Galanthus November and December 2007

[mark smyth]

or Narcissus fly grubs have been busy

[Brian Ellis]

The new list of Colesbourne Park is available online

http://www.snowdrop.org.uk/

for collection only.

[KentGardener]

thanks Brian,

collection only - but well worth the trip to Glouscester - we did it in a day trip last year - though we may consider staying overnight somewhere in 2008.

Here are a few pics I took last year:

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=233.0

regards

John

[KentGardener]

(and I have just noticed the first reply was you saying you must try and do the long journey yourself  )

[mark smyth]

yes well worth it.

The Colesbourne list is now out of date as it was emailed last week to good customers

[Paddy Tobin]

A lovely list with some very desirable plants. When I read such lists I bemoan the fact that I live at too great a distance to be able to travel and collect.

It will teach me patience - they say that everything comes to the one who waits, so I will wait and live in hope.

Paddy

[David Quinton]

I have been waiting for this list to go live since visiting Colesbourne in February. I checked on the site all last week and finally at 7.30am on Saturday morning (1st December) I saw the new list for 2008. Immediately I sent an e-mail and followed this up with a letter just in case.

I thought that I was one of the quick ones but after Mark's comments today I got a little panicked and phoned Dr. John Grimshaw. Unfortunately I am dozens down the list and it appears that at least half of the six plants I requested have already gone and there is little hope for the others! Dr John will confirm later today but needless to say that I am very disappointed. At what time did this go live? Don't Galanthophiles sleep?

I guess that I'll have to try again in another 12 months.

[KentGardener]

it appears that at least half of the six plants I requested have already gone and there is little hope for the others!

Hi David

try not to be too disheartened.  I myself have learnt over the last 4 years of growing snowdrops that patience is essential for this hobby.  A 50% success rate isn't too bad at all - in the past I have, on more than one occasion, had a zero percent success at various nurseries.  There are loads of snowdrops that are well worth growing, increasing reliably year on year, that are much easier to obtain than many of the newly found rare ones.

I am sure that members like Mark, Snowdropman and Paddy can give a list of brilliant plants that should be easier to source - and that will add interest and variety to any collection.

The trip to Colesbourne will be well worth it even if you only get 1 or 2 out of the 6 you have requested.

Good luck.

kind regards

John

[mark smyth]

Ah but there is now snobbery against the good old ones. Everyone wants for example the pink
reginae-olgae

[Martin Baxendale]

I've grumbled in the past and will again about this business of offering a rare snowdrop for sale when there's only maybe four or five bulbs (sometimes just one or two!!) available. Better, I would say, to chip those few bulbs and wait to sell a few more years when you can supply the demand better and disappoint people far less!

But then again, this business of trickling out a small handful of rare bulbs each year does, I'm sure, help to keep the fever and the snobbery going and the prices high!

If I ever raise anything really worth distributing from my hybridisation, I wouldn't make it available until I had good stocks to meet anticipated demand. That just seems to be good business sense and considerate to your customers to me. Whereas this business of loads of people being disappointed every year can't be good in the long run for anyone.

[Brian Ellis]

Better, I would say, to chip those few bulbs and wait to sell a few more years when you can supply the demand better and disappoint people far less!

I couldn't agree more.  I have even ordered a plant from a well known supplier as soon as the catalogue was out, a friend ordered the same bulb nearly a week later using a postbox in an isolated village so you would think she would have missed out.  Needless to say she got the bulb and I didn't - so much for treating orders in strict rotation!  But there is always another supplier (hopefully) and another year (hopefully again!!).

[zephirine]

  Tss tss...Talking about galanthus, and all looking so sad?
Just to cheer you up, and even though there is still time before they bloom again for me, here is the most cheerful galanthus I know!
Maybe it could even give the last push towards Maggi's conversion?

[mark smyth]

'Blewbury Tart' the ugly duckling and beauty at the same time

[zephirine]

I don't think of it in terms of beautiful/ugly...I just think of it as "special", "cheerful", and "different"...
Zeph

[mark smyth]

14C here today will not help stop the march of the Galanthus in my garden