Southern Hemisphere Snowdrops -winter 2012

[fermi de Sousa]

White fever is here in the South!
Galanthus Comet
G. Lady Beatrix Stanley
G. elwesii in the rock garden
cheers
fermi

[Brian Ellis]

Thank you Fermi, wonderful to see snowdrops when ours are nowhere near starting to grow

[Lesley Cox]

The large, fat flowers of Galanthus elwesii 'Hughes' Emerald.' The smaller flowers are from thin, side bulbs which I never thought would flower this year. It's incredibly vigorous.

[Anthony Darby]

I have just received a fantastic bundle of seeds.

[Brian Ellis]

The large, fat flowers of Galanthus elwesii 'Hughes' Emerald.' The smaller flowers are from thin, side bulbs which I never thought would flower this year. It's incredibly vigorous.

...and has fine markings too Lesley.  That's a good one.

[daveyp1970]

...and has fine markings too Lesley.  That's a good one.

I agree Brian that is a SUPER FLOWER.

[johnw]

Very nice one Lesley.  Can you tell us about its history?

Anthony,  about time you got going on snowdrops down there.

johnw - +20c, sunny.

[Lesley Cox]

Not much I can say really. It came from the garden of Denis Hughes at Tapanui, West Otago (about 1 1/2 hours from here but could have been selected out by his father Stanley who died many years ago. It's now grown on its own in a separate place so that anyone wanting it can be sure of getting the right thing as they don't seem to lift and pot but just to dig some bulbs when needed. This is at Blue Mountain Nurseries, the only decent tree place left in the country now, and even so, with Denis' son being the top man now it's become more garden centre than nursery (though they still propagate extensively.) When I bought mine about 4 years ago, I asked for three and was a little taken aback at the price (remember we're not used to Ebay prices here) of $10 each but when I got them home found they had put 4-6 bulbs in each of 3 pots!

So far as I know, it's simply a good form someone saw in the ground and isolated it out for growing on and bulking up so not a lot of history really. It's a lot bigger than my regular elwesii and also the form which I have as 'Colesbourne' but I doubt if that one is correct as it's no different at all in size or anything else from the regular elwesii. Surely it should be bigger?

Today I have one seedling germinated from G. 'Primrose Warburg' the seed sent to me about 4 years ago by Ian McEnery.

[Brian Ellis]

Today I have one seedling germinated from G. 'Primrose Warburg' the seed sent to me about 4 years ago by Ian McEnery.

Well done Lesley, patience is indeed a virtue, it must have got really dry not to have germinated before.

Thanks for the background on the snowdrop as well, it's always nice to know where they all originated and whether their history is mysterious or of known fact.

[fermi de Sousa]

This snowy is trying hard to convince me that it's a tiny white tulip!
cheers
fermi

[Otto Fauser]

just 3 snowdrops of many species and cultivars that are flowering now in my garden:

    Gal. 'Spindlestone S006 
    Gal. fosteri 005
    Gal.'Nerissa' (2)

[Paul T]

Lovely Snowies, folks.  Otto, that Nerissa is different, isn't it?  So lovely and blousy. 

Lesley, I love the Hughes Emerald.  Excellent substance.

[Paul T]

Just adding the couple of Galanthus pics I've already posted in the Southern Hemisphere topics in the last week or so....

A lovely form of elwesii, name lost.

Galanthus 'Ketton'

One of the sharlockii type Galanthus nivalis

A clump of 'Primrose Warburg' at my friend Lyn's place.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Hello Paul,

it is a pleasure to see Galanthus flowering in August. Thank you to all southern galanthophile.

Paul, your KETTON is only the southern variant of the original, but not the original:
The ovarium should not be so cylindrical,
basal mark is to big - better only two ghostmarks
apical mark is like a Chinese bridge.

But please, post more and also false snowdroppics.

[Paul T]

Hagan,

Thanks for the info.  Is this a "known" mislabelling in the Southern Hemisphere, or did I just get a mixup in delivery?  I rather like mine, although only the flower this year to go by.  I don't mind if it stays like this in the future though as it is a beauty.  I'll change it's name though to reflect it is not the original, but if it is a known Southern Hemisphere variant I might label it as that so that I know it is that (if you understand what I mean).  If it is just a mixup I'll mark it differently.