Galanthus December 2011

[Thomas Seiler]

Hopefully you all had a merry Christmas.
With a few of the 'drops open and 10°C it wasn't too bad here ... 

3 pics from today:
Galanthus elwesii 'Kyre Park'
Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus Hiemalis Group, a good form
Galanthus plicatus 'Three Ships'

[Oakwood]

Snowdrop flowering now in SE Ukraine
Although our Christmas will come only the 7th January any case I wish a Merry Christmas to all forumists and galanthus-lovers!
Meanwhile I would like to boast of my fall-winter flowering drops under cover in my zone 5 in SE Ukraine. There are G. cilicicus (thanks to Chris Sancham), G. ikariae ssp. snogerupii (thanks to Melvyn Jope) and CRO ssp. gro (thanks to Melvyn Jope and Paul Eriksen). This is their second winter to survive in my not Mediterranean climate))) They overwinter at me only under cover - agrofibers (in the last pic) and then secondhand sheep fur coat when frosty   Il me semble que ca marche bien pour l'Ukraine!!!

[Gerard Oud]

Ian that no 26 looks VERY nice!

Dima very nice pics with the snow, that is what we really miss at the moment some cold weather and snow!

[ian mcenery]

Spring is beginning to sprung!!!

Mrs Macnamara

[Paddy Tobin]

Growing beautifully, Ian.

Paddy

[Martin Baxendale]

Spring is beginning to sprung!!!

Mrs Macnamara

One of my favourites 

[Warren Desmond]

Spring is beginning to sprung!!!

Mrs Macnamara

Fine set of healthy Bulbs Ian.....

[ian mcenery]

Thanks

One of my favourites too I think she's a real lady

[KentGardener]

Great pictures everyone - Happy Christmas to you all too.

Just back from a week at mum and dads - she did have some snowdrops in flower.

Here is 'Colossus'  (probably with virus )

[Hagen Engelmann]

Our Galanthus show goes on. In the warm GB, the colder D but also with snow in the Ukraine. Thank you for the fine flowers.
On my Christmas walk I met this little beauty of the MERLIN-group.
It`s a very early G elwesii.
It`s a pity, we haven`t often such warm Christmas.

[Maggi Young]

I have 'Wasp'  ( in a pot in an open frame) and some elwesii in the garden.  Quite extraordinary for here!

  (And, yes, we are enjoying them!)

[Thomas Seiler]

Lucky you, Hagen   

[KentGardener]

I envy your Christmas walk Hagen.  

My Christmas walk was on the beach and all I saw was seaweed, driftwood and stones.  

Back in my own home and a dozen snowdrops are in flower.  A couple of photographs that have turned out ok.

1 - Maidwell L

2 - Donald Simms Early

[ScotsmanInKent]

Hi All

I am new to the site and Galanthus, wanted to say hello.

I have inherited some snowdrops in my Garden and hope members can help me identify them.
I think these may be elwesii cultivar grumpy. These are the only clump in flower now but some other snowdrops are poking through

Please let me know what you think these are

Also if anyone can help me with some swops or spares that would be great

[Alan_b]

ScotsmanInKent, if you watch Antiques Roadshow (or know about antiques) you will be familiar with the concept of "provenance".  This is the documented history of an object that helps to prove its authenticity and so enhances its value.  Provenance is also hugely important to snowdrops.  If you take a group of snowdrop cultivars and leave them to their own devices they will cross-pollinate and set seed and after a few years you will have a mixture of named cultivars and seedlings that resemble them and seedlings that don't.  To maintain the provenance of a snowdrop cultivar you need to buy it from a reputable source, label it carefully (I also photograph the location in case the label is lost).  Then you need to remove the seed-heads or weed-out any seedlings to ensure your stock remains true.

If your garden had formerly been owned by a snowdrop collector it is likely they would have taken their collection with them.  What you have in your garden is a snowdrop that resembles "grumpy" (as do many unnamed snowdrops).  If it always flowers at the end of December you can be sure that it isn't "Grumpy" because "Grumpy" flowers later.  "Grumpy" has been distributed since 1996 and I doubt that more than 10 were sold each year for at least the first five years after it became available so you will only find it in the collections of snowdrop collectors.  Even if your garden is the site of a former snowdrop collection and this year's early flowering turns out to be a freak event, it would be difficult to tell if what you have is the true "Grumpy" or a seedling derived from it.  It's provenance has been lost.

The positive side is that what you probably have is a unique snowdrop with an attractive "funny-face" marking that (unless this year is a one-off) flowers around the turn of the year.  I would certainly be happy to add such a snowdrop to my collection so once you have given it another couple of years to prove that what it is doing this year is reproducible you may well have something you can trade for other snowdrops in order to build-up a collection.