Galanthus winter 2009/2010

[Martin Baxendale]

John, there's no carbendazim-based product available for sale to amateur gardeners in the UK any more. The manufacturers didn't bother to re-certify in the last EU pesticides review for amateur use as the sales were not large and profitable enough to justify it, but of course did pay to recertify for agricultural and professional horticultural/greenkeeping sales.

[snowdropman]

The RHS Daffodil, Snowdrop and Tulip Yearbook 2009-2010 contains a very authoritative article on the subject of fungicides, written by Gordon Hanks, entitled 'Fungicides for amateur daffodil growers'.

He goes into the current legislation, where to get the most up to date information on approved pesticides and a review of all fungicides available for amateur use on ornamental plants.

The thing to bear in mind with these chemicals is that most, if not all, of them are preventative rather than curative and that they work by creating a barrier which stops the plant from being infected. It follows therefore that if your plant is already infected then drenching it with fungicide is, in itself unlikely to save your plant - it is necessary to cut out all of the infection first, before drenching it in fungicide (the fungicide then acts as a barrier to help what is left of your plant from becoming re-infected).

Don't forget also that the spores of stagnospora curtisii are believed to survive in the soil for as much as 5 or 6 years, so when you remove the infected plant, you also need to remove the immediate soil and plant a non bulbous plant, from a different genus, in its place (I wrote an article for the 2008-2009 RHS Daffodil, Snowdrop and Tulip Yearbook, entitled 'Collecting Snowdrops - Some Observations', which goes into a lot more detail about what needs to be done).

[mark smyth]

THanks for telling us this

[mark smyth]

A couple of snowdrop photos from today
plicatus or plicatus hybrid from Myddleton House - much better colour to the eye
elwesii Sir Edward Elgar - sorry it's wrong. They were bought from Linnet Farm

[Tony Willis]

a couple of  ordinary unamed Galanthus elwesii out today

[Martin Baxendale]

a couple of  ordinary unamed Galanthus elwesii out today

Not ordinary, Tony - very nice indeed; very shapely flowers, nice flaring inners and good dark marks, unusual marks too. I'd be inclined to say they look like gracilis rather than elwesii. I can see one bulb, still in bud, has convolute leaves. Do the flowering ones  also have convolute leaves (wrapped around one another) or are they flat against each other at the base without any wrapping around? Not easy to see in the pics, but they look like they may not be convolute - in which case, they're gracilis, and very nice ones too.

[Brian Ellis]

I thought so too Martin, particularly g62 Tony.

[Tony Willis]

a couple of  ordinary unamed Galanthus elwesii out today

Not ordinary, Tony - very nice indeed; very shapely flowers, nice flaring inners and good dark marks, unusual marks too. I'd be inclined to say they look like gracilis rather than elwesii. I can see one bulb, still in bud, has convolute leaves. Do the flowering ones  also have convolute leaves (wrapped around one another) or are they flat against each other at the base without any wrapping around? Not easy to see in the pics, but they look like they may not be convolute - in which case, they're gracilis, and very nice ones too.

Martin an interesting question. These are plants raised from seed from Vermion and I have about forty of them. Some are convolute and some are not and some could be said to be indeterminate. Several people who are experts have seen them in the wild and there are mixed opinions. It should be easy to decide gracilis or elwesii but this has not been the case and  a mixture of both with hybrids as well seems to be the answer.I have called them all elwesii purely because they seem to be predominant. One has produced flowers with only two outer and two inner petals and one has four outer with five inner ones, quite a variation really.

[Martin Baxendale]

Yes, I've read comments from you about this location before. Does sound like a mixed population with intermediate hybrids. Of course, as I think I've said before, whether elwesii and gracilis should be considered separate species or variants of one species is another question altogether, and I suspect we haven't heard the last on that.

Whatever they are, they're beauties, especially the ones in pic g62, although the taller flower in the other pic looks like the same clone.   

[Tony Willis]

No they are not the same clone. Melvyn has seen some of these plants in the wild so he may have a comment on them.

[Martin Baxendale]

No they are not the same clone. Melvyn has seen some of these plants in the wild so he may have a comment on them.

Then they're very consistent in their marking and hopefully should come fairly true from seed, if they set seed. They look very strong too. Really nice to see them. If Melvyn has more info on this population, I'd love to hear it.

[mark smyth]

galanthus elwesii g62 28jan10.jpg - wolf whistle very nice form

The leaves are wide like my gracilis above and with little twist

[Melvyn Jope]

No they are not the same clone. Melvyn has seen some of these plants in the wild so he may have a comment on them.

My impression of the plants from this location is that they are G. gracilis, I showed a pot of mixed seedlings to Ruby Baker and she ,without hesitation, said that was her opinion too. The photo that I included in post 354 was from this same area. When I visited the site it was April and the plants were in seed. Over the next couple of days  I will try to post more photos of the plants and if I can locate them photos of the plants in leaf at the site.

[Martin Baxendale]

Hi Melvyn. My first impression of Tony's pics was gracilis, but of course I haven't seen the plants in the flesh so my thoughts don't carry much weight. Certainly strong, sturdy, handsome-flowered things. Good breeding potential, I should think. It'd be interesting to know what the ploidy level is of some of these very strong, wide-leaved gracilis populations - whether some of them might be triploid or tetraploid (even more interesting for breeding purposes).

[annew]

They are indeed very nicely shaped and with a distinctive and unusual mark on the inners.