Galanthus in December

[Melvyn Jope]

Since starting out to grow and select Galanthus reginae-olgae I have produced hundreds of plants, have thousands of seedlings and as a consequence lots of plants producing seeds. Quite often now they are distributed from the plant before I get to them and seedlings appear in unexpected/unplanned places. One such was a seedling that came up in a two litre pot where I was growing Cyclamen hederifolium seedlings. The pot was growing in the open unprotected from the last two cold winters except such cover as the mature trees in the garden gave.The seedling had grown into a clump of flowering size bulbs and was noticed during a visit by fellow forumist Jim Fox. Last summer, at Jim's suggestion, I repotted them and they now have the shelter of a cold frame, two aspects of the plant that I think are worth noting, the first is its willingness to increase well through two very cold winters and the second the fact that it is very fragrant...I also think it has a nice petal shape. I have given it the provisional name Galanthus reginae-olgae ssp reginae-olgae Matoula and will continue to monitor its progress over the next few seasons. I attach three images of the plant.
To illustrate the problem with seedlings cropping up where not intended I have shown two flowers of a seedling coming up in a pot of Cyclamen creticum seedlings

[Maggi Young]

'Matoula' is very pretty - super flower shape, Melvyn.
The reluctance of G. r-o to settle here to a "normal" life makes us rather rueful when reading of your successes with the species!

Your illustration of the "volunteer" seedling n the cyclamen pot shows just how happy they must be with you - something to be pleased about even if the little devils are making a bit too free with your facilities!

[Paddy Tobin]

These are certainly excellent plant. "Matoula" has a lovely full petal, very attractive.

I am envious of how well they grow for you. Though I have tried these many times in the open garden they have always faded away very quickly, some within one season. I now grow a few in pot in the protection of a cold glasshouse and am doing much better with them.

[daveyp1970]

Melvyn i have seed on my RO's for the first time this year so i am pretty chuffed.

[JimF]

Glad to see you give 'Matoula's' debut, Melvyn. It's a superb plant with great substance, shape, richness of color, and as you say - fragrance. It's the first I've noticed with a soft hyacinth scent with a wee bit of clover honey, too. Very different from any other G. reg-olg. I've sniffed.

I've found galanthus fragrance ranges from none, to various kinds of honey - like clover or buckwheat,  violets,  bitter almonds, and now hyacinth.

I encourage folks to pick a blossom of various cultivars to bring inside, or bring in the pot as I do. It's remarkable the different scents - and the variation in intensities of the scent with temperature and light. In some cases it's a very good way to distinguish similar cultivars. I note the fragrance on nearly all mine as part of the "identity" of the clone.

Much to my surprise, I, too, have started finding seedlings coming up in cyclamen and narcissus pots. I could swear I deadhead every pot or collect all the seedpods, but clearly there are some engaging in covert actions!

Jim

[Tony Willis]

Melvyn

your Matoula is certainly elegant,a lovely shaped flower.

I grow my r-o's in pots and I am not diligent with the dead heading. Self sown seedlings of these and peshmenii are a weed in my sand plunges.

[ian mcenery]

A very elegant plant Melvyn particularly as it is scented. I am sure that some clones perform better in outdoor conditions. I have a couple which seem reasonably happy outside and have a few pots of seedlings which I have tried to get from as wide a gene pool as possible. I suppose the best way to get tougher clones  is to sow the seeds in tough conditions so that only the fittest will develop and yours seem to be testament to that

[Hans A.]

Very beautiful your Matoula, Melvyn - a pitty scent cannot be posted.

Self sown seedlings of these and peshmenii are a weed in my sand plunges.

Tony I envy you for this kind of weeds - hardly self sown seedlings of Galanthus here, exept G. elwesii monostictus - but Cyclamen appearing everywhere (also in seedlingpots of Galanthus).

[KentGardener]

Nice Melvyn.  A good strong scent on snowdrops is always nice when some are picked and brought indoors.  Makes me think of standing near the Avon Bulbs display at the RHS halls in February and enjoying the wonderful perfumes.

I've got my first snow of the season here today.  A pic of a snowdrop in the snow (Melvyn's R O again).

[Paddy Tobin]

Poor thing!

[Lina Hesseling]

Emma should make him a nice hat.

Lina.

[Hagen Engelmann]

I believe, Johns garden is always white.
When I was there, we saw also only snow.
Nothing but snow.

[JimF]

Glad to see you give 'Matoula's' debut, Melvyn. It's the first I've noticed with a soft hyacinth scent with a wee bit of clover honey, too.

Now that the petals opened to the horizontal position all day the fragrance has changed to full honey. An adaptation to attract different pollinators depending on temperature?

Galanthus cilicicus just opened. From an old Ole Sønderhousen collection which I got from Alpine.dk, its fragrance is a bit like new rubber tires, somewhat like 'Ginn's Imperati' bitter almonds scent. Will it change full on to that as it matures? I wonder.

Another surprise is the small green dot on each outer, something Kirsten and Lars have not noticed on their other G. cilicicus. I hope it sets seed!

[Uli Lessnow]

The pics show my garden after 2 hours of snowing. It starts at 7:30 in the morning and is
still going on.
John, we think the snow now in England is ok, better than in Feb next year around the gala.
Uli

[Carolyn Walker]

I have been catching up with the forum by reading all the galanthus posts I have missed.  October was kind of depressing with all the talk of infected, dead, and disappeared plants.  I don't want to seem too much of a neophyte with this crowd, but since most of the problems seem to occur in pots, why don't people grow the snowdrops in the ground?  My experience here in the mid-Atlantic US is almost 100% success in the ground but that is not really relevant because our climate is so different. 

Kent Gardener wanted more photos of fall-bloomers.  My G. reginae-olgae bloomed in October and I missed photographing it.  It comes back every year but is not particularly vigorous.  I acquired 'Cambridge' this fall.  My best named fall-bloomer is G. elwesii var.  monostictus 'Potter's Prelude', which started at the beginning of November and is still going strong. The photos below show two clumps started from one or two bulbs in 2008 and 2009.  Very vigorous and available in the UK---I think this is the only snowdrop named in the US and would like to know if anyone knows any others.  I hope to post soon some photos of unnamed fall-bloomers that I am investigating.

Carolyn