Galanthus July 2011

[fermi de Sousa]

A few Galanthus in our Southern Hemisphere garden now, not drifts as you get in cooler places, but enough to keep up the interest;
Galanthus elwesii


Galanthus "Comet"


Galanthus rizehensis


Galanthus "Lady Beatrix Stanley"


cheers
fermi

[Paddy Tobin]

Ah, the good season has begun. Good shots, Fermi.

Paddy

[Brian Ellis]

I agree with Paddy, nice to see them in flower when ours are still dormant.  What a good place this forum is for those for whom there is no hope   Cheers Fermi

[t00lie]

Some pics from a bit further south .
Taken in a couple of different spots in the garden they may in fact be the same.....

Cheers Dave

 

[Martin Baxendale]

Some pics from a bit further south .
Taken in a couple of different spots in the garden they may in fact be the same.....

Cheers Dave

 

Both look like Gal. 'Atkinsii'.

[art600]

Fermi

Excellent Comet

[loes]

nice to see snowies in our summer!

[Lesley Cox]

My 'Atkinsii' is out now too along with some doubles but a couple are not opening properly as the winds are so bitter. They seem to be having their petals stuck together and when I tried to press 'Lavinia' open, she cracked! Will get some pics when I can bear the day. Two trees down overnight. Pines, so next year's firewood.

[t00lie]

Both look like Gal. 'Atkinsii'.

Thanks a lot Martin
I don't know my snowies at all and because i keep dividing clumps labels go missing .....

Cheers Dave.

[Martin Baxendale]

I LOVE handling dormant bulbs, especially snowdrops and particularly when they're a recently chipped selected seedling that's produced beautifully clean and healthy bulbs that suggest it's going to have good disease resistance, like this one. When the old coat rubs off easily to leave this kind of shiny clean coat it's an absolute delight (especially compared to cleaning up bulbs of some of the older snowdrop varieties).

[Anthony Darby]

Gosh, how long to produce that lot? Was it from one bulb.

[johnw]

I LOVE handling dormant bulbs, especially snowdrops and particularly when they're a recently chipped selected seedling that's produced beautifully clean and healthy bulbs that suggest it's going to have good disease resistance, like this one. When the old coat rubs off easily to leave this kind of shiny clean coat it's an absolute delight (especially compared to cleaning up bulbs of some of the older snowdrop varieties).

Very impressive Martin, I wish mine looked like that.  I just emptied a few pots tonight and despite my attempt to dry them off the bottom halves of the pots were still a bit moist. I planted rye seed a month ago in every pot to help dry them and though the rye is growing away it still hasn't died of drought yet. Hoping they will dry in the next week or two and then I will re-pot in a looser mix.  Any tips on your magic mix?

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

They do look absolutely beautiful Martin. Almost good enough to eat. Have you though of half-dipping in melted chocolate?

[Sean Fox]

Lovely healthy bulbs Martin. Shame there's no scaling to the photo, although they look quite large bulbs going from the ridging on the jumper background? You must be very proud 

[Martin Baxendale]

They're bulbs from chips of a single selected seedling bulb, chipped while still quite small in the year of first flowering from seed (which is what I tend to do to be sure I don't lose a good seedling to rot or narcissus fly). They were chipped four years ago and should flower again next year for the first time since they first flowered. So, given probably five years from sowing plus four years from chipping that'll be nine years to get a small clump of eleven bulbs and up till now all I've seen is a single flower. However, if next year I chip six of those and keep just five to enjoy, then in another three or four years I should have well over 50 and can actually start distributing them after a measly twelve or thirteen years of looking after them.

Still, if you sow seed every year then eventually you have new stuff coming along every year and it all seems worthwhile