Galanthus April 2011

[Ru]

2 flowers accrete. Siamese twins  .

[daveyp1970]

Ru that pic is fantastic,if it was to be stable that would make a nice snowdrop.

[Ru]

Stability aren't present, but some clamps are unequivocally more inclined to formation of accrete flowers.

[Natalia]

Several clamp (with at least half of the flowers of this type) was observed in the population, which also found Galanthus with two flowers on a caulis.

[Natalia]

Galanthus plicatus  - 2 flowers.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Thank you Наталья, the season goes east .

[johnw]

Who is this horrible creature that landed on a patch at a friend's while I was photographing? Maybe just a fly covered in pollen, he sounded like a fly.

johnw

[johnw]

Meanwhile back to her garden....  plus a find amongst the dense patches.

johnw

[johnw]

With the past two frigid winters in the UK there was much discussion on the freezing of potted Galanthus.  Many friends over there purchased plants which later succumbed to mid-winter freezing at relatively warmer temperatures than experienced here.  Here we plunge the potted bulbs in wood chips in a cold frame, the frame is then covered with white poly and sealed tightly.  (Over the boards we lay rigid rippled plastic sheets to prevent the poly from collapsing under snowload.) The wood chips prevent the cold from penetrating from all sides, freezing from the top down surely occurs; the white poly prevents severe temperature swings and excess ice and water build-up.  Square pots minimize the task of getting chips in between round pots, the square are packed tightly into square Portland flats.  

We had a long stretch of cold temperatures after mid January with a low of -15.5c, snow cover was unreliable.  A few days ago we opened the frames and all are just fine.  This might be a method adaptable in the UK for precious new purchases and other borderline bulbs.  This method has worked for years and through some brutal winters.

Now the nasty task of getting the chips off the soil surfaces of the pots to prevent botritys.

johnw

[Brian Ellis]

Looking good John

[Maggi Young]

 This may sound daft but I'll suggest it anyway....... we have an electric leaf blower/ vacuum machine. Not one of those that macerates what it lifts, just an outdoor vacuum for leaves, etc. One of its virtues is that as well as being able to blow fallen (even wet) leaves and debris from around little plants it is also quite gentle at removing debris by suction from around them too. The level of suction is strong enough to lift anything loose in the area but the  foliage and flowers of the plants are noit damaged. I'm sure it would work a treat on lifting the wood chips from around the snowdrops without  hurting them.

[daveyp1970]

I'm with Brian your drops are looking really good and your coldframe is something I'm thinking of doing.Thank you John.

[johnw]

I'm a bit wary of your leaf blower Maggi as Brian told me it had a vac / grinder setting for snowdrops. 

johnw

[johnw]

I'm with Brian your drops are looking really good and your coldframe is something I'm thinking of doing.Thank you John.

Davey - In your climate you could probably forgo the chip mulch and probably remove the white poly in late January after the worse threat of cold passes (??). Nevertheless it would save a lot of grief and we've all had our share of that. Maybe an added item might be a tight fitting screen after the poly comes off, against you know what.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

I'm a bit wary of your leaf blower Maggi as Brian told me it had a vac / grinder setting for snowdrops. 

johnw

  That man is an alarmist, john...  he has no faith in me..... No, I promise you, no grinder attachment, even for snowdrops