Galanthus November and December 2007

[vanhouttewim]

Hello !
please post some more photos of the various forms of galanthus reginae-olgae and galanthus ikarea....

in Greece i saw Galanthus reginae olgae ssp reginae olgae allways in flower without leaves , on different locations.

usually the plants are standing alone or with 2 or 3 bulbs . i think it's because they are deep in the rocks and have no soil to grow.
they spread more by seeds.
sometimes they make almost a field , growing together with different Cyclamen sp.
they rarely form a big clump.

Wim

[vanhouttewim]

here is another photo , the  flowers pushing through 15 cm or more rocks.

[Martin Baxendale]

Chris, the latest I chipped snowdrops was the end of October one year. I did the same as always, clean, chip, fungicide, vermiculite in bags, then into a warm cupboard. The bulblets formed quite rapidly and were big enough to pot in January, when they quickly made leaves and grew on as normal, making bulbs as big as those chipped in summer.

This year, out of interest, I might try lifting a bulb without leaves in December and chipping it, to see if that's still not too late. But if one finds a damaged bulb even during the main growing season, I'd still say it's worth cleaning up and either putting in some gritty compost to make new bulblets on its own, or try chipping - all better than binning damaged bulbs.

The times I've had bulblets form on the sides of scales on chips instead of from the bit of basal plate, I potted them up with all the others, so don't know if they definitely grew away ok, but I assume they did as they seemed perfectly fine little bulblets.

There;s no reason it shouldn't work, as it happens with lily scales, where you don't need the basal plate and growers will often cut large scales in two, top bit and bottom bit, to get bulblets on both. I've frequently got bulblets forming on the sides of lily scales.

[Martin Baxendale]

Forgot to say, Chris, that it's interesting you mention people getting new bulblets growing from the tip of the bulb cut off for chipping. Never occurred to me (duh!) to clean that up and put it in the vermiculite bag too. But of course it makes sense to give it a try. I'll be doing that in future.

[Maggi Young]

new bulblets growing from the tip of the bulb cut off for chipping

We have heard of this working, too....... waste not want not, as they say!

[Lvandelft]

This week I saw Galanthus elwesii Potter's Prelude at the weekly flowershow of the dutch
Bulb Org.
I think it is very early??
Sorry there was no better place to make a picture.

[vanhouttewim]

Hello!

Thanks fo posting a photo,
i have several Galanthus elwesii var monostictus flowering since last week , i don't think this one was worth giving a name.
It has no special markings and is not very early.
There is a lot of variation in import bulbs from Turkey.
but... i like these plants in the garden very much. they give us a long snowdrop season in these cold wet days.

Wim

[snowdropman]

Martin - thanks for this feedback on your late October chips. Sounds like they might have produced good sized bulblets in somewhat less than the usual minimum 12 weeks - when you potted the bulblets, did you put them straight outside, in a cold frame?

Will be very interested to hear how you get on with the December chipping experiment.

re using the 'tops' of the bulb - I gather that good initial results have been obtained & have heard of as many as 7 bulbils forming on the rings - it would be good if you were to pot the 'tops' separate from the rest, just as an experiment, to see if there is any discernible difference in rate of development, failure rate etc.

[snowdropman]

Luit - many thanks for posting this photo of 'Potters Prelude' & interesting to see that this USA bred snowdrop has found its way to Europe.

I am not familiar with the weekly flowershow of the Dutch Bulb Organisation - can you tell me if this snowdrop was exhibited by a commercial grower, or a private individual?

[snowdropman]

Wim - thank you very much for posting these photo's of g. reginae-olgae subsp. reginae-olgae in their natural habitat - really good to see - quite amazing how they seem to have adapted and can survive in such unpromising conditions!

Please do post some more from your visit to Greece, if you have any - do you have one of them growing with cyclamen?

[snowdropman]

but... i like these plants in the garden very much. they give us a long snowdrop season in these cold wet days

Yes Wim, these early flowering snowdrops are a very welcome addition to the garden and look good when they form clumps.

[vanhouttewim]

Thank you!

i have more photos of cyclamen , crocus , sternbergia and other plants.
not a good photo , but here is reginae olgae , growing together with cyclamen (hederifolium?)
Wim

[Martin Baxendale]

Yes, thanks Wim. That first (larger) clump of reginae-olgae is very impressive.

Chris, yes the bulblets from the October chips did seem to develop faster in the bags than from summer chips. It was exactly what I hoped to find, that development might be faster than during the normal dormant period. However, the bulbs at the end (after a season growing on in pots in the coldframe) didn't seem any bigger than from the summer chipping, so no real gain in the end (I had hoped that perhaps I might get bigger bulbs from chipping and developing bulblets in the growing season).

Still worth knowing it's possible in autumn, though, if you have a damaged bulb to rescue or receive a new bulb in late summer or autumn that you'd like to chip straight away for bulk it up fast and make it safer than a single bulb in the garden.

[vanhouttewim]

The snowdrops grow under the plane trees with ferns and cyclamen species.
mostly they grow near the streams , where it is cool in summer.
there is great variation in the leaf colors of cyclamen.

[vanhouttewim]

where the forest was burned this summer, the bulbs and cyclamen survived deep in the ground and are easy to find now.