Galanthus March 2011

[KentGardener]

Perhaps a badminton racket is advisable?!  You need to look at a change of sport Martin.

Lewis

Have borrowed a badminton racket and my narcissus fly hit-rate has gone up very nicely. Much faster and more accurate. 

Would a squash racket be more suitable for the task   

[KentGardener]

Thank you for the snowdrop pictures Hans, Natalia, Steve, Gerard, Trond, Davey and Thomas.  I have my last 4 things in flower here.  As Thomas says: nearly "Time to say farewell for this season ...  " 

Jennie - the new bed is taking shape nicely.   

[Maren]

Hello Gerd,

we've had a few problems with horse manure in this country. Much of it has been contaminated by herbicide, used by farmers to suppress broad leaved weeds in their fields from which the hay is made to feed the horses. Many gardeners have found that the horse manure kills their plants. It has to be left in a field for several years before the poison disappears.  The further problem is that one can't tell which manure is bad and which is good. I have a number of allotments where I grow fruit and vegetables. We used to have a large truck of manure every year to improve the soil. Now we have lots of large piles of unused manure lying around, waiting to decontaminate. People no longer want to take the risk.

[Gerard Oud]

Hello Maren,

Never thought of that, i get my manor from a hobbyfarmer on the other side of the road. But a herbicide that stays active for several years, sounds like that they have used very heavy stuff. Normally a herbicide is a contactpoison, it might get adapted by the hay too but it doesn't kill the hay, but even then they have used large quantities of it. It could also be possible that the extra food besides the hay is too rich with elements and snowdops dont like that.

[salamander]

Hello,
since you have been discussing the culture of G.platyphyllus: I am quite successful with this species at least so far. I ordered it by Janis two years ago, last year it had one flower, this year four. In general the microclimate of my garden is very warm, but i chose a site with half sunny/half shade conditions for G. platyphyllus. It is the coolest part of my garden, and between October and the beginning of March the soil hardly gets direct sunlight, so the soil stays cool quite long in spring. The leaves emerge very late in the middle of march.
Olaf

[mark smyth]

Thanks everyone for the show of flowers. Mine are now over except for one that came up this week. It's a very small elwesii elwesii.

[daveyp1970]

Cheers for that Olaf,when i get mine i have just the right spot for it.

[loes]

thanks Hans and Olaf for the info on galanthus platyphyllus
I`ll give it a try,I`ve got the wet spot for it,in partly shade

[Natalia]

No need yet to say "goodbye" - in our gardens has not been said "hello galanthus" !
 Snow has more than 0,5 meters and up to flowering of snow drops - at least 2-3 weeks ...

[johnw]

Natalia - We too are having nights slightly below freezing but the snowdrop season started about two weeks ago. As mentioned before many of the buds were well above ground before winter struck in January. With below normal temperatures the Galanthus may last some time this year. So no goodbyes to the wet-knees season just yet.

johnw

[Natalia]

 

[TheNorm]

Ident required on the pictures below please. 

I was given them as G. 'Straffan' and they have performed very well, being small and nivalis like, generally having two scapes per bulb when established, but doesn't look like images of other plants named Straffan that I have seen.

Any ideas?  Are they just a good, quite limey coloured nivalis, or could they yet be Straffan?

P.S.  The plants have all gone over.  These pics were from a few weeks back.

Thanks,


Lewis

[Hagen Engelmann]

What a pity  Lewis, but your STRAFFAN don`t look like the original STRAFFAN. Here is a pic of the original. Compare the sinus please.

[TheNorm]

You're right Hagen.  Similar, but not the same.

Still it is a good doer, so the quest goes on as to what it really is and I now need to get myself the REAL Straffan.

Thanks for posting your pic Hagen.  Much appreciated.

Lewis

[johnw]

A few double nivalis from today, the last is a funny little elwesii from store-bought Dutch stock.

johnw   - +2c and blazing sunshine