Galanthus in December

[Paddy Tobin]

This caught my eye in the garden today. It is the tips of G. 'Atkinsii' pushing through a fallen leaf. What puzzles me is why the leaf wasn't simply pushed out of the way rather than the snowdrop making its way through it. Is there a drilling mechanism on the growing tip?

[Hagen Engelmann]

Oh Paddy, you can identify the variety on this small nose. Phenomenal

Yes, spring is coming!Sooner or later.

[Paddy Tobin]

Hagen, this is G. 'Atkinsii'.  Paddy

[JimF]

Here's 'Zwanenberg' as received from Monksilver Nursery c. 1998 in Seattle, Washington, and passed around. At the moment, I can't find the list it was ordered from.

The 1997 North Green catalog says this "G. Elwesii 'Zwanenburg': best described as a vigorous, upright rather green-leaved form of G. elwesii. Very distinct." 4 pound 50. This fits our plant as far as it goes. Definitely different in markings from Hagen's and Carolyn's.

I think it is mentioned in "Snowdrops" but only in passing and not in the index.

(Ignore the spelling typo in the caption.]
Jim

[Lina Hesseling]

It is in page 190 in 'Snowdrops'

I bought it in 2009 from Valentin Wijnen.

Lina.

[JimF]

Thanks Lina for the location of 'Zwanenburg' in "Snowdrops". It's in the species/cultivars index, but not the cultivars index. I get lazy sometimes and only look in the cultivar index.

From the description in the book Hagen's flower matches exactly, neither Carolyn's or mine do. Now I wonder what I have?

Jim
 

[mark smyth]

This is mine. The first are ready to open but we havent had any warm days recently

[Alan_b]

I'll probably get shot down in flames for this but I have never been able to spot anything that distinguishes "Zwanenburg" from something you might easily find amongst any group of naturalised elwesii.  Okay, it's got some olive-green bits but olive green really isn't too hard to find.  Producing two scapes per bulb (according to "Snowdops") would seem to be its best feature.   

[johnw]

This caught my eye in the garden today. It is the tips of G. 'Atkinsii' pushing through a fallen leaf. What puzzles me is why the leaf wasn't simply pushed out of the way rather than the snowdrop making its way through it. Is there a drilling mechanism on the growing tip?

Paddy - I've wondered about this too. Is it possibly the leaf was wet and wall-papered to the ground as the snowdrop emerged and then the leaf dried as it rose up?  I guess I'll have to pay attention more and figure out which Genera are being pierced, oaks and Magnolia grandiflora would shoot my theory down.

johnw       -    -2c and dropping

[Hans A.]

Today I spotted a nice seedling of Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus in the garden - Inners are completly green with no notch, Outers slightly green tipped - it could be a cross of the following two.
A small, more typical looking, clump of this variety and two named cultivars - 'Sheds and Outhouses' and 'Smaragdsplitter' - given to me by a very generous friend, still in flower but picture taken at the beginning of the month.
Very curious I am how the flower of those seedlings will look like - all of them should be var. monostictus . Typical elwesii start growing and flowering very late - possibly because of the elevated temperatures in spring I never had seed on them.
Last shows a nice form of Galanthus cilicicus.

[Paddy Tobin]

A lovely selection, Hans. 'Sheds and Outhouses' is one I haven't taken note of previously - very nice.

[Lori S.]

This caught my eye in the garden today. It is the tips of G. 'Atkinsii' pushing through a fallen leaf. What puzzles me is why the leaf wasn't simply pushed out of the way rather than the snowdrop making its way through it. Is there a drilling mechanism on the growing tip?

I see this frequently when the spring bulbs come up in my yard and am constantly running around pulling pierced leaves off growing shoots... I think John's explanation is probably right that winter-compacted leaves provide some resistance against the growing tip.  Strange how the tips manage to push right through (but mushrooms can push up through asphalt...)

[Paddy Tobin]

Indeed, Lori, nature has its wonderful and interesting ways.

[Carolyn Walker]

This is mine. The first are ready to open but we havent had any warm days recently

Lina:  Thank you so much.  I never realized their were cultivars described in Snowdrops that weren't in the cultivar index.

Alan: I am not going to shoot you down and am glad you shared your thoughts.  I will look into the two scape characteristic further.  My photo is from a visit to a collector's garden, and 'Zwanenburg' definitely stood out.  Snowdrops describes it quite favorably (and I find they let you know when they aren't terribly thrilled with a cultivar).  Perhaps if I had access to hundreds of available cultivars I would pass it by; however, it's primary attraction to me is that it's in the US.

Mark:  Do you think your plant is in fact 'Zwanenburg' given the description from the book and Hagen's photo?  To me it looks like mine and Jim's and every other photo of the plant that I found on the internet.

Carolyn

[JimF]

I'll probably get shot down in flames for this but I have never been able to spot anything that distinguishes "Zwanenburg" from something you might easily find amongst any group of naturalised elwesii. 

Not by me, Alan. 'Zwanenburg' is one of those I wonder why it was named. I'd say the same about 40% of other named cultivars of snowdrops.

Galanthus are becoming like hostas, daylilies, and roses - too many, too alike. There are only so many potential variations. Where's the sanity? I would invoke the "two foot" rule (60-70cm). If you can't identify it on a sunny, warm day from that distance (ground or eye level), then it's not distinct. (Now my turn to be shot down in flames.)

Whether it's unique to the US or China or New Zealand, if it's a good grower, distinct or not, it's eventually going to show up in other countries. Importing is tough at times but not impossible, so it is important that we all compare our new finds and seedlings to what's some where else before naming.

During these dark winter evenings, I'm playing around with the math of the 22 species and subspecies of galanthus to figure out the maximum potential number of distinctive cultivars. I'm multiplying them by variables such as color, inner and outer markings, season, height, scapes, doubles, potential to reseed wildly, number of flowers per scape, and other distinctive attributes. The number's going to be close to number of cultivars already named.

One thing is clear - generally speaking, we as hobbyists have  focused on just 3 species so long we've nitpicked ourselves into confusion, naming too many cultivars that are best left feral, to grow unfettered by name or pedigree. A lovely grand swath with a wee bit of variability to give interest to the whole. By the swath would be a large sign: "Keep off the Nomenclature!"

Jim