Galanthus - Ebay digression 2012

[Paddy Tobin]

Ian,

I am delighted for you and the Harrisons.

Of course, there was a bit of fun watching the price and wondering where it would end but there was also the aspect that this auction was one with a good cause at its heart and so we all hoped it would do well and, my goodness, it certainly has done well.

Congratulations.

Paddy

[bulborum]

The question now is
How fast can the buyer from this single one
make 1000 new ones

sell them for £20 each
and make £20.000

Roland

[ronm]

I have a beautiful G.nivalis flowering at the moment. Would be willing to swap an offset for offset of 'Elizabeth Harrison'. You pay postage of course.

[bulborum]

A red one of-course

[Brian Ellis]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102136/Green-Tear-snowdrop-looks-glum-rival-Scottish-Elizabeth-Harrison-expensive-bulb-sold.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Note the picture of 'Green Tear' which isn't!

[Alan_b]

How fast can the buyer from this single one
make 1000 new ones

If you were really good at twin-scaling you might have 10 flowering size bulbs by 2015, 100 by 2018 and 1000 by 2021.  Whether you could sell 1000 bulbs is debatable. 

[Maggi Young]

I note that John G. says that woronowii does not respond well to chipping.    

[bulborum]

I was thinking theoretical of bringing them on in vitro
probably you can do that in 3-4 years
cost £1 each

I don't know how many real snowdrop fans there are
but more as you think probably all over the world

maybe large companies as Thompson & Morgan see money in it
and multiply them by the thousands

Roland

[johnw]

Hello everyone, I am like your selves gobsmacked with this incredible price just could hardly believe it and within an hour of the final bid the payment was sent to me astonishing will have to have several large drams to calm down, thank you all, cheers Ian the Christie kind ( I am still not retiring)

Then make that £725.10 - £100 (for the bottle +deposit) = £625.10

johnw

[Alan_b]

By all accounts the last time a big commercial company got hold of a rare yellow snowdrop was when Wendy's Gold was new.  And then the entire stock was lost to botrytis.  But imagine things had gone differently and you could buy Wendy's Gold in your local garden centre now.  I cannot imagine it selling for more than £2 per bulb.  You would buy a little pot of three and, being still relatively rare, it would cost a few times the price of a pot of tête-a-tête daffodils.   

[bulborum]

Sure with a good advertisement (and they know how to do)
such as "brand new spotted yellow snowdrop"
they can make lots more as £2

sure Me alone (I am a small company) can sell 1000 Elizabeth Harrison in one season for more as £2 each

Roland

[Diane Clement]

John Grimshaw seems to have been struck almost speechless....

'Elizabeth Harrison' was sold for £725.10, by a vendor in Scotland. This is more than twice the previous record of £369

His maths is a bit dodgy as well

[mark smyth]

But imagine things had gone differently and you could buy Wendy's Gold in your local garden centre now.  I cannot imagine it selling for more than £2 per bulb. 

Wendy's Gold is being micropropped in a Belfast lab. In 2008 I went to have a look. 100s of tubs in computer controlled cabinets with multiple bulbs in each. These were being grown for a Dutch supplier

[Martin Baxendale]

But imagine things had gone differently and you could buy Wendy's Gold in your local garden centre now.  I cannot imagine it selling for more than £2 per bulb. 

Wendy's Gold is being micropropped in a Belfast lab. In 2008 I went to have a look. 100s of tubs in computer controlled cabinets with multiple bulbs in each. These were being grown for a Dutch supplier

I remember you showing this Mark. Any idea how it's going now? The proof of the pudding will be whether they respond well to micropropping, flowering true. I can't recall if I've read about snowdrop microprop attempts before not working well. Maybe I'm imagining it. They do tend to have wobbly genes, which might not work well with micropropagation. But if micropropping is working well with galanthus then that could save me a lot of work with my best seedlings 

[mark smyth]

Martin I keep forgetting to contact the lab so I can go down for a look