox]

Somewhere there's a poem, mentioned I think in Patricia Moyes' thriller, "Johnny Underground." If I remember rightly - which I may not - Johnny Head in Air referred to the pilots of the second World War while Johnny Underground was those who had already been shot down, and killed. Perhaps it's the poen by Heinrich Hoffmann, referred to above? Must look in the book but like many others, its stored in a box in Roger's shed.

[KentGardener]

Very good Diane - made me chuckle. 

Cheers

John

[Hagen Engelmann]

Here is the answer of the confusion about the false HANS GUCK IN DIE LUFT. It`s another sibling from G. plicatus from the same galanthusgarden. But it`s called PROPELLERKÖPFCHEN (with accordance of the breeder).
You can see also here for about 3 years. http://www.engelmannii.de/bilder/galanthus/bestand/pages/PROPELLERK%D6PFCHEN.htm
The snowdropseason has arrived East Germany

[Hans J]

Hans, no no , I am very happy with the plant name.  It's the English translation of the poem that I do not think is very good; and by that I mean it's a fine poem that I don't think has been translated as well as it might be.  A superb effort from Diane, however. 

Alan : it was a missunderstandig ...I was thinking you would give this plants a english name ...sorry

[Hans J]

Hagen :

thank you for clarification 

Propellerköpfchen is also a very nice plant - the sientificname would be :
Trochoptheranthum-Chephalus 

[Alan_b]

Somewhere there's a poem, mentioned I think in Patricia Moyes' thriller, "Johnny Underground." If I remember rightly - which I may not - Johnny Head in Air referred to the pilots of the second World War while Johnny Underground was those who had already been shot down, and killed. Perhaps it's the poem by Heinrich Hoffmann, referred to above? Must look in the book but like many others, its stored in a box in Roger's shed.

Lesley is thinking of a poem by John Pudney used in the film "The way to the stars" and featured at the bottom of this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_to_the_Stars .  But John Pudney must surely have been familiar with the Hoffman poem in its English translation?

Sorry, this is rather off-topic but the freedom to wander a little off topic is one of the joys of this forum.   

[Paddy Tobin]

Hans,

Regarding your comments on translating snowdrop names: I think we would all prefer to stay with the German name for the snowdrop Hagen posted, "Propellerkopfchen" rather than your "Trochoptheranthum-Chephalus". That would simply be too much for my tongue to manage. German is much simpler.

Paddy