Snowdrop events 2012

[Alan_b]

Galanthus nivalis 'Sharlockii'  usually has green tipped outers and the deeply split spathe.
As I understand it, it can arise in any nivalis population and comes true from seed.
A white version can thus be expected to appear  in some otherwise "normal" populations, even without a significant presence of other sharlockii types.

The problem with Scharlockii is that it celebrates its 200th anniversary in 6 years time and at least a proportion of its seedlings comes true.  Therefore it is extremely widespread in cultivation but with many variants.  Under those circumstances I think it is quite dangerous to believe that it has arisen spontaneously in a garden in any country where snowdrops are widely cultivated.  On the other hand, there is now no way to distinguish a snowdrop with a large split spathe that has arisen by a spontaneous mutation in an otherwise normal population from a pre-existing Scharlockii variant that has got there by chance (e.g. squirrels).

At this year's Galanthus Gala there was a very interesting talk by Dr Joze Bavcon on Slovenian snowdrops.  Slovenia has a wide distribution of wild G. nivalis and Dr Bavcon has found many unusual and interesting forms.  To the best of my recollection he made no mention of ever finding a Scharlockii type.  This must either mean they don't occur or they are so commonplace that they are not worthy of note.  If it is the former then I would be inclined to believe that they rarely arise spontaneously in a truly wild population.  Is anybody in a position to pose this question to Dr Bavcon?


Today I had some free time and went to look for Charlotte Jean in her original location.  After a lot of concentrated staring I found two all-white poculiform flowers with a large split spathe roughly where I remember Joe Sharman found them in 2004.  They were the only poculiform snowdrops I found there and the only snowdrops I found with a large split spathe.  I took a photograph of these snowdrops in-situ which I had hoped I could post here as a challenge to spot the two flowers in a sea of normal snowdrops but I cannot do this because you lose the resolution that is necessary to see the detail if I reduce the file size to the 500kB required to fit the forum.  Pity, because I think it would have made 'Where's Wally/Waldo' seem trivially easy.                       

[Maggi Young]

Alan....about your photo dilemma... might you post the picture of the group and another of a magnified area of your photo? That might work for you.  It is possible to retain a great deal of info in a photo under the 500kb size, as has been demonstrated often in these pages, where the most extraordinary details can be clearly seen.

[Alan_b]

Here's my picture but at this resolution it's too pixelated to be able to make out the split spathe or be sure about the lack of markings.  I'll post a magnified area presently.

[Maggi Young]

Thank you, Alan.... I can see one at least... it does look like a Scharlockii scharlokii to my eyes.

[Alan_b]

I sent Brian Ellis a copy of the full-resolution photo and he got it very rapidly - but I'll wait a while before posting the magnified area shot to give others a chance to play.

[Brian Ellis]

Years of practice on schoolbooks and proof reading Alan

[mark smyth]

Ian Christie will be at Margaret Owen's day on Sunday. Make sure you saw hello to him.

The weather forecast is for a good day. It will be warm so the snowdrops should be looking great. I'm well jeal.

[steve owen]

Margaret's garden was a picture, warm sunlight and fairly still. Snowdrops at their absolute best. Probably the best-grown snowdrops I have seen bar Wol and Sue Staines' - a high bar indeed. The cream cake was amazing. Some interesting snowdrops on the sales table, some I hadn't heard of before, i.e. Charles Wingfield, Chris Sanders, Finale, and Tricia Tay. Ian Christie was in good form. Margaret has a small patch of Boyds Double that was flowering its head off - an incentive to get mine to do the same.

[Alan_b]

Here's a close-up of my earlier shot.  Easy now?

[mark smyth]

Steve I'm sure Finale is in your garden - Washfield Warham

Charles - http://www.snowdropinfo.com/galanthus%20charles%20wingfield.html

[KentGardener]

Here's a close-up of my earlier shot.  Easy now?

Yep. I can see them both. 

[Diane Clement]

Ian Christie will be at Margaret Owen's day on Sunday. Make sure you saw hello to him.

He was, and I did, also Cyril.

The weather forecast is for a good day. It will be warm so the snowdrops should be looking great.

It was, and they were 

Margaret has a small patch of Boyds Double that was flowering its head off

Nice to meet you, as well, Steve.  No pics??

I'll start off with that Boyd's Double - not to everyone's taste, but certainly in good form

[Diane Clement]

Priscilla Bacon
Bess
Chris Sanders
Gwen Black

[Diane Clement]

A few unknowns

[Diane Clement]

A Trym-type
Poculiform
Trimmer
The Whopper