Galanthus February 2010

[Brian Ellis]

...although there is a bit more of this now:
Galanthus 'Blewbury Tart' a kind present from a forumist beginning to flower, and G.'Erway' - I just wish it would open!

[Paddy Tobin]

Brian,

The weather must be getting milder for you and the snowdrops are peeping out at last so looking forward to lots of shots. I'll have my notebook at the ready!


A snowdrop story: Mary bought G. viridipice in 2000, three bulbs. By 2005 these had clumped up and we decided to move them to a different part of the garden. I noted that we replanted 40 bulbs. In 2006 there was nothing, no flowers, no leaves; they seemed to have simply vanished. No doubt, there was a grub, or a family of grubs responsible for this destruction. In 2007 a single miserable leaf appeared and this year we have one flowering bulb and one non-flowering. Some little sliver of the original bulbs obviously escaped and grew back to flowering size.

Bulbs do disappear for a variety of reasons but I now always leave the label in place to mark the spot for future reference and somewhat in hope.

Paddy

[chasw]

Hey Paddy,I had the same happen here,I bought Dahne's Scissors in 2003,nothing the next year at all,left the old label in,and nothing last year either that I saw,however this year I have leaves and a single flower

[RichardW]

Brian, your photo's pretty much reflect what I have here, think it will be at least another week/10 days before the bulk of my varieties are open, have been doing tours which end with the groups looking at pots kept in a very warm greenhouse for a few hours so they have something to look at.

at this rate we'll be closed when they're at their best.

[johnw]

A snowdrop story: Mary bought G. viridipice in 2000, three bulbs. By 2005 these had clumped up and we decided to move them to a different part of the garden. I noted that we replanted 40 bulbs. In 2006 there was nothing, no flowers, no leaves; they seemed to have simply vanished. No doubt, there was a grub, or a family of grubs responsible for this destruction. In 2007 a single miserable leaf appeared and this year we have one flowering bulb and one non-flowering. Some little sliver of the original bulbs obviously escaped and grew back to flowering size.
Paddy

Paddy  - I bought 12 Viridipice 2 years ago, 10 came up in 2009, 2 came up in 2010.  I suspect the 2 that didn't come up in 2009 infected the other 8.

Worse I bought 200 last autumn, I had to toss 60% out before planting. 

Who to blame, Viridipice or the source?  it would never be me...

johnw

[zwerggarten]

talking of viridapice: i thought this "variety" would belong to a various group of green-tipped snowdrops - with or without any mule/hare's ears...

at least in my garden there are quite different types of viridapice clumping together - should i better separate them?

[Paddy Tobin]

John,

I have two other clumps of G. 'Viridipice' which seem to be doing well. From small numbers originally, three in each, they have increased to 16 and 11 flowers open at present respectively. So, there is some hope with these.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

talking of viridapice: i thought this "variety" would belong to a various group of green-tipped snowdrops - with or without any mule/hare's ears...

at least in my garden there are quite different types of viridapice clumping together - should i better separate them?

Welcome to the forum.

I don't know what snowdrops you have growing together. Perhaps it is just that your snowdrops have self sown and the resultant seedlings are variations on the parents. Unless they are of particular interest I don't think it is important to separate them. However, it might be worthwhile keeping the original planting pure.

Paddy

[zwerggarten]

thank you, paddy.

i got my viridapice out of an old garden - three clumps it were - and they turned out quite differently in colour - and ear-size.

this friday in berlin hagen engelmann did show us some great snowdrop-pictures, including a huge perfect group of perfectly eared galanthus (scharlockii it says) - this really was eye-opening! they are so much more impressing with similar attributes...

[Hagen Engelmann]

Welcome here Zwerggarten, schön, Dich in dieser Runde wiederzutreffen.
Viridapice bilden in Belgien gemeinsam mit "Wareii" und "Scharlockii" große Kolonien mit allen Zwischenstadien. Das könnten Sie doch bei Dir in Berlin auch versuchen???
Like Paddy said: it isn`t important to separate them.

[zwerggarten]

 

of course all these viridapices, scharlockiis and wareiis could happily grow and clump and flower forever - but this picture of yours of absolute perfection: all stems with similar-sized ears in the freshest chartreuse green... it was enlightening!

[Hagen Engelmann]

Here is  this clump
Galanthus nivalis Scharlockii

[Paddy Tobin]

Zwergarten,

You now have an expert to help you - Hagen - and his advise is worth following.

Looking forward to seeing some of Hagen's wonderful photographs here soon when the weather permits.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Here is  this clump
Galanthus nivalis Scharlockii

A lovely clump, Hagen. They all too often seem to dwindle to smaller and smaller flowers on me. You must feed them well.

Paddy

[zwerggarten]

Here is  this clump ...

that's it!