Galanthus February 2010

[Alan_b]

I am feeling rather depressed today as my only two bulbs of my most treasured snowdrop (a virescent elwesii) have died out between last year and this.  Fortunately I had the good sense to send away my third bulb for chipping so there is still some hope.

Nearby I found this bulb, a particularly large elwesii with a particularly large bulb (about the size of a golf ball).  As you can see (I cut the bulb in half for ease of inspection) something has eaten a substantial chunk out of it - but then got full-up, presumably.  As is characteristic of insect damage to snowdrops in my garden, the attacker seems to have worked its way in from the outside.  The roots had also been damaged.

I am now planning to transplant the bulk of my snowdrops in my raised bed (which is not actually very many) into lattice pots.  Does anyone have any thoughts on which pots to use?

[annew]

I've used these, and so far everything seems OK. I got the deepest ones I could.
http://www.ketteringkoi.com/acatalog/Pond_Planting.html
http://www.aquatics-online.co.uk/catalogue/pond-planting-baskets-accessories.asp#product1849

[annew]

I managed to get the wrong label on these when I chipped them in 07. Last year at first flowering the combined might for the white forum was unable to put a name to them (they are labelled Colossus!). This year I think it might be easier, judging by the bad behaviour of the flowers, as I think I might have been lucky enough to mislabel Mrs Thomson. 9 of the 19 flowers are aberrant. Any thoughts, please?

[annew]

That should have read 'chipped in 06'. Here are the leaves:

[annew]

By the way, it has a lovely scent.

[Alan_b]

Presumably there is a limited range of possibilities for what the correct name should be, based on all the bulbs you chipped in 2006?  Or do you do this on such an industrial scale that it could be any snowdrop?

By the way, thanks for the information on lattice pots.  I was thinking of using the 11x11x11 cm ones, have you tried those?

[Martin Baxendale]

I managed to get the wrong label on these when I chipped them in 07. Last year at first flowering the combined might for the white forum was unable to put a name to them (they are labelled Colossus!). This year I think it might be easier, judging by the bad behaviour of the flowers, as I think I might have been lucky enough to mislabel Mrs Thomson. 9 of the 19 flowers are aberrant. Any thoughts, please?

Yes, Anne, they look like 'Mrs Thompson'. They get better as the bulbs increase in size, the multiplication of the flower segments becoming more frequent and more regular. When small bulbs, they'll often be all, or almost all, normal single flowers that look pretty much identical to 'Ketton'. In fact, before now I've chipped what I thought was Ketton only to find later that it was Mrs Thompson.

[Alan_b]

I think I've shown this one before.  It's not Mrs Thompson but it behaves similarly.

[annew]

Does that one have an ID? What is the mark like on the inners? Yes, I've used the 11x11x11 baskets, and these are very good for the smaller varieties and younger bulbs.
06 was the first year I chipped snowdrops in any quantity, and I began records on the computer then, so these were entered according to the pot label, which was wrong. I have had Mrs T since 05.
Thank you, Martin, for confirmation. I am very happy to have this nice potful of Mrs T when I thought I only had a few. 

[Alan_b]

Does that one have an ID? What is the mark like on the inners?...

This snowdrop does not have an ID, it's just one I found locally that proved to be very vigorous.  Because it tends to produce extra outer petals (if not whole extra ovaries and flowers) you rarely get to see the inner markings as the flowers never open very wide, even on a warm day.  If you force the flowers open, the markings are nothing special, standard nivalis-style as I recall.  I will try to get a photograph if we ever get a warm day.   

[Diane Whitehead]

There is a photo of G. Ronald MacKenzie P.C. on page 492 of
 the December issue of The Alpine Gardener, the Bulletin of
the AGS. 

It is amazingly yellow - leaf tips, pedicel, long ovary, large basal
mark.

The photo here a couple of screens back is not as yellow.

From those who have seen the plant and both photos, which
is the most accurate?

[steve owen]

Alan

Re-interment in lattice pots should help, but if there are maybe nasty things still lurking in the soil, had you thought of applying a strong disinfectant to the site of the vanished and part-eaten bulbs? Something like Jetfire or Jeyes Fluid?  Apologies if you are ahead of me.

Steve

[KentGardener]

Hi Davey

Are you now on the slippery slope to white fever?....   

John

[KentGardener]

There is a photo of G. Ronald MacKenzie P.C. on page 492 of
 the December issue of The Alpine Gardener, the Bulletin of
the AGS.  

It is amazingly yellow - leaf tips, pedicel, long ovary, large basal
mark.

The photo here a couple of screens back is not as yellow.

From those who have seen the plant and both photos, which
is the most accurate?

Hi Diane

As I mentioend with my photo 2 pages back it is actually a LOT yellower in real life than my picture shows (much more egg yoke yellow) - and large shapely flowers too.  A stunning flower in real life.

[KentGardener]

I am feeling rather depressed today as my only two bulbs of my most treasured snowdrop (a virescent elwesii) have died out between last year and this.  Fortunately I had the good sense to send away my third bulb for chipping so there is still some hope.

That's a real shame Alan - I remember the wonderful photogrpahs of your green elwesii finds.  Hopefully the chips will do well.