Snowdrops in February 2012

[johnw]

Here are shots of 'Ruth Maclaren' taken in my kitchen for obvious reasons, but contributing a slightly strange colour.
I think that this is a must for all drop fiends - the mark includes a bonus snowdrop.  

Great snowdrop Arthur. If you hadn't mentioned the bonus I would never have spotted it.  I did spy a green bat in flight though.

johnw

[johnw]

Oh, that hurts 

I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse when they id the bulb!

johnw

[kentish_lass]

Rick - sorry to hear about your Diggory.  It is so annoying when things like that happen after you have waited a year for it to bloom.  I finally had two flower heads on Hunton Green after waiting two years.....and something has snapped one of the flowers off and left it laying beside the plant grrrr.

I am having trouble posting photos but will give it one more go.

Here are a few more taken in the snow yesterday in the their pots - it was nice and bright for photographs.

1.  Toby
2.  Naughton
3.  woronowii 'Cider with Rosie' - very very tiny
4.  South Hayes
5.  Homersfield (have wanted this since Brian posted it last year)
6.  Priscilla Bacon

[Maggi Young]

Here are shots of 'Ruth Maclaren' taken in my kitchen for obvious reasons, but contributing a slightly strange colour.
I think that this is a must for all drop fiends - the mark includes a bonus snowdrop.  

Great snowdrop Arthur. If you hadn't mentioned the bonus I would never have spotted it.  I did spy a green bat in flight though.

johnw

I see that, I see that!

Oh good grief, this is serious... something must be done.....

repeat after me : Margaret, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower,
 you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower, you do not see interesting things in the snowdrop flower .....

dear me... must lie down in darkened room.  

[annew]

Keep calm and eat chocolate until it passes, Maggi.

[Webster008]

Rick - sorry to hear about your Diggory.  It is so annoying when things like that happen after you have waited a year for it to bloom.  I finally had two flower heads on Hunton Giant after waiting two years.....and something has snapped one of the flowers off and left it laying beside the plant grrrr.

I am having trouble posting photos but will give it one more go.

Here are a few more taken in the snow yesterday in the their pots - it was nice and bright for photographs.

Thanks!!
Lovely photos, really like Cider with Rosie (had never heard of it before) and Homersfield.

[mark smyth]

My Epiphany doesnt look correct. 

elwesii Lord Monostictus

elwesii Comet doing a Magnet

Margaret Biddulph

[Brian Ellis]

Those armfuls of bags certainly held some goodies Jennie, you'll love Homersfield, very floriferous.  I like the way that Gemini behaves too

Anne your Emerald Isle is stunning, mine is under 4 inches of snow, I wish I'd had it in a pot to admire it indoors

[Carolyn Walker]

'Wendy's Gold' Round Two

Before I post the photos, I would like to remind everyone of the background.  Mark went on my website where I have a photo of 'Wendy's Gold' and asked if my 'Wendy's Gold' always had two eyes.  I didn't know what he was talking about and posted the photo on the forum.  From there we were off and running.

Well my 'Wendy's Gold' opened and here are the results.  The 2011 flower is on the left and the 2012 flower of the exact same plant is on the right (I only have two).  The flower spread apart is below.  Enjoy, Carolyn

[johnw]

Fascinating Carolyn.

It has to make you wonder if plicatus has unstable markings.  I just checked my Wendy's Gold photos and it's scary.  They too are all over the map, short marks, tall marks, dagger-topped marks and ovaries of every shape possible.

re: my posting 165 looks rather silly now. I will have to pay closer attention to each and every plicatus seedling for stability, a seemingly impossible job.

johnw

[kentish_lass]

Well, Carolyn - to me it looks as if it has turned itself back into Wendy's Gold!  How bizarre.  Maybe it just needed time to settle itself down in your garden.  It goes to prove how mistakes can easily be made and at the rate snowdrops are changing hands in the UK it could all too soon be one big mess of wrongly named plants and utter confusion.

[johnw]

it could all too soon be one big mess ... and utter confusion.

Could be?   

johnw

[Paddy Tobin]

Anne your Emerald Isle is stunning, mine is under 4 inches of snow, I wish I'd had it in a pot to admire it indoors

Re Anne's photographs of G. 'Emerald Isle'

I would have expected to see some green striping on the outer segments of G. 'Emerald Isle'. Perhaps the photograph doesn't show them or they are not so strong this year - this is something I have noticed, stronger/weaker one than another.

Photograph from last year attached for comparison. Not open here yet, planted outdoors.

Paddy

[Martin Baxendale]

Some snowdrops do seem to have rather unstable genes that cause seasonal variations and variations depending on the age of the bulb, like variations in inner mark, variations in green outer markings (as in Emerald Isle - and an ikaria seedling of mine that had great green tips last year and none at all this year!) but the majority are pretty stable from one season to another. It seems there can also be some variation in ovary shape, although here again most snowdrops do seem to be fairly stable in that regard as well. Maybe Wendy's Gold is just one of those rather unstable examples. We already know that the yellow colour can vary a lot depending on conditions, so it's probably no surprise that it can vary in other ways too. People probably just don't generally look that close - one of the benefits of seeing good quality large close-up photos on here.

[mark smyth]

It could be the light in Anne's photo but I can see green.

I bought my elwesii Lord Monostictus in 2008 as a single bulb. There are now 18. After dividing them last year it's interesting to see a variation in height and flowering time.