Snowdrops in February 2012

[Maggi Young]

Don, the warmest of welcomes to you. It is so good to have you join us.
I confess I feel terribly guilty about our various moans about our weather conditions when yours are so much more extreme- but you show true gardeners' grit  that you are able to persevere and enjoy your garden and its plants - against the odds indeed!

[Olga Bondareva]

Dear all, thank you for posting pictures of my favorite flowers. You bring spring to my still cold and snowy world. 

[RichardW]

lovely day, bees everywhere! took a few pics before it gets busy.

few pics of the masses & the lake + Red Kite

S Arnott
Seagull
Find
Find
Find

[RichardW]

cont...

Curly
Apple Bank
Mighty Atom
Green leaf nivalis
plicatus Upcher
specials bed

[johnw]

Alan  - Richard Ayres can get up to tricks here.

If I had found the flower in photo #2 in another spot I would be at a total loss. How does 'Grüne Beine' sound, or maybe 'Große Grüne Füße'?  Must check if this is a reliable annual event.

Sure looks like it but no shot of the inners, sorry.

johnw

[art600]

John

I prefer the aberrant form 

[Alan_b]

Thanks for the help, John.  I know that the markings on Richard Ayres can be quite variable and I wouldn't really question that this snowdrop was Richard Ayres were it not growing in what is supposed to be a pot of seedlings.  My photos show was there last year, smaller and non-flowering.  If it really is Richard Ayres then it must derive from a small loose bulb that I or a squirrel absent-mindedly put in the pot where it now lives.  I hope I would remember doing something like that, but I cannot vouch for the squirrel.

[Paddy Tobin]

Hello DonB, welcome to the forum. Having read your post I no longer have any sympathy for the many moaning Americans I have contact with who tell me there are no snowdrops in the USA. You have 90+ different snowdrops; this is a very good selection. After that they all just blur together and look alike.

Olga,
Good to hear you are enjoying the spring snowdrops here. Of course, you have your very special treasure to wait for.

Now, must look again at the beautiful photographs above.

Paddy

[johnw]

John  I prefer the aberrant form 

Don't we all?

johnw

[johnw]

Thanks for the help, John.  I know that the markings on Richard Ayres can be quite variable and I wouldn't really question that this snowdrop was Richard Ayres were it not growing in what is supposed to be a pot of seedlings.  My photos show was there last year, smaller and non-flowering.  If it really is Richard Ayres then it must derive from a small loose bulb that I or a squirrel absent-mindedly put in the pot where it now lives.  I hope I would remember doing something like that, but I cannot vouch for the squirrel.

Alan  - If it is a seedling and has, in the F1 cross with a single, virtually replicated the father then we have a very interesting scenario.  If the percentages are high interesting doubles could be increased by just performing the cross on many flowers! This is precisely why we need more research on the genetics of snowdrops.  It is puzzling that controlled crosses have not been done aside from a few green x yellows and yellow x yellows. Maybe Martin, our sole resident breeder, can respond.  I have tried but get no seed set indoors and outdoors it is too difficult to control thyngs.

johnw  - +3c and dense fog

[johnw]

Splendid photos Richard, a magical place there.  I love these white nivalis.

johnw

[johnw]

Don - Wonderful to have you aboard.  American galanthophiles are popping up like snowdrops, great.  Now if we could just get more Canadian ones to break dormancy.

Nine species of Galanthus is remarkable in your climate.  The ones that require a good baking in summer just don't get that on the coast here.  I tried fosteri from SRGC seed a very long time ago and it persisted until 1990/91 when we had a not so cold (about -15c) winter with no snowcover and no precipitation of any kind from December till March, that is a very rare event.  The cold penetrated the soil badly and killed them outright. At the time I had no idea it was tender as I hadn't bought Stern till a few years later. I'd love to know the ones that can handle your winters.  G. ikariae, peshmenii are certainly out of the question here.

Nice collection of pix there. Ninety? We await more shots. By the time your season in winding down we should be in full swing here.

johnw - +4c and fog dissipating.

[ArnoldT]

Not sure of the ID on this.

[David Quinton]

A few photos from the garden today.

1. This is what happens when South Hayes doesn't have the green stripe after chipping. The green inner is retained but the characteristic green outer stripe is missing. I've called it White Hayes for my own method of identification. A nice flower.

2. Mary Ann Gibbs fully open. The warm weather meant that it is flying today. I'd prefer to have photographed it when it was a little less open but nice none-the-less.

3. Moortown with a nice mark on the inner and a big flower.

4 and 5. Priscilla Bacon is another nice large flowered snowdrop that isn't shy in flowering.

David

[RichardW]

1. This is what happens when South Hayes doesn't have the green stripe after chipping. The green inner is retained but the characteristic green outer stripe is missing. I've called it White Hayes for my own method of identification. A nice flower.

is better in my opinion