Galanthus January 2011

[Brian Ellis]

Sorry about the pipes Jo, hope there was not too much damage.  A lovely clump of Three Ships, the others are well ahead of mine so I will be interested to see when I catch up with you.  The best I can do is Faringdon double, a gift from another kind forumist, although Henham No 1 will soon be dropping.

[Paddy Tobin]

Jo, like you, I wish for some sunshine to open the snowdrops which are up and in flower but tightly closed.

Hope you can get your pipe situation sorted out and no damage afterwards.

I am, at present, waiting with a little excitement for G. 'Godfrey Owen' to open as this is the first time I have it in the garden.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Apart from the G. reginae-olgaes and G. peshmenii which we have out in the glasshouse, most of the snowies in the garden are sensibly keeping their heads below the parpet meantime.... but yesterday I spotted a few brave (or foolhardy) little white spears peeking out of the ground between an Acer trunk and a tree paeony. Cannot remember what they are..... well, they're snowdrops.... that's good enough, isn't it?  

[Gerard Oud]

Very nice snowdrops Jo!
Does that Galanthus Orion have 4 outers?

[ichristie]

Thank you to everyone who suggested that I could afford an Aston Martin well the company was started by a Mr David Brown who made tractors in the 1960s onwards hence the Astons D.B.8 etc. should I say that the cars are just good tractors going to waste  I did own an old David Brown Tractor years ago.

[David Nicholson]

Thank you to everyone who suggested that I could afford an Aston Martin well the company was started by a Mr David Brown who made tractors in the 1960s onwards

... he did indeed make tractors as well as gear boxes for heavy vehicles and tanks and his factories were in Huddersfield.

[johnw]

Jo - Thanks for the shot of Fieldgate Prelude which show more elwesii-like leaves on what I assume is the more mature part of the clump. Strange behaviour!

Hope your pipe disaster is resolved without too much damage.

johnw

[Jo]

Very nice snowdrops Jo!
Does that Galanthus Orion have 4 outers?

Hi Gerard,  no, just the three outers.  I see what you mean though, but its another bud in the background.

Enough damage from water to keep me out of the garden for a few hours and keep local business in work with plumbing, plastering, carpeting etc.  Be warned, extra environmentally, goody, goody loft insulation puts pipes at risk 

[mark smyth]

some more on Tete-a-tete from Brian

Mark,
I should have added that there about 1,200,000 bulbs of 'Tete-a-Tete' per hectare - in round figures a total annual output of almost 400 million bulbs or about 25 for every person who lives in Holland. At about 20 euro per 100 wholesale price that amounts to a value of 80 million euros per year. The grower probably only gets about  1/3 of that but ....

spare a thought for the raiser, the late Alec Gray - without royalties he got nothing!!

Brian

[Martin Baxendale]

I had a feeling I remembered 'Tete-a-Tete' being a triploid involving a species with an odd number of chromosomes, which explains its infertility and its vigour. Then I found this in a recent paper by Peter Brandham, narcissus genetics expert from Kew:

‘Explosion’, ‘Falconet’ and ‘Hoopoe’ are sterile triploids with 2n = 24, and have N. tazetta
chromosomes in them (2n =  10 + 7 + 7), in common with the well-known Division 12 varieties
‘Jumblie’,  ‘Quince’  and  ‘Tête-à-Tête’.   Although  sterile,  they  could  be  equally  successful
commercially, with their combination of vigour and multiple-flowered habit

[Martin Baxendale]

So 'Tete-a-Tete' is the triploid result of an unlikely cross between a species with the normal chromosome count of n = 7 with a species with an abnormal (for the genus) count of n = 10. But still a cross within the same genus, whereas of course galanthus and leucojum are separate genera with greater barriers to successful breeding.

[Martin Baxendale]

Oops! Just accidentally wrote that galanthus and leucojum are separate species instead of genera. Quickly corrected!

[johnw]

I see the RHS Yearbook on Daffodils, Snowdrops & Tulips is mentioned in The Plantsman as being ready to ship internationally. Who is looking after that this year? I seem to lose the address every year.

johnw

[snowdropman]

I see the RHS Yearbook on Daffodils, Snowdrops & Tulips is mentioned in The Plantsman as being ready to ship internationally. Who is looking after that this year? I seem to lose the address every year.

johnw

Hi John

See my posting of 16th October 2010 at http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6017.msg169164#msg169164

Chris

[johnw]

Thanks Chris.

johnw