Galanthus February 2010

[Maggi Young]

That is a very shapely thunker you have there, Martin, congratulations!

[Brian Ellis]

Yes indeed, well put Maggi.  I will certainly put John Gray in full sun, what a difference it makes!

[Martin Baxendale]

Looks like it'll have plenty of flower power too - twin scapes (and very strong, sturdy ones) from the mother bulb and also flowering on the still fully attached and quite small daughter bulb.

[Brian Ellis]

I have just been struck by the second tragedy of the month.  Checking the garden today I find that Galanthus Snoopy, from Ian of the Christie kind, which had two nice flowers developing has been uncovered to a depth of about 4 " and the leaves eaten, the scapes left lying on the ground.  There is only about half an inch growing above the bulb now.  Any suggestions as to the culprit, tell tale rabbit droppings nearby, and to the best way to keep the poor defenceless remains? 

[ian mcenery]

I have just been struck by the second tragedy of the month.  Checking the garden today I find that Galanthus Snoopy, from Ian of the Christie kind, which had two nice flowers developing has been uncovered to a depth of about 4 " and the leaves eaten, the scapes left lying on the ground.  There is only about half an inch growing above the bulb now.  Any suggestions as to the culprit, tell tale rabbit droppings nearby, and to the best way to keep the poor defenceless remains? 

Brian my sympathies this is what I find I have left of a group of Anglesey Abbey. Have cleaned them and covered them in yellow sulphur dust and will pot in intensive care tommorrow 
a shot of what's left and a close up of the gruesome detail

[Hans A.]

Wonderful snowdrop, Martin!

Perhaps the opposite in size is this G. elwesii. This tiny 'Giant Snowdrop' is still large enough to be found by slugs...

[Paddy Tobin]

Martin,

Great seedling, looks outstanding. Good parentage.


Ian, I had similar trouble with two nice clumps and lost almost all of them. With one clump I had another group elsewhere in the garden but of the other I am left with only three bulbs and the casualties which I treated in the same manner as you did. We can only hope for recovery.

Paddy

[KentGardener]

edit by maggi : remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them!


Hi All

I've enjoyed another great day today visiting gardens full of snowdrops.  

AlanB and his lovely wife Corinne arrived at my place in Kent at 11am.  A quick whiz round my tiny patch followed by a warming bowl of homemade soup and then we headed off to the first garden.  The same was found as last weekend, it was still a little too early for things to be out in abundance or for many to look at their best - but there was still loads to see and a couple of things caught my eye once again.

'Hunton Herald' - a 'Three Ships' type that is a week or two later.


The following one I was at first convinced was just Anglesea Abbey - but on comparing them I could see a lot of difference.  If this one behaves like this all the time I would even say that it may be the better of the two, in my humble opinion.  Nice shiny green leaves, regular poculiform flowers and with the anthers showing a yellow glow through the petals as a bonus when the sun shines.    I will be interested to watch this one over the coming years.

'Loose Spirit'


Then onto my second garden of the day (Mr & Mrs B's third garden ;-)).  We actually arrived rather late here due to our very pleasant overrun at the last.  I have found it amazing over the last two weekends at just how quickly one hour actually turns out to be more than two hours!    Fortunately for us a quick telephone ahead call was made to warn that we were running late (the garden was due to close at 4pm and we didn't arrive until well past that   ).  When we got there dusk was less than an hour away so there wasn't a lot of time for photographs if we were to fit in the tea, cake and chat.  

Corinne by this time was freezing cold and stayed in the car - but the wonderful hosts insisted on taking a hot cup of tea and a piece of cake out to the car park for her while Alan and I carried on admiring the 'drops.  (I think they saw the car shivering!   )

A lot of the planting is quite new but I really liked the tiered and raised beds they are creating with sleepers - it was great for looking at the flowers - (and also for me clambering over them in my big boots with my camera).  I didn't take many photographs but here are a few snaps (sorry, but in the failing light they are not great):

Diggory


The Pearl


The new raised beds and tiered beds






I am looking forward to seeing this garden again in a year or two once the 'drops have have filled out.

Our last view from their garden as we were leaving near sunset.  


Back to my place for a quick vegetarian banquet (well a couple of curries I had cooked in the morning that I just needed to reheat) and my guests then had the long drive back to Cambridgeshire.

A really enjoyable day.  I'm looking forward to next weekends gardens already.  

[johnw]

I got this snowdrop as Trym but have labelled them Trym impostor.   I wonder if anyone has any ideas?  I am leaning towards Trymlet.  The outers to date have not flared out like Trym and the markings are not quite Trym but are very variable.  It bulks up nicely.

It does set seed but none of the seedlings have flowered to date.

johnw

[mark smyth]

Martin my John Gray look like your first pic except mine are in full sun

[Alan_b]

I got this snowdrop as Trym but have labelled them Trym impostor.   I wonder if anyone has any ideas?  ...

johnw

My understanding is that Trym sets seed very readily and many seedlings have Trym-like markings.  A few of these have been named but there must be many hundreds out there that have not.  Many commercial growers will chop up their bulbs to increase their rate of increase and the less scrupulous of these growers possibly don't wait until the resultant bulbs have flowered before selling them.  It is remotely possible that a chance consequence of this process may be to produce a novel clone - as happens with hyacinths.  Mistake, seedling or chance mutation, my feeling is that no matter how much your Trym impostor resembles another Trym-like cultivar, it would be wrong to assume it really is a clone of that cultivar.  Maybe one day soon we will all have access to genetic fingerprinting of plants and will be able to prove whether or not two that closely resemble each other really are clones.  Until that time, you will have to call it "Trympostor"!  

[Alan_b]

a shot of what's left and a close up of the gruesome detail

My deepest sympathies, but if it had been a narcissus fly, wouldn't the grub still be inside?  I am convinced that the snowdrop has more insect predators than just the narcissus fly.  If I remember correctly, Joe Sharman thinks that chafer grubs swift moth larvae [thanks to Gail for the reminder] will go for snowdrops.

[Gail]

In my garden it is the larvae of swift moths that eat the snowdrops.  They look like the ugly big brothers of vine weevil larvae and can do a lot of damage even to things like mature peonies.  There are a couple of different species of swift moths including Hepialus lupulinus. Females lay in flight, one moth can drop thousands of eggs.
Picture is (I think) the moth and cocoon.  I've got pics of the larvae somewhere - I'll try and find them and scan them.



edit by maggi: Gail's picture : Hepialus (88.91 KB, 1854x1342 - viewed 23 times.) is rather large and not too clear.....Mark Smyth has resized it to 700 pixels wide and it is posted  on the next page (7) of this thread in Reply #90 and reposted here           

[RichardW]

I've had more problems with things being dug up this year than any other, most of it looks like Rabbit damage but the Badgers have been busy doing some major destruction as well, someone told me last week a clump of Diggory had been dug up, fortunately their ID skills aren't that good  and it was only a group of elwesii.

would be surprised if a bunny had actually eaten the bulb and leaves? but the hard weather has made them do all sorts of odd things here, inc nibbling a lot of bark from the bottom of a Tulip Tree, which has never happened before.

Muntjac? or Squirrel maybe, bulbs might have been dug and then eaten by something else.

[Brian Ellis]

Richard I too had wondered about the eating of the leaves, although Lambrook Greensleeves was chewed slightly too.  I scattered chicken manure pellets everywhere yesterday afternoon and we put out a humane trap, this morning nothing - not even a scrape so that's good.  I was told to spread chicken manure pellets over freshly planted peas to stop them being eaten by mice, and to spread them where cats had messed as the scent overpowers the peas and mess and stops it happening again.  Fingers crossed it works as a deterrent for me too!

Is John's plant 'Green of Hearts'? I remember seeing it a couple of years ago and it looked very much like that I think - a better authority is required, perhaps someone grows it?